I'm clearly not making any wild claim here seeing as we have constantly talked about how the movie is based off the Odyssey and the fact that it is is even stated in one of the title cards at the start. That being said I just wanted to go through all of the connections that I saw as well as connections that I wasn't sure about but that I thought might be there. Also fair warning, these might not follow the plot of the movie or the Odyssey because my notes merged the two.
First of all, and by far the most obvious, the movie invokes the muse at the start just like the Odyssey. Soon after that, we see the three main characters escaping the chain gang, which I think is supposed to represent Calypso's island. Moving o, the next connection that I noticed was that Wash Hogwallop seemed like Melanthius because just like how Melanthius betrayed Odysseus, Wash betrayed Everett. If that's the case then Everett assumes the role of Odysseus and Pete and Delmar assume the roles of Eumaeus and Philoetius. This makes sense given the way they are portrayed in the movie. That means, assuming that the Soggy Bottom Boys match up with the four who partake in the slaughter of the suitors, that Tommy is Telemachus. Going from there I think that the KKK were the suitors. This makes sense to me for two reasons. First of all, they plan to kill Tommy like the suitors planned to killed Telemachus. And second of all, when Everett, Pete, and Delmar they are armed qith shields and a spear (the confederate flag) just like how Odysseus and the rest are armed with spears and shields when they go to kill the suitors. Soon after that is the scene when Everett tosses the flag into the air and it heads towards the radio station man. This of course seemed to be referencing the scene where Laertes throws his spear into the air and it kills Eupeithes.
After all of that I've got a bunch that don't really connest in any particular way so this is basically just going to be a list. First there is Big Dan Teague who is Polyphemus. He has an eye patch, is bigger that Everett and Delmar, squashes "Pete" and uses a stick like a club. Then there are the three women in the river who are a combination of the Sirens and Circe. The entrance Everett, Pete, and Delmar with their singing like Sirens and turn Pete into toad like how Circe turned Odysseus men into pigs. Then there is Penny, who is Penelope (I don't think the name similarity is an accident) becuase she is the wife of Everett who is the Homer of the story. There is also the guy on the pump trolley who is supposed to be one of the prophets because he issues a prophecy. And last is the cop with the dog and sunglasses. However, I'm not actually sure if he has a counterpart in the Odyssey, I just thought he had a weird emphasis put on his like there was a connection.
I think the cop with the dog is Poseidon (based on what we said in class).
ReplyDeleteI hadn't thought about parallels between Tommy and Telemachus, but now that you point them out, it makes a lot of sense. In class, I know we talked about how Pete, Delmar, and his daughters all had some elements of Telemachus, but Tommy is an interesting addition.
I really wish that Oh Brother had had a direct Telemachus character (since he's my favorite character) but it wouldn't have worked because the Coen brothers left the reveal of Everett's real motivation until so late. Having one of Everett's family members wandering around looking for him would both devalue Penny's "he was hit by a train" story and prove that Everett was probably lying about the treasure.
This interpretation of the parallels is quite interesting, and different from my own interpretation in a number of ways. I saw the KKK rally as being a parallel to the land of the laestrygonians, where Odysseus and his crew cannot hope to fight, but must rather run away. Also, to me the Eupeithes-analogue was the racist candidate (Homer something-or-other?), because of his connection to Vernon.
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