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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 4 page essay/research paper that analyzes the Coen Brothers' film O Brother, Where Art Thou? In terms of Marxist ideology. The writer argues that the characters, uniformly, express an overwhelming concern with capitalism, money and in placing themselves within the boundaries of bourgeois society and divorcing themselves from their proletariat roots. By formulating the film's basic premise within this venue, the filmmakers serve to emphasize that the overwhelming reality of the Depression era lay in the conflict between these two classes. Bibliography lists 6 sources.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khobwat.rtf
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epic poem, The Odyssey (Ebert, 2000). It is true that the story is a Homeric-type journey of the protagonist across Mississippi during the Great Depression, but the themes that the
film addresses are primarily Marxist rather than heroic. The characters, uniformly, express an overwhelming concern with capitalism, money and in placing themselves within the boundaries of bourgeois society and divorcing
themselves from their proletariat roots. By formulating the films basic premise within this venue, the filmmakers serve to emphasize that the overwhelming reality of the Depression era lay in the
conflict between these two classes. In his Communist Manifesto, Marx makes the point that modern bourgeois society, while it "sprouted from the ruins of feudal society," did not do
away with class antagonisms, rather it merely replaced old class conflicts with "new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle" (Marx, 2004). As convicts, the opening sequence of
the film clearly establishes the principal characters as being on the lowest rungs of capitalist society. Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney) desperate wants to return to his wife and family
before his ex-wife succumbs to the wooing of another man. However, he is chained to Pete (John Turturro) and Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson). To win their cooperation in his escape,
McGill spins a yarn about buried ill-gotten gains ($1.2 million) that he promises to share (Berardinelli). In their journey, the men are pursued by authorities and also run into
a variety of unsavory characters. The narrative makes it clear that these are men outside of the normal parameters of society. Marx (2000) points out that political economy does not
recognize the "unemployed worker, the workingman." Marx states that "The rascal, swindler, beggar, the unemployed, the starving, wretched and criminal workingman" are not recognized by bourgeois society, as these are
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