The Odyssey and O Brother, Where Art Thou?

The Odyssey and O Brother, Where Art Thou? O Brother, Where Art Thou is a parody of The Odyssey written and produced by the Coen brothers. This movie shows a more modern 1930s look at The Odyssey written by the Greek poet Homer. The Odyssey describes the adventurous, but dangerous return of Odysseus and his crew to Ithaca from the Trojan War. O Brother, Where Art Thou describes Ulysses’ escape from jail with his two buddies Pete and Delmar, and their attempt to escape back to freedom without being noticed. Both works show the struggles Odysseus and Ulysses face as they and their sidekicks return to home and freedom. The Odyssey is a long series of books detailed by Homer of Odysseus’ return. Odysseus is wise, brave, and sly. These are good characteristics to have when you must deal with struggle daily, but Odysseus also had overconfidence, curiosity, and a lack of faith in others. Odysseus’s overconfidence in The Odyssey often caused harm and death to others, such as teasing Polyphemus the one eyed giant, which resulted in him throwing a large boulder and killing many. Odysseus often has curiosity such as shacking up with Circe for a year. He doesn’t trust anyone’s judgment except for his own. Odysseus wasn’t the only one with a lack of judgment. Ulysses from O Brother, Where Art Thou is the leader of the group of jail escapees and doesn’t listen very much to Pete or Delmar’s ideas. Ulysses is a fast thinker and a smooth talker, but he can also be gullible. This doesn’t always end up helping the group like the time he went for a picnic with Big Dan, the one-eyed salesman. Ulysses also has many weaknesses which constantly work against him. Ulysses got himself into this mess by faking a lawyer license. He doesn’t follow the rules, and often tries to do his own thing. Both Odysseus and Ulysses show a lack in judgment. O Brother, Where Art Thou and The Odyssey have many similarities. Odysseus and Ulysses both escape from a “battle” of their own. Ulysses escapes from jail, while Odysseus is returning from Troy. Odysseus and Ulysses both have “sidekicks” during their escape. Odysseus has his crew and Ulysses has Pete and Delmar. Both Ulysses and Odysseus have marital problems. Penelope gives up on Odysseus’ return and begins looking elsewhere, while Penny fakes Ulysses’ death and temporarily remarries. Odysseus and Ulysses are both gullible in their own adventures. In The Odyssey, Odysseus is easily lured into many situations. In O Brother, Where Art Thou Ulysses is also very gullible.
In The Odyssey, Odysseus is very curious into women and looks for fun. In O Brother, Where Art Thou Ulysses never shows curiosity into women except for his wife. In O Brother, Where Art Thou the blind prophet represents Tireseas in the underworld, while in The Odyssey, it represents a look into the future. Odysseus is very disliked by a god, Zeus, while Ulysses never acknowledges God until the very end when he is about to be hanged.
The Odyssey and O Brother, Where Art Thou describe the struggles of two different groups and their escape to freedom. O Brother, Where Art Thou shows that The Odyssey can still live on today, and is still very important to our generation, and generations to come. It shows that in the late 90s The Odyssey can still be relevant to life today, and will be relevant to life at any stage. Today when people think of The Odyssey, they think of the “Odyssey” of life smoothing and perfecting a person by the trials and tribulations they must overcome on life’s difficult paths. People associate how Odysseus overcame all of his troubles, and place it in today’s world and associate it with them learning from their own troubles and fixing their own life with them.