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Archetypes In O Brother Where Art Thou

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Throughout the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou, classic storytelling through archetypes is reworked into a more modern time in order to create the unique gem that it is. Archetypes are a general persona of a character that is repeated many times through films and literature, they define the character and give meaning to their roles. Archetypes have been used ever since stories were made, from the Odyssey to even Percy Jackson. Archetypes tend to set the stage for the story, and get revealed throughout the story adding more life and energy to it. Three examples of archetypes expressed very well through characters in the movie are the hero, the alter ego, and the temptress.
First off, every story has it’s own hero, “a larger than life character that often goes on some kind of journey or quest while demonstrating specific qualities and abilities”. This describes the hero of O Brother, Where Art Thou, a man called Everett, very well. Everett is the guy who starts the trio's whole adventure, a man on a mission. He tells the other guys that the mission is to get some treasure, but in reality Everett is trying to get his wife and family back. Throughout their journey, he is the obvious leader of the group; the other guys look up to him and follow him in whatever he does in order to “get to the treasure”. Everett shows that he is a hero is when, after Delmar and Pete find out that there is actually no treasure and he just needed to escape with them because they were all tied

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