O Brother.... Like I Had Never Seen it Before

For a long time, I have enjoyed O Brother as a hilarious movie with a wonderful plot and fantastic music. However, after watching it in context with The Odyssey, I understand the movie better with the backstory of The Odyssey in mind.
There are a few main points in the story at which I thought "Wow! That really is like The Odyssey".

The first is the "cyclops" aka Big Dan Teague. From the moment he grabs the switch and starts to beat Delmar and Everett, it was immediately evident that he was the cyclops, especially with the eyepatch. It is also interesting to note that Big Dan squishes the frog that at the time is believed to be Pete. Could this be a parallel to the men that the cyclops eats in The Odyssey?

Next, we have all the random similarities to Homer in the movie. There is Homer Stokes, the man running against Pappy O'Daniel for governor, as well as the blind radio guy (Homer was supposedly blind).

Also, I get the sense that Athena is represented in the movie as the slew of characters that The Soggy Bottom Boys interact with throughout the movie that sort of shape their journey. They include Tommie Johnson, who helps them record their hit song, and who also is saved by them later in the movie from getting lynched. There is also George Nelson, the bank robber whom they hitchhike with and later rob a bank with. Finally, there is Pete's cousin's child, who helps them escape from the fire in the barn when the cousin rats them out.
Additionally, Pete's cousin initially serves as one of the kings that Odysseus visits on his trip, feeding them horse stew and providing them company and hair gel.

One of the more obvious similarities to The Odyssey in O Brother is the sirens who seduce and drug Everett, Delmar, and Pete. In my mind, these women could also represent Circe, who drugged Odysseus' men and turned them into pigs. In the movie, they supposedly turn a man into a frog. She also shared her bed with Odysseus, and the girls from the movie are certainly being promiscuous with Everett, Pete, and Delmar.

Everett's wife, Penny, shares some similarities with Penelope in The Odyssey. They both are in a situation where their husbands have been gone for a very long time. In Penny's situation, however, she shows no remorse in taking a "suitor", whereas Penelope thinks long and hard about it and finally decides she might as well take one, just as Odysseus shows up to save the day.

Finally, I see the adventure they go on as a whole fairly similar to Odysseus' in that both Odysseus and the Soggy Bottom Boys take part in a series of random events, visiting random places, and talking to random people, yet with a concrete goal in mind (that of getting home). When watching O Brother it is fairly obvious to anyone at all familiar with The Odyssey that there are important parallels that connect the two, but enough difference to make the movie exciting and unpredictable.

The Music of O' Brother

When I saw that we would be watching O Brother Where Art Thou? next week, I couldn't help but get excited. This movie has been a part of my family's culture ever since it came out. The hilarity and goofiness of the characters and plot, as well as the truly profound story line create a wonderful experience for my entire family.
One of the main aspects of the movie that my family and I have especially embraced is the soundtrack. Usually when watching movies, the soundtrack is something we don't usually think about, but profoundly impacts the way we feel at the time of a certain scene. In O Brother, I believe my parents noticed the soundtrack and proceeded to buy it. Now, whenever I watch the movie, I do notice the music playing in the background. Over the years, I have seen many of the singers perform live at random folk festivals that my parents have taken me to all over the country (my family and I are folk-festival junkies, we've been to ones near Toronto, Vancouver, and Colorado, as well as many others).
I would like to share with you some of my favorite songs from the soundtrack, in hopes that you will recognize them, as well as many other of the songs that contribute to the wonderfulness of this movie.  I don't intend to have everyone who comes across this blog listen to the entirety of all of these songs. I may have gone a little overboard in how many I post because I love them all so much, but try to get a gist of the different varieties of music that O Brother uses and how it relates to the movie itself, and even The Odyssey.

This one is called "Indian War Whoop" and is a cool sounding instrumental piece.

This is one is called "Po Lazarus". It is the song that a bunch of prisoners sing while breaking rocks for railroads.

"Big Rock Candy Mountain" is a traditional folk song that just sounds fun and happy. I love getting it stuck in my head.

This song, "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" is what makes the Soggy Bottom Boys famous.

"Hard Time Killing Floor Blues" is a smooth, soft song that is a great one to just relax and listen to.

This song, "Lonesome Valley", sounds really weird and I'm pretty sure it comes at one of the lower points of the movie for the protagonists.

This one is another that sounds pretty unorthodox and is basically about dying. It's called "O Death"

This is another fun song by the Soggy Bottom Boys. It's called "In the Jailhouse Now"

This song, "Didn't Leave Nobody but the Baby" is sung by three folk singers that I have seen perform before named Allison Krauss, Gillian Welch, and Emmylou Harris. 

This song comes at a rather weird part of the movie that is both comical and a little serious. It's titled "Down to the River to Pray", also by Allison Krauss.

Lastly, here is "I'll Fly Away", also by Allison Krauss. 

The Hospitality of the Kings

So far in The Odyssey, every place Telemachus has visited has been home to royalty, and they have all welcomed him with extreme hospitality, even though they were complete strangers at first. The kings thought it was an outrage to not invite them in to dine with them. They gave them their finest food and stayed up late talking with them, as well as sending them off with fine gifts. The obvious question is why did the kings go to such lengths to make their unknown visitors feel welcome?

The first reason I can think of is that they were raised as royalty and royalty has always been hospitable to visitors, no matter the circumstance. In today's society, it seems a bit odd that someone would give complete strangers the finest of their feast and invite them to sit with them at a royal dinner, but, back then, things could've been different. We don't know whether it was just common courtesy to invite guests, no matter whom, into your home. It could've been a widespread belief, or just one among royals. 

Going off of the previous reason is that kings had extreme abundances of wealth. They had tons of money and presumably nothing to do with it, so why not give strangers your best horses and your finest meat? In those days, there were no big charities to donate your money to, no Goodwill or Salvation Army to donate your clothes to, so you might as well give it to strangers. However, it isn't like they give them their second hand horses and food, but instead they share a sample of their life with the strangers.

I think that they use their abundance of wealth largely to help them get to know people and hear stories and share their own stories, since they are genuinely interested in people and also like to converse about themselves and just to exchange life's experiences with one another, and the wealth that they have just makes it very easy to do so.

Finally, the kings could be so deeply obsessed with pleasing the gods that they are always looking to impress them. They may be extremely grateful to the gods for making them king or something, so in everything they do, they try to find ways to make them happy. Yes, being welcoming and nice to complete strangers is something that would please the gods, but as we saw, any normal straggler could be a god in disguise, there for an unknown reason. If the kings are kind to everyone, they might happen to treat a god with respect someday and get rewarded for it.