O' Brother, Where Art Thou? and bartering with your soul



The Coenn Brothers' O' Brother, Where Art Thou? is an amazing film. I may have watched it once before, but it's one of those movies where I'd have no problem watching it many times. It has a good array of funny scenes and quotes. Some of the more memorable ones for me were "We thought you was a toad!", "Cows! I hate cows more than coppers!", and "The color guard is colored!". My personal favorite is the conversation that took place directly after Tommy is picked up from the crossroads:

Everett: "How you doin' son? The name's Everett. These two soggy sons of bitches are Pete and Delmar. Keep your fingers away from Pete's mouth - he ain't had nothing to eat for 13 years but prison food, gopher, and a little greasy horse."
Tommy: "Thanks for the lift, sir. My name's Tommy. Tommy Johnson."
Delmar: "How you doin' Tommy? Say, I haven't seen a house out here for miles. What you doing out there in the middle of nowhere?"
Tommy: "Well, I had to be out at that there crossroads last midnight to sell my soul to the devil."
Everett: "Well, ain't it a small world, spiritually speaking! Pete and Delmar have just been baptized and saved. I guess I'm the only one here who remains unaffiliated."
Delmar: "This ain't no laughing matter."
Everett: "And what did the devil give you for your soul, Tommy?"
Tommy: "Well, he taught me to play this here guitar real good."
Delmar: "For that, you traded your everlasting soul?"
Tommy "Well, I wasn't using it."


If you look at the situation and Tommy's angle, he technically has a point. As human beings, we'll wake up and think about using our legs and arms to get out of bed and walk to the sink to brush our teeth. We don't really wake up in the morning thinking "Okay, time to get up and use my soul!" I completely respect the argument that your soul is the thing controlling you and allowing you to do the things I described earlier, but I'm coming at this as an agnostic person who doesn't quite follow that entire point of view. To be honest, I probably should after all of the prayers made from various religions while I was in the hospital bed, but at least for now, I'm still more of a believer in science than anything else.

Regardless, if the devil showed up one day and gave you a deal that if you gave him your soul, he'd give you something (a golden fiddle for example in The Devil went down to Georgia by the Charlie Daniels Band), what would you be willing to hypothetically trade your soul for? I'll be completely honest, I'm too indecisive to know what I would bargain for... Some people might trade their soul for something as regular/mundane as a good cheeseburger, others would expect that they'd get the entire world. What about you? What’s your deal?


Comments

  1. Hmmmm... I think if the devil came to me and asked for my soul in return for something, I'd be like, crap, uh is god real? Bc I'm not giving my soul up if theres an actual chance that it'll go to heaven. But if I had to trade it for one thing, I'd stop global warming lol. Anyway, nice post! The idea of trading your soul for something is really interesting because it kinda pops up nowhere in the Odyssey. You can't trade your soul for anything because the gods literally don't care at all. The Devil and God at least have rules they have to follow in the Judeo-Christian theology, ie if you're a good person, you go to heaven and if you're bad, you go to hell. In ancient Greece you could be the best person ever and Athena could make you fall off the roof and that's it for you. Interesting how the theologies clash. Thanks for the food for thought!

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