Monstrous Greed

               

The movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou” by the Coen Brothers is based on the book “The Odyssey” by Homer. This means that the movie should have a lot of similarities with the book. However, as I was watching the movie, I noticed a really big difference between the movie and the book. This big difference is in the monsters. Rather than the movie monsters trying to kill the main heroes, they decided to go after money.

              

  In “The Odyssey”, there are a bunch of monsters known as the Sirens. According to Homer, “The high, thrilling song of the Sirens will transfix him, lolling there in their meadow, round them heaps of corpse rotting away, rags of skin shriveling on their bones…” This shows that the Sirens in Homer’s epic are a bunch monsters who attract men to their deaths. However, the Sirens in “O Brother, Where Art Thou” are different. Instead of attracting the protagonists and killing them, the Sirens actually turn one of them over to the authorities for money. This shows that in the movie, the Sirens are motivated more by greed than a desire to kill.

               

Another example of the greed that the monsters have is the cyclops Polyphemus. In “The Odyssey” Homer depicts Polyphemus as a man eating monster. He writes that Polyphemus “Lunged out with his hands toward my men, and snatching two at once, rapping them on the ground he knocked them dead like pups- their brains gushed out all over, soaked the floor- and ripping them limb from limb to fix his mean he bolted them down like a mountain lion.” This is another example of one of Homer’s monsters being blood thirsty. Homer’s Polyphemus just murdered and ate two men. In contrast, the Coen brother’s Polyphemus isn’t so violent. Instead he is super greedy and desires money. Instead of murdering the Protagonists of the movie, he knocks them out and takes their money. This shows that the monsters in the film are more interested in monetary gain than killing.

               

Overall, I felt that this was an interesting difference between the film and the book. I felt that this is the Coen brother’s interpretation of what it means to be a monster in modern America. Perhaps, they based their monsters on what they felt reflected the time period they were in. In the end, this interesting difference does give a lot of material for the brain to think about and we may be able to analyze this further and be able to come up with a reason for why they did this.

The Idea of the One Personal Hero

              

  When talk about growing up, we tend to think a lot about the influences that helped make us who we are. A lot times, the idea of the one singular personal hero comes up. For me, I disagree with the idea of having just one personal hero. I believe that it isn’t just one influence that makes you who you are. It is a mixture and combination of a ton of influences that make you into the person you are today.

               

  A lot of times, we are expected to have just that one personal hero. A lot of colleges will ask “who is that one person that influenced your entire life”. The truth is, there really isn’t. In reality, the things I have learned don’t just all come from one person. They come from everywhere. I’ve been influenced by countless numbers of people. I’ve learned things from my friends, parents, and teachers. All these people can’t fit into the idea of simply having one hero; there’s just too many of them. The problem with having one person influence you is that you will develop a close minded thought process. One influence leads to you having one set of beliefs without being exposed to any other possible ideas or beliefs. However, having many different heroes can lead to you being far more open minded. If you are exposed to many different thoughts and ideas, you will probably think more before you choose a belief.

              

  Overall, I feel that the statement of having one personal hero is incorrect. It isn’t just one person who influences you, it’s the combination of heroes from all over your life that helps shape who you over. If I didn’t have all heroes I had/have now, I would be a completely different person. 

The Fine Line Between Hero and Vigilante

In myths and legends, there tend to be a distinguishable difference between the hero and the villain. Often times, the hero has some “noble” duty he must perform while the villain is trying his/her best to make the hero fail. However, in real life, this is not the case. Often times, there is a very fine line between criminal actions and justly cause. This gray area is known as vigilantism.

A fine example of vigilantism is Kyle in Victory Lap. I felt that what he did was a little too excessive. Yes, he did save a girl from potentially being raped and murdered. However, I felt that crushing the man’s head was way too overboard and almost takes away the heroism of Kyle’s act. The reason is that he hit the man twice. After the first knock to the head, Kyle simply should have just gotten up and restrained him. From my personal experience, getting a severe knock to the head tends to temporarily disable said victim. This would have given Kyle time secure the man and call 911. Instead, he decided to crack the potential murderer’s head out rather than waiting for the authorities arrive. This act not only lead to an unnecessary death, but also traumatized the girl for life. In the text, George Saunders (the author of Victory Lap) writes, “For months afterward she had nightmares in which Kyle brought the rock down”. This shows that Kyle was the direct cause of her damaged mental state after the incident.

In my opinion, it is that excessive force that made Kyle appear like a vigilante to me. Even though he did save a girl’s life (from a villain), he ended up murdering someone who I felt didn’t need to die. Yes, the man did deserve to get punished, but he didn’t need to die a violent death. Also, the fact that Kyle got a rush from hitting someone in the head also makes me feel like Kyle is a vigilante. The thoughts that are going through Kyles mind, “Yes! Score! It was fun!”, makes me feel a little disgusted. It is one thing to save a person’s life by hurting someone else. It is another thing to get a rush from the pain of the initial aggressor.  I firmly believe that if this exact case were to happen in real life, Kyle would not be hailed as a hero. In fact, I think that the authorities would even have a few words with him and his parents about the use of excessive force.  Even though Kyle did get pumped up from some else’s pain and used excessive force, at the end of the day, he still saved a life. However, it is the excessive force and rush that turns Kyle from a hero to a vigilante.