Homer's Odyssey And O Brother Where Art Thou?

The hero’s journey is a common theme in Greek literature. It follows the story of an individual who has acted upon a call to adventure, gets entangled in numerous challenges along the way, experiences a major change, and then faces a difficult return home, which is also filled with challenges. This theme can be seen in Homer’s Odyssey as well as in Ethan and Joel Coen’s film O Brother, Where Art Thou? Both of these stories start in the later half of the hero’s journey, with the hero escaping from somewhere, and trying to get home. Although Odysseus from Homer’s poem and Ulysses from the Coen brothers’ film essentially follow the same journey, the way they are portrayed along this journey causes the audience to have divergent opinions about each hero. Fundamentally shaping the audience’s attitudes toward each hero, Odysseus is portrayed in a much more positive light than Ulysses is. While Odysseus possesses both good and bad characteristics, Ulysses seems to mirror primarily the bad ones. Odysseus shows his cunning and clever qualities when Polyphemos asks him for his name, and he replies, “‘Nobody is my name,’” so that when Odysseus attacked Polyphemos, he would tell
In The Odyssey, Odysseus’ wife and son, Penelope and Telemachus, refuse to accept the notion that Odysseus is dead (although they pretend to believe that he is), and await the day that he comes back, as shown when Penelope tells the suitors, “‘now that the great Odysseus has perished, wait, though you are eager to marry me, until I finish this web’… Thereafter in the daytime she would weave at her great loom, but in the night she would… undo it’” (Od. 2.97-105). The commitment that Odysseus’ family has to waiting for him even after all these years proves to the audience that Odysseus is crucial to the family, and is therefore worth cheering on throughout his