O’ Brother not another Odyssey Ancient Greece and the 1930's American bible belt seldom seem comparable, however in reinterpreting Homer's epic poem, The Odyssey, Joel and Ethan Coen do a marvelous job transposing the adventures of Odysseus to the era of the Great Depression. Ulysses Everett McGill is a depression era Odysseus trying to make his way home through the Mississippi bible belt south to get home before his ex-wife Penny marries her suitor, Waldrip. As a modern depiction, O' Brother, Where Art Thou?, makes a trying effort to incorporate many of Homer's plot points while attempting to stay true to era of the 1930's in which the movie is set. The typification of Pete and Delmar as Odysseus' crew is particularly well done, as is that
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While homer describes Odysseus’ men as proud warriors/survivors of the trojan war, albeit exhausted from the decade long battle. Despite being warriors, Odysseus’ men just as prone to mistakes as a couple of petty criminals following Everett to his fictitious stash of hidden money. Once the trio of Everett, Pete, and Delmar leave the chain gang, analogous to the Trojan War Odysseus and his men depart from, they find a boxcar. Everett enters the boxcar first and as the leader, as Odysseus was of his men, he addressed them first and trusted his men to follow in his stead. However, just as Odysseus was often left to deal with the consequences of his “men [committing a] monstrous crime [to the gods]!” (12. 154), Everett had to deal with his followers, Pete and Delmar, dragging him down, sometimes literally as Pete did when he fell out of the boxcar. Towards the end of Homer’s epic, odysseus encounters new followers, the swineherd and goatherd. Unlike his earlier companions, these two are not only more intelligent but surprisingly just as able as the fleets of trojan warriors that never made it home due to their own recklessness (Laestrygonian encounter). However, in O’ Brother, Where Art Thou?, these companions are not new, only the metamorphosed versions of Pete and Delmar, who are now finally able to be of help to Everett. In this aspect, the movie does an excellent job of straying from introducing new characters, to instead develop two of Everett’s companions. Homer’s random insertion of vital, role-playing characters at key plot points is honest to his style of paratactic myth, but would have confused modern day audiences of Joel and Ethan Coen’s big screen adaptation of this timeless
While homer describes Odysseus’ men as proud warriors/survivors of the trojan war, albeit exhausted from the decade long battle. Despite being warriors, Odysseus’ men just as prone to mistakes as a couple of petty criminals following Everett to his fictitious stash of hidden money. Once the trio of Everett, Pete, and Delmar leave the chain gang, analogous to the Trojan War Odysseus and his men depart from, they find a boxcar. Everett enters the boxcar first and as the leader, as Odysseus was of his men, he addressed them first and trusted his men to follow in his stead. However, just as Odysseus was often left to deal with the consequences of his “men [committing a] monstrous crime [to the gods]!” (12. 154), Everett had to deal with his followers, Pete and Delmar, dragging him down, sometimes literally as Pete did when he fell out of the boxcar. Towards the end of Homer’s epic, odysseus encounters new followers, the swineherd and goatherd. Unlike his earlier companions, these two are not only more intelligent but surprisingly just as able as the fleets of trojan warriors that never made it home due to their own recklessness (Laestrygonian encounter). However, in O’ Brother, Where Art Thou?, these companions are not new, only the metamorphosed versions of Pete and Delmar, who are now finally able to be of help to Everett. In this aspect, the movie does an excellent job of straying from introducing new characters, to instead develop two of Everett’s companions. Homer’s random insertion of vital, role-playing characters at key plot points is honest to his style of paratactic myth, but would have confused modern day audiences of Joel and Ethan Coen’s big screen adaptation of this timeless