Odyssey vs. O brother where art thou
... when his raft is destroyed by the storm. When the gang left Pete’s brother’s house they take with them a pig, which they loose when the boy takes it back, after their car brakes down. The railroad car, which they use to escape from prison, is similar to the raft; Odysseus uses to escape from his prison upon Calypso’s island. The Bible salesman, Big Dan, represents the Cyclopes, Polythemus. Odysseus puts out the eye of the Cyclopes with a heated spike. Ulysses tries to throw the Klu Klux Klan flag at big Dan, but just barely misses him. Dan caught the flag, but got what he deserved, when the cross of fire flattens him. The Greek gods replace the Southern Baptist conception of God and Satan. The Sheriff is Satan, for he is always associated with fire. The water from the flood that saves the gang from Satan is a baptism from the Christian God. Then there are the more obvious parallelisms. The killing of the cattle of Helios mirrors Baby Face Nelson’s shooting of the cows. “Sing in me O Muse…” the line at the beginning of the film, is the first line of the Odyssey. The “Sirens” are th...