Clas 042 Essays Examples

The Odyssey is an Epic poem that describes one man’s journey through the wonders of the world, and his struggle to get back home. The 2000 film, Oh Brother Where Art Thou, staring George Clooney, was loosely based on Odysseus’s journey. However, in Americanizing the journey, the script writers ultimately created several major differences between the two tales.
As suggested in the introduction, perhaps one of the most significant differences between the movie and the poem is the setting. The original poem is set in Ancient Greece, more than 2000 years ago. In contrast, O Brother Where Art Thou is set in the American south, more specifically Mississippi, during the Great Depression.
Another important difference is the character names. The main character in The Odyssey was named Odysseus, but the main character in Oh Brother Where Art Thou was Ulysses. Similarly Odysseus’s and Ulysses’ companions and enemies have different names in the movie than they did in the book.
Finally, many of the adventures in the movie use a play on words to create scenes in the movie that are different, but identifiably related to the poem. For example, Odysseus and him companions had to fight a cyclops who was a shepherd, and ultimately hide under the “sheep” in order to escape. Ulysses and his companions have to fight Big Dan, a preacher, or “shepherd” of the Lord’s flock, with one good eye. In order to escape Ulysses and his friends have to hide under the “sheets,” disguised as KKK members to escape.
The film was enjoyable to watch because I had already read Homer’s Odyssey, and I could understand the play on words and other related scenes and characters. However, I think that if I had not read the Odyssey, I might have been very confused by the plotline.