Antigone And Whale Rider Essay

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Antigone Rides the Whale
Antigone, a play written by Sophocles, and Whale Rider directed by Niki Caro are stories that taking place in different eras and location but are very similar in storylines. The text Antigone and share a similar storyline and even share major themes. Both are about a young girl whose brother dies and she tries to uphold tradition but is constrained by her gender.
One of the most obvious similarities in both Antigone and Whale Rider, the brother of the protagonist dies. The death of the brother is what initiates the conflict. In Antigone, Antigone wants to give her brother a proper burial, though Kreon, the king and her uncle, insists that he should not be buried because he betrayed the state. Antigone's buries his body against Kreon’s orders. Kreon does not believe that Antigone could have broken the law and buried the Polyneices’ body because she is female. Paikea had a twin brother who died at birth. Her brother is supposed to be the new leader of the tribe. Koro, Paikea's grandfather and the current leader, believes that Paikea …show more content…

In , many Whale have beached themselves, this is a sign to Koro that he has failed to find a leader. When Paikea saves the whales and ends up in hospital, his attitude towards her changes and he has accepted that Paikea should be the new leader of the tribe, he even addresses her as ‘Wise Leader’. Kreon receives a prophecy from Teiresias. He predicts that if Kreon does not change his ways he will loose his son, ‘a corpse, exchange for corpses’. (pg.62) He then decides to release Antigone from the cave that he had sent to die in, only to realise that he is too late and Antigone has killed herself. After his son also kills himself he admits that he was wrong saying “Gone, gone! I was wrong, not you.” Kreon knows that he should have listened to Haimon and Antigone while they were still

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