Hitchin' a Ride

One element that is prevalent throughout the entirety of The Odyssey is hospitality, whether it be given or received. We see hospitality given generously or forcibly taken, and our opinions of characters seem to be formed dependent on their use or abuse of the construct, at least to a certain degree. When we watched O Brother, Where Art Thou? in class, I was interested in finding a parallel for hospitality. I think the closest parallel to receiving hospitality in The Odyssey is travelling in someone else’s car or catching a ride with someone.

Everett and his companions ride in other peoples’ cars frequently throughout O Brother, Where Art Thou? The movie really begins when they go to Wash’s (Pete’s cousin’s) house for some help, and they can finally start their journey when they take his car. Then, as sort of a “do unto others” type thing, they pick Tommy up off the side of the road. They don’t argue about whether or not they should do it - the kindness is simply extended, just like hospitality in the Ancient Greek culture.

Later, the group meets George Nelson, who drives up to ask them for directions. While they are deliberating, he tells them, “Hop on in while you give it a think.” While George Nelson doesn’t have a direct parallel in The Odyssey, it still shows another example of hospitality being extended to our “Odysseus” and “his crew”.

Soon after, perhaps the best examples of the group’s travels happen, during the video montage. Spliced in between clips showing the rising popularity of the Soggy Bottom Boys, we are shown multiple instances of Everett and the gang attempting to catch rides with people. In one clip we see the group hitchhiking on the side of the road, but then turning around to hide themselves when they see it’s a wagon of prisoners. This could perhaps be a parallel to hospitality offered to Odysseus and his crew that end up to be harmful or even detrimental, for example when Polyphemus ate Odysseus' crew members after giving them hospitality. Another clip shows a man getting out of his car to go into a store that Everett and his friends are coming out of, and when the man is safely inside, the group jumps into the car and drives off. This could possibly be a call to all of the times Odysseus and/or his crew abused hospitality or “overstayed their welcome,” for example when Odysseus repeatedly tested Eumaeus to see how far he would extend his hospitality.

Overall I think car rides in O Brother, Where Art Thou? are a very strong parallel to hospitality in The Odyssey. They are offered often and sometimes even expected by Everett and the rest of the group. The story would be very dysfunctional without the characters catching rides as often as they do, much like how The Odyssey would make little sense without hospitality as an institution. Using car rides as a parallel for hospitality was a creative and interesting choice, and I think O Brother, Where Art Thou? is more intriguing as an adaptation of The Odyssey for it.