"What Are You Selling?" » asks Delmar, leaning towards the one-eyed salesman. “The word of God, which, let me tell you, holds a damn lot of money in these times of woe and need. The Bible has been misused, misquoted, and distorted by history's greatest enemies, for example, the Crusaders chanted "God wills it" as they raped, pillaged, and plundered entire villages. It has also been used as a source of wealth and fortune. , as seen above with the Bible salesman. The abuse of the Bible and Christianity is not a new concept in our world, and the Christianity we see and know today is very different from the Christianity of 100 years ago, let alone that of his beginnings. I have always mystified religion and felt comfortable treating it more as a mythology than a theology, that is, as an epic and legends of supernatural beings rather than a practice real consisting of believing in and worshiping a God. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made trial. on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayThe film O Brother, Where Art Thou? highlights comparisons between Christianity and mythology, particularly Homer's epic The Odyssey, which is full of evidence. of the two texts, some more obvious than others. We begin with our protagonist, Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney). If Ulysses is the protagonist of Homer's Greek myth, his Latin name was none other than Ulysses. Not only do the two protagonists share names, but so do their spouses: Ulysses has Penelope and Everett has Penny. Everett is an intelligent and quick-witted man, but he uses such devices to mask a strong sense of arrogance which causes his downfall. He makes it very clear from the start that he's a bit of a hypocrite when it comes to religion. He ridicules his two comrades who seek baptism, but cites the Bible when one of them shows signs of negativity. The ridicule, however, is rightly so: the men are alone in an old cemetery and are suddenly overwhelmed by a mass of men and women dressed in white, seeming somewhat hypnotized and strongly attracted to the water. When they arrive, they form two lines and take turns being baptized. Delmar runs to the front of the line, is dunked underwater by the preacher, and returns to the men repeating what sounds like a checklist one might give to prove they are believers. "Well, that's it, boys. I've been redeemed. The preacher has washed away all my sins and transgressions. It's the right way from now on. And eternal heaven is my reward!" This strangeness hypnotic is compared to the lotus eaters in the story of Ulysses In the Greek epic, Odysseus' men are stranded on an island and find the natives, the lotus eaters, who offer them the flowering fruit of the lotus. which attracts them to the point of forgetting their trip and wishing to stay forever on the island with the lotus eaters. Likewise, once Pete and Delmar are baptized among the Christians, they wish to stay with them forever and forget their plan. to find the treasure with Everett This type of comment makes an interesting statement about the toxicity and mysticism of modern Christianity and the harm that blind belief can cause If Delmar places concrete facts over abstract solutions - like pretending to be free. of sin simply because a man in white dunked him in a lake – he gives in to the occultism of the moment. This does not mean that this is the true form of religion in question, it is simply the form of that religion that he chose, at that moment, to take upon himself.Immediately after their baptism, the first person the three men meet is Tommy Johnson, a young African American who sold his soul to the devil the night before. This stark contrast in spiritual experiences connects the two in their staged and overly dramatic nature, both dealing with souls in their three possible stages – saved like Pete and Delmar's, in limbo like Everett's, or damned like Tommy's. The runaways' time spent with the Hogwallop family contains an exorbitant amount of religious references that prove useful in moving the action forward as well as excellent examples of ironic faith-related proclamations. Pete's cousin, Washington Bartholomew Hogwallop, was given a middle name that matches the name of one of the twelve disciples. After turning the three men over for a bounty, Pete threatens to kill him and calls him Judas Iscariot Hogwallop, in reference to the disciple known for betraying Jesus. When everything goes wrong and the men try to escape the police waiting for them below, Everett shouts the name of Saint Christopher in a breathless exclamation. Saint Christopher is the patron saint of long journeys, which suits the three wanderers perfectly. Before the three men are hanged, Pete proclaims, “Damn it. God forgive me! The process of damning God and then asking for forgiveness provides a wonderful example of religious irony in the film. Everett's use of biblical references is rare, but nonetheless very present. It seems like it begins as a sort of mockery towards the other two men, mocking their naive faith. When Pete becomes pessimistic about the prospects of their trip, Everett tells him to "consider the lilies of the field," quoting Matthew 6:28. He mocks the boys for their baptism and immediate salvation thereafter. Only when they are about to be hanged and the sheriff tells the boys to say their final prayers do we see Everett in a vulnerable, intimate moment with his God. He gets on his knees and asks God to forgive him for his wrongdoings. He prays that God will take care of his Penny and his daughters if he can no longer do so. Shortly after, the dam bursts and the three almost drown, but find a coffin one of them was to be buried in and cling to it like a raft. Pete and Delmar claim that the flood was a miracle, while Everett believes that it was an obvious incident that happened by coincidence and that the dam was going to blow that day no matter what happened to them. When Pete retorts that Everett certainly prayed a lot. For there to be a scientific explanation, Everett counters that "every human being will struggle in a moment of stress." Everett sees the Christian God as a superhero, eagerly waiting for a distress call so he can step in and save the day, then disappearing into the shadows until he is needed again. Music plays a big role in the film's connection to Christianity. The first song in the film, Po' Lazarus, tells the story of a sheriff who asks his deputy to find Lazarus and bring him back to the sheriff, dead or alive. The sheriff decides to pick up Lazarus himself and shoots him, then takes him back to the commissioner, leaving him to die on the ground. Lazarus is also the name of the man in the Bible who lay dead in a tomb for four days before Jesus was retrieved by Mary and Martha and resurrected Lazarus. This reference hints at some sort of resurrection or rebirth, so from the beginning of the film we expect reformation from the characters, most likely in some religious form. Songs like "Down to the River to Pray", "I'll Fly Away" and "Angel Band" all sound like gospel.