O Brother Where Art Thou Analysis

Around the 1200 B.C., Odysseus was sailing the Mediterranean Sea for the purpose of reaching home. In his long narrative poem, The Odyssey, Homer conveys how Odysseus desperately wishes to go home to Ithaca. However, he faces brutal treatment and obstacles from several different antagonists, and more obstacles appear when he reaches home. Odysseus came across many external conflicts, which he dealt with intelligence, determination, and loyalty.

Homer's great literary classic, The Odyssey, represents and illustrates many emotional and mental values. All of these values can be classified under three different main themes that are constant throughout the epic tale. These themes are: A boy's struggle to be a man, a king's struggle to reclaim his kingdom, and a man's struggle to return home. As one reads this book it will become more and more evident to them that a man's struggle to get home is the most important theme throughout Homer's adventure.

Odysseus Overcame his foe (the cyclops) because of his analytical skills he was always focused on the current task which was to get out of the cyclops's cave alive. After the cyclops had ate two of his men Odysseus knew he was a threat but he thought to himself “ If I kill him we perished there as well, for we could never move his ponderous doorway slab aside.”-(Homer) This quotes show how Odysseus thinks analytically by thinking ahead on how to escape. He then put his goal into a step by step plan. He starts by blinding the cyclops by stabbing his eye but now he needs to escape and Odysseus says “ Twining cords of willow from the ogre's bed; then slung a

In The Odyssey, the Greek hero Odysseus must make it back to his home in Ithaca after the battle of Troy. Along his journey, he encounters obstacles that require the upmost perseverance and willpower to survive. Some of these obstacles include a giant cyclops who wants to eat him, lotus-eating peoples that drug his crew, violent storms that

“Recession is when a neighbor loses his job, depression is when you lose your job” Ronald Reagan. Recession is only a temporary decline and depression is a long and extended period of economic failure. There was a crisis in America during the time period the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? was based on. The Great Depression was occurring at that time and the characters in this movie reflected and showed was it was like to live in a time like that. Each character in the movie symbolized what an individual person would have went through during the Great Depression.

The Odyssey is an eight century epic by Homer which depicts the journey of Odysseus as he attempts to return to his home at Ithaka after the fall of Troy. During his travels, Odysseus faced many obstacles whom he had to overcome. In order to do so, Odysseus had to prove his intellectual capacity, strength and determination. “O Brother Where Art Thou” is a 2000 adventure film which follows the journey of a man named Ulysses Everett McGill as he attempts to make his way back home with two fellow convicts after escaping prison. Although it lacks the structure and does not follow sequence of events of the odyssey, the film portrays many of the fundamental concepts and ideas explored in The Odyssey. In this paper, I will explore the themes of the power of cunning over strength, temptation and vengeance in the Odyssey, in order to depict how they are portrayed in the film “O Brother Where Art Thou” and demonstrate the similarities in both tales.

The Odyssey of Homer is filled with various adventures, sought-after revenge, and harmful temptations. The war hero, Odysseus, traveled for three years, always trying to achieve his homecoming. In Odysseus’ fourth year, Zeus destroyed his ship, as well as his companions, while they were out at sea. After these losses, Odysseus alone was washed up onto the island of a nymph, Kalypso. She took him into her palace and came to love him. After time, she desired to make Odysseus her husband, offering to make him immortal as well. Yet, Odysseus declines her offer of immortality. After years of fighting in battle, then years of suffering following the war, his noble rejection seems remarkable. Homer’s readers are forced to wonder, why does

While Jenny repeatedly rejects Forrest as her lover, she is romantically attracted to him enough to keep coming back into his life. After Forrest’s mother passes away Jenny comes back, saying she misses home and is here to stay. Even after leaving again, she comes back into Forrest’s life with a letter, inviting him to her Georgia home, which brings Forrest to the bus stop where he narrates his autobiography.

This week as we watch O Brother, Where Art Thou? and The Piano, we are given two

The similarities between the two stories are quite extensive, so I will only focus on a few. There are similarities not only in the plot and the journey’s the characters take on and are involved in, but both are packed with metaphors. In both stories, the main characters are following the strong theme of nostos. Odysseus is battling gods, monsters, he even goes and visits Hades to help him return home to his family. McGill convinces two people to escape out of a jail so that he can return to his wife and daughters. Both stories begin with our “heroes” in custody when they are first shown. Odysseus is on an island with Calypso, and the three in O Brother are in jail. Both escape custody,

In the story the Odyssey and the movie O Brother Where Art Thou there are many things alike as well as different in plot, setting, and resolution. The lotus eaters from the odyssey were comparable to the christians that were baptized in O Brother Where Art Thou because they were distracting to both crews in their journeys to their homes and made both crews have to overcome obstacles this is shown in their journey home, the christians and flowers pulled them in and, made them forget about their journeys home. Both the plots in the Odyssey and in O Brother Where Art Thou had similarities as well as differences. In the movie O Brother Where Art thou it portrays Everett, Pete, and Delmar’s journey to the “Holy Grail” or money.

After twenty long years away from his family, Odysseus still has motivation to return to Ithaca. Odysseus could have stayed with the princess of the Phaeacians, but instead he wants to go home to his family. Odysseus’ wife, Penelope and their son, Telemachus motivate Odysseus. Alkinoos offers Odysseus his daughter’s hand in marriage: “My daughter should be yours and you my son-in-law, if you remained. A home, lands, riches you should have from me if you could be content here” (Homer 120). Odysseus refuses the king’s offer: “O Father Zeus, let all this be fulfilled as spoken by Alkinoos! Earth of harvests remember him! Return me to my homeland” (120). Odysseus knows that his family has been waiting for him for years. The motivation to see his family and homeland help Odysseus win his battles and continue his journey home.

The Odyssey: Odysseus’s Justification Hammurabi’s code states, “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.” An ancient system of justice basically saying you get what you deserve. Everyone knows the classic revenge story; the protagonist is disrespected or hurt by the antagonist, and will eventually exact their revenge. In Homer’s The Odyssey, revenge is precisely what Odysseus carries out.

Though O Brother, Where Art Thou, is based on The Odyssey, the two share several similarities and differences, such as the characters’ encounters with others, conflicts faced in the stories, and characteristics of the major

When he first sets out on his journey, Odysseus is setting out for war and by the time that war is over, he wants nothing