Quarter 3 Benchmark (The Odyssey Compare/Contrast Essay)

Roger Bracy                                                                                                             3/6/11

Everett vs. Odysseus

The Odyssey and O’ Brother Where Art Thou featured two adventurers who went down similar paths and confronted several dangers during their journey to get back home. O’ Brother Where Art Thou spotlighted Everett, a criminal who wants to get back home to his wife and kids.  He had to take two men with him to escape the chain gang, a group of prisoners working along side the road. Likewise, in The Odyssey, Odysseus was a leader in the Trojan War, and was trying to get home to his wife back in Ithaca with his crew. Even though Everett and Odysseus had a long journey, full of anguish and battle, one crew returned intact because of one man’s leadership skills. This great leader was Everett.

Odysseus and Everett both spotted one-eyed creatures in both their quests. However, when they confronted the beasts, they had different outcomes. When Odysseus first met Polyphemus, the Cyclops was a huge obstacle that he had to conquer. Odysseus, a man of pride, wasn’t going to let his men be trapped in the Polyphemus’s cave, so he made a plan to get the barbarian drunk and opened up the cave so his men could be free. “Hoisting high that olive stake with its stabbing point. Straight into the monster’s eye they rammed it hard.” (Book 9: lines 427-428) Odysseus not only makes the beast pass out, he outdid himself by piercing the eye of the Cyclops, blinding him forever.

This reflects Everett’s journey where he encountered a man of one eye, Big Dan Teague. While eating at a fancy restaurant, Everett and Delmar are confronted by a holy man, by the name of Big Dan Teague. He then took the men outside to eat and teach them the rules of selling the bible, and as soon as they weren’t paying attention, Big Dan pulled a branch off of a tree and beat the men with it. Dan took their money and car and left them stranded, but Everett would encounter Big Dan again. He made his second appearance when he chased and stormed after Everett and his crew while they interrupted the Homer Stokes KKK clan. Once the men got away they cut the rope of the burning cross the end the life of Big Dan Teague. Although Everett and Odysseus both faced a Cyclops the after math was very different.

Everett and Odysseus’s journeys are comparable by their Knowledge of their last obstacles. As Odysseus met his last challenge the advice from Circe aided his quest forward and helped them reach the island of Thrinacia. Her advice was “First you will raise the island of the sirens.”(Book 12: line 44) “Once you crew has rowed past the sirens a choice of routes is yours.” (Book 12: lines 61-62), talking about the routes between Scylla and Charybdis, and don’t eat the cattle, “Leave the beast unharmed, … and you may still reach Ithaca.” (Book 12: lines 148-149) Odysseus’s knowledge of the situation helped guide his men past the sirens and the two routes. To conclude his task, Odysseus’s men ended up eating the cattle leaving him to return without his crew intact.

Identical to Odysseus, Everett while at the end of his journey remembered information that was crucial to his crew’s survival. While facing their death, Everett and his men were going to be hung and killed off for all the crimes they have committed. Everett stood strong, as he knew that the dam was going to brake and flood the county by the lake. The men were saved from their death by the knowledge of Everett and they soon returned home. The ending of both men’s voyage was very similar as they both got home safely, but only one of these men came home with his crew; Everett was a better leader then Odysseus because he was able to get his crew home safely.

Furthermore Everett and Odysseus encountered similar quests and faced identical obstacles along the way, but only one man showed great leadership and got his men home. Everett has proven, multiple times, that he could save his men in his passage to get home; he wouldn’t leave his men in any situation that he wouldn’t overcome with them. As for Odysseus, he was hesitant to save his crew throughout his Journey because he had one task in his head; to go home. Everett and Odysseus, who come from different centuries, both found their way back home, but one man’s journey proved to his fellow crew that he could conquer all tasks that he was faced with to get his men out of trouble.