O Brother Where Art Thou


I wrote my paper on the movie O Brother Where Art Thou. The movie a fun, bluegrass-filled adventure that is set in the post great depression era in the backcountry of Mississippi, about three men who escaped from a chain gang trying to find a stash of money so that they could turn their lives around for good. The film is a more modern version of Homer’s epic, “The Odyssey.” Multiple characters, such as Everett (the main character), Big One-Eyed Dan, the women at the river, and the chief of police, all reveal characters in the original epic. The main theme of the movie was forgiveness and the rebuilding of one’s life. Throughout their adventures the men attempt multiple times to be able to clean off their slate. They stumble upon a river baptism where two of them men immediately jump into the water to replenish be forgiven for their sins. The other man (Everett) points out that just because God forgave them, doesn’t mean the state of Mississippi will forgive them. At the end of the movie, the men are eventually pardoned by the state of Mississippi because of their musical talents and are swept away by a flood, which I took as symbolizing a baptism and their sins were finally washed away.

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