Similar Themes Seen in Different Plot Lines

The themes of O’ Brother Where Art Thou? and Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey, are very tantamount to one another, both have strong leaders, Odysseus, and Ulysses (Everett), that take on relentless journeys and face tough situations. These two sources have various interpretations of events that occurred, due to the translation of the plot to relate to the minds of today’s society. Although the stories are different, you are able to see themes that are very similar, such as loyalty, perseverance, and leadership. A common theme between O’ Brother Where Art Thou? and The Odyssey is loyalty. This can be seen in both of these sources when Everet and Delmar go back to break Pete out of jail. Also in the Odyssey when Odysseus ties his men to the ship after they consumed the lotus, forcing his men to come home, so they are not affected by the lotus’ powers. Another example of loyalty would be Odysseus continuing to try and make it back to Ithica, he shows loyalty to his country and family, through his perseverance.

Everet shows loyalty to his family, by breaking out of jail and facing a long journey home to his wife, before she marries another man. Both Everet and Odyssey show loyalty in these situations and many more in both the movie and the poem. While Odysseus and Everet showed loyalty to their men and families, they also faced many setbacks that required them to keep their perseverance. An example of this can be best seen in the Odyssey after Odysseus gets cursed by Posiden before he had even begun his journey home. While Odysseus faced many hard obstacles, he stayed persistent and kept trying to get back to his country and family. Everet also has many similar encounters. While he is on the run from the law, they stopped at Pete’s kin’s house, who was a locksmith, while staying there his kin turned him, Pete, and Delmar into the cops. In both of these situations, Everet and Odysseus used their leadership skills to get themselves out of a tight spot. Everet and Odysseus are leaders. They used their leadership skills to get them out of unfortunate situations.

A great example is when Odysseus had to choose between going to Scylla and Charybdis. He made a tough decision and risked losing six of his men instead of the whole crew, himself included. In O’ Brother Where Art Thou?, Everet devised a plan to get Delmar, Pete, and himself all on the stage, so he could give his last shot at winning his wife over. They all put on fake beards and pretended like they were a part of the band. In the end, Everet’s quick thinking and leadership skills allowed him to win his wife back and they were all pardoned by Governor candidate Pappy O’Daniels. Both The Odyssey and O’ Brother Where Art Thou?, were stories of a quest involving the com character and his companions. They were both entertaining and loosely used the same plot line. Throughout the plot line, similar themes emerged, such as loyalty, leadership, and perseverance. This goes to show that similar plot lines can cause similarities in the themes.