Why Everett Is More Likeable than Odysseus

None of us really liked Odysseus when we talked about him in class. He didn't seem like a real hero. He is courageous, yes, but he gets all of his crew members killed because of his pride. He is clever, but he is also a bit sneaky and seems somewhat untrustworthy. He often uses his cleverness to get him (and not always his crew members) out of sticky situations that they wouldn't have been in if his pride hadn't convinced him to do something foolish (like taunt the cyclops). He also uses his cleverness to test people: he tests Penelope's loyalty to him very seriously, supposedly planning to kill her along with the suitors if she had been unfaithful, yet he himself had been unfaithful to Penelope numerous times. Clearly, Odysseus's negative qualities are many, and it seems from our discussions in class that those traits made him unlikeable.

However, Ulysses Everett McGill is not unlikeable, even though he possesses many of the same traits that Odysseus does. Everett, Pete, and Delmar are all protagonists, but Everett is undoubtedly "the leader of this outfit". What makes him more sympathtic, or at least easier to hear about, than Odysseus?

Everett is clever--he uses big words too, and can talk himself out of many bad situations, but he is also somewhat silly. With lines like "Well, there are all manner of lesser imps and demons, Pete, but the great Satan hisself is red and scaly with a bifurcated tail, and he carries a hay fork," and "Say, any of you boys smithies? Or, if not smithies per se, were you otherwise trained in the metallurgic arts before straitened circumstances forced you into a life of aimless wanderin'?" we see that Everett has "the gift of gab" but also that he is funny. He makes errors in pronunciation of the long words he uses, and his general tone of fake knowledgeable amiably discredits most of the things in says. Odysseus seriously fools people--people don't know who he is or are tripped up by his trickery. No one really falls for Everett's trickery.

Everett is also not all powerful. Odysseus sweeps into the hall and murders everyone, deciding himself whether they should live or die even though he has not been at the house watching their conduct for twenty years. Everett gets beaten soundly by Vernon T Waldrip even through Waldrip is ridiculous prig. He is continually rejected by his wife, even when he swims through a vast lake to get her her ring, and his daughters greet him not with awe and respect but with:
Wharvey gal 1: Mama says you got hit by a train.

Wharvey gal 2: Blooey! Nothin’ left.

Wharvey gal 1: Just a grease spot on the L & N.

Everett does not inspire the same awe in the people around him, nor is he obviously backed by some supernatural force. He triumphs by luck and tenacity, and does not really take anyone down with him, except Waldrip. I don't think he manages to do anything particularly violent to anyone the entire movie.

Everett may fool people sometimes, and he is not exactly trustworthy, but overall he is honorable. Odysseus is honorable overall too. What he lacks is Everett's funniness. Odysseus is not slapstick funny; Everett is. Everett blatantly says stupid things--"We're in a tight spot!" x 4--while Odysseus is described as calculating and cunning. We like Everett better because his Odysseus-like traits come across as a character quirk, while Odysseus's come across as a character flaw.