Would Homer Approve?

            O Brother Where Art Thou’s Ulysses Everett McGill is, as we learned in class, based off of The Odyssey’s Odysseus, but I think not without some very obvious creative liberties. Everett is definitely less of a traditional Homeric hero - his story lacks a lot of the grandiose thematic elements that pervade most epics. I don’t think Homer (or Odysseus, for that matter) would necessarily approve of this version/parody of Odysseus, as a lot of the emotion and glory in the epic is sacrificed for characteristic comedy and foolishness. (This by no means, however, means that Everett is a bad hero. I love Everett, but I just don’t think Homer would think Everett worthy of the title, given the values he portrays through The Odyssey.)

Odysseus’ finest quality (to Athena and Homer, at least) is his cleverness and aptitude for lying. His quick-witted resourcefulness is what gets him out of sticky situations (Polyphemus, the suitors, even the Trojan War), and is what ultimately merits him special attention from Athena. It’s his most constant and valuable trait – his mind never fails him, and even elevates him to almost superhuman levels (as we can see him consorting on nearly equal terms with Athena). Even the crueler, unvirtuous side of his lies are celebrated as ingenious (and not necessarily morally incorrect) when seen through an Ancient Greek lens. This trait, then, is Odysseus’ “hero trait”, his best and worthiest quality. 

Ulysses Everett McGill, however, seems a decidedly less cunning hero. While he’s undoubtedly “smarter” or “cleverer” than the people around him (and this is by no means a hard thing to measure up to, considering his company), he’s still not quick-witted and shrewd so much as verbose. There are some scattered instances of Everett exhibiting this “Odyssian” cleverness, but these moments are few and far in between. These instances are also somewhat overshadowed by the blatant comedic aura of the film, which sometimes sacrifices the legitimacy of Everett’s intelligence for humor. One example would be the scene at Pete’s cousin’s, where Everett keeps repeating “damn, we’re in a tight spot” after he realizes they’ve been caught. While funny, this comedic repetition doesn't necessarily show him as cunning. Everett also fails to understand the nature of the picnic scene with Big Dan, which is especially humiliating as he says “I like to think that I'm a pretty astute observer of the human scene” within the same conversation. His biggest failure in this Odyssey-specific aspect is also arguably his arrest, where he’s caught for practicing law without a license – and we all know Homer would have had the real Odysseus wriggle out of it somehow.

Another semi-similarity between the two is their fatal flaws. Odysseus’ hamartia, as we discussed in class, is his pride and corresponding inability to control his anger. The best example of this is perhaps his encounter with Polyphemus – even though he’s already managed to escape, he just has to taunt Polyphemus, and ends up bringing great suffering upon himself. If he had just refrained from satisfying his pride, he would have been able to get home much sooner. However, the magnitude of this hamartia is also part of the reason why his transformation from hubris to humility is of such importance. Instead of serving to show Odysseus as foolish in pride, the size of his errors simply shows the immense strength he needs to develop as a character.

Everett’s Grecian fatal flaw, however, is vanity, which can be seen as a lesser, sillier version of Odysseus’ pride. His obsession with hair gel, of all things (looking “dapper” and smelling of “pleasing odors”), is ultimately what leads him and his crew to being caught. A stereotypically “unmasculine” desire for pretty hair is nowhere near as impressive of a hamartia as Odysseus’ somewhat-justified pride in himself. This particular obsession is also a bit insensitive and embarrassing, to say the least, especially as he’s an escaped convict living in the Depression era. Again, grandiose heroism is swapped for “buffoonish” comedy, which makes Everett much less of a high-brow hero than characters like Odysseus.