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O'Brother Where Art Thou? Allusions to the Odyssey Essay Example

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O'Brother Where Art Thou? Allusions to the Odyssey Essay Example
O’ Brother Where Art Thou? Allusions Everett McGill is an escaped convict, treasure hunter, and according to his wife: dead, but he has a resemblance to the fearless Greek epic hero, Odysseus, from Homers highly renowned classic The Odyssey. Joel Coen, director of the blockbuster movie O’ Brother Where Art Thou, purposefully shaped George Clooney’s character, Everett, to resemble Odysseus. O’ Brother Where Art Thou? makes many allusions to Homers Greek epic The Odyssey regarding plot, characters, and the repeated phrases found throughout the movie and book to further emphasize Everett’s transformation throughout the film. One of the strongest allusions in O’ Brother Where Art Thou? and The Odyssey are the parallels between the characters Big Dan to Polythemus, Penny to Penelope, and Everett to Odysseus. In the movie Big Dan was a tall and quite large man; this adverted to Polythemus the Cyclopes in the book The Odyssey. Both Characters had a large and burly build with one functioning eyes. Big Dan terrorized Everett and his two companions by “killing” one of them. Polythemus trapped Odysseus and a few of his men in a cave and took many of the men’s lives. After Everett’s encounter with Big Dan he started to feel for others and experienced sorrow and sympathy because he lost one of his companions. He learned how important having people to count on was. Another allusion made in O’ Brother Where Art Thou? is how Penny signified Penelope from The Odyssey. Both Penny and Penelope were in search of suitors after their husbands left. Penelope’s husband, Odysseus, went to fight a war while Penny’s husband, Everett, was taken as a criminal. In the end both wives ended up taking back their original husbands because the men proved their loyalty. Last but not least is the allusion between the characters. Everett and Odysseus. The two characters start out being stubborn and self-centered. Everett was concerned about his self-image. One line he says over and over again is
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