Compare And Contrast Ulysses And Odysseus

“O Brother, Where Art Thou?” includes a young, not Gary Busey, George Clooney at his finest playing, Ulysses Everett McGill. Ulysses is a fun character with a conman personality leading his crew to the treasure of a life time. The story takes place during the time of the great depression and Ulysses and his two fellow convicts escape from prison at the start of their journey. Throughout the movie, the three main characters go on an adventure to “secure the treasure”, with Ulysses depicted as their leader. He makes the men believe that fortune is in their future when, in reality, they are helping Ulysses get back to his wife before she remarries. The clock is ticking for our adventurers, as they do everything possible to make it on time. The

Throughout the movie there are numerous occasions in which the comparisons between the two are noticeable.

The most obvious comparison is that Ulysses and his fellow escapees are based off of Odysseus and his crewman from the Odyssey. In many ways Ulysses and Odysseus resemble one another, from their main goal to both having a major weakness. Ulysses’ goal in the movie is to return home to his wife before she gets remarried to some insignificant low life. Odysseus had the same goal; wanting to return home to his family and doing so before his wife remarries an unworthy suitor. In the book “The Odyssey” Odysseus wants to go home because, in addition to stopping the marriage, he is also homesick. We are told this in book 1 line 15 and 16 “Only Odysseus Still longed to return to his home and his wife.” This comes up again in book 5 line 208-209 “Still, I want to go back. My heart aches for the day I return to my home.” It is

In the movie George Clooney was accompanied by John Turturro playing Pete Hogwallop and Tim Blake Nelson as Delmar O’Donnell. These two other characters become Ulysses’ “crew members.” Just like Odysseus’s companions, these crew members were not the brightest compared to the apparent leader Ulysses. There were key scenes that took place in the movie that mimicked the book. Some scenes include Teiresias, the blind fortune teller, which relates to the blind homeless man on the railroad. This homeless man tells our main adventurers that the fortune they seek is not the one they will get. Another key scene in the movie was the baptism at the river in which one of the crew members takes part in. This corresponds with the Lotus Eaters. After the baptism in the movie, Delmar has been reborn and therefore put the life of crime behind them. This is relatable to the book because once the crew made it to the lotuses, they do not want to leave and, in return, forget about their adventure. Other references to Homer’s epic are the cyclops, who is depicted as a one-eyed bible salesman, the fact that Vernon T. Waldrip is marring Ulysses’ wife now that Ulysses is not around, the supposed death of Odysseus in the war and Ulysses supposed death by train, and the event that the three convicts happen across a group of “sirens” just like the crew in The Odyssey. And lastly the scene in which Pete is turned into a