O Brother Where Art Thou?

Jessica Torres-Zuniga

Sapps ENGLE 2332

MWF 11:45-12:40

O Brother Where Art Thou?

O Brother Where Art Thou?, begins with Ulysses, Pete and Delmar escaping from prison that was located in the middle of nowhere. Ulysses told his companions that he has hidden a treasure from back in the day, but they must get it in 4 days or it will be lost forever due to a flood. Soon Everett, Pete, and Delmar meet a blind soothsayer, who tells them, "You seek a great fortune, you three who are now in chains. You will find a fortune, though it will not be the fortune you seek. But first ... first you must travel a long and difficult road, a road fraught with peril." After being betrayed and almost caught by the police, the fugitives drive along a country road, they pick up a young black guitarist named Tommy Johnson. After finding out that there was a man who was willing to pay you good money to just sing in his can, the whole gang raced up there and sang, no knowing that their song would be a number one hit and that everyone would not get enough of it. Tommy soon leaves the group, and the next day the three escapees are driving along when they see three beautiful women washing clothes at a river. The three women behave seductively toward the men. Ulysses, Pete, and Delmar are captivated as the women sing the old folk lullaby. After the three men drink some whiskey from a jug, they fall asleep, and when Ulysses and Delmar awake, Pete is missing and the other two came in conclusion that Pete was in fact turn into a frog. Everett and Delmar go into the next town, where they run into a one-eyed giant of a man named Big Dan Teague, a Bible salesman. Big Dan goes on a rampage, knocks out both Everett and Delmar, and steals their money and their car. After recovering consciousness and got a ride into Ithaca where Ulysses encounters three of his daughters, and finds out that his wife Penny is getting married to another man tomorrow. Since it is a movie, it was setted in a third person narrative view throughout the whole movie. It

The movie O Brother Where Art Thou?, is a more modern version of the famous story the Odyssey .There are a lot of people and events in the movie that significantly relates to the story. Well first of all the line, "Sing to me of the man, Muse... ", was at the beginning of the film, as well in the Odyssey. In the movie, Ulysses meets an old and blind man who prophesizes that "the treasure you seek shall not be the treasure you find". In the Odyssey, Odysseus goes to the underworld to seek the advice of Tiresias, an old and blind prophet, who tells him that his travels will not be over until he takes an oar and walks so far inland that someone asks him why he carries a winnowing-fan. The sheriff in the movie that wanted to catch him can be related to Poseidon in the story of the Odyssey. In addition to that when Ulysses mentions that Satan carries "a giant hay fork" also known as a trident both figures are often described with just such an instrument. In addition to that, the women, who lured the heroes with their singing, and treat him to corn liquor until he passes out where the sirens who did the same to Odysseus. The sirens also have an element of the Circe by appearing to transform one of his companions into an animal. The bible