O Brother, Where Art Thou? And Odyssey Comparison

In many films, although not the same as the novels, there are many allusions to the characters and themes. Allusions can be very vague and hard to find, or they can be descriptive and can stand out. For example, in the film O brother, Where Art Thou? by the Cohen Brother’s and the novel Odyssey by Homer, there are several distinct allusions, such as the Cyclops and the sirens, and then there are some other vague allusions in there too.

Although there were some major allusions in the film, there were also some indistinct allusions that you had to pay close attention to find them. One of the allusions at the beginning of the film was the blind man on the train trolley, where as it relates to the blind prophet theriesius in the Odyssey; in both the film and the novel they foretold the future of the two heroes. The other allusion that didn’t stand out as much was, in the end of the novel Odysseus had to have forgiveness from the gods to finally let him have a happy ending, and in the film Evrett begged forgiveness; both were forgiven and saved, but Evrett called it a coincidence and showed his arrogance towards god.

One of the stronger allusions in the film was the sirens. In the film the sirens lured the characters in and seduced them, and then they turned Pete in for the reward and would have probably come back for the others. In the novel the crew didn’t actually get into trouble with the sirens because the all had wax in their ears so they couldn’t hear the sirens and be lured in, except for Odysseus who was tied down so he could listen to them. One other difference between the two was that in O Brother the sirens were actually three beautiful women, and in the Odyssey the sirens were actually monsters. The Cohen Brother’s did a good job portraying the allusion and the changes to the characters were necessary because there weren’t really any monsters during the time setting of the film.

The strongest allusion in the film was the Cyclops. In the novel the Cyclops was the son of Poseidon and was an actual one eyed Cyclops. In the film the Cyclops was just an actor who had an eye patch to represent the one eyed Cyclops in the Odyssey. In the novel the Cyclops ate Odysseus’s men, where as in the film Big Dan Teague ate all their food. In both the film and the novel the Cyclopes both showed that they didn’t care about the gods. In the novel he flat out says that he is better then the gods and does not need to do as they say. In the film he says that he is a bible sales man who takes advantage of the people, which shows his arrogance towards the gods. The Cohen brothers did a good job with the allusions; the chose a good actor for the film because he was a pretty big man and he just fits the dimensions of a Cyclops. The changes in the film were necessary because it wouldn’t be right for one human to eat another, where as in the novel it was just what Cyclopes did.

The Cohen Brother’s did an extremely good job tying the film together with the Odyssey. All the changes made in the film were necessary so that the story line fit into the time setting of the film, because if they would have left it the exact same as in the novel then it just wouldn’t have made sense. Like in many films there were allusions from O Brother into the Odyssey, such as the sirens and the Cyclops, and the few other small allusions.