Similarities Between Antigone And Whale Rider

Between the playwright Antigone and the movie Whale Rider there are many differences and similarities Antigone and Paikea have some of the key parts of their personality in common, some of these include loyalty and bravery. Some differences between the two are from different cultures and that they both had different expectations of their leadership.

I think that their main characteristic that they share is loyalty. They are both loyal to their family. Antigone seems to be most loyal to her brother, Polyneices. She buried him even though it was against the law. She knew that she would be punished with death, but she did it to give her brother peace. She is also loyal to her family, such as her sister, Ismene. Paikea is loyal to her family too,

even though her grandfather does not treat her like he should, and her own father gave her away to his parents, but she still stays loyal to them. I think one way that Paikea really showed her loyalty was when she rescued the whales, therefore saving the tribe. Even though the tribe wasn’t treating her right, specifically her grandfather, she still went out of her way and risked her own life to ensure the whale’s lives and her tribe’s.

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Antigone and Paikea are both very brave, they continuously showed this through their movie or playwright.

Antigone is brave is many ways such as going over not only her uncle's head, but also the King’s and she confessed to the accusations of burying her ‘traitor’ brother even after she was told she would be stoned to death if she was the one who did it. Paikea is also brave in several ways, such as how she did all the things the boys did while in the school to become the Maori’s tribal leader. Even though she knew she wasn’t supposed to, she still tried to learn the ways despite the fact that her grandfather wouldn’t let her because she was a

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Another brave thing Paikea did was saving the whales and sending them into the water, and after that becoming the tribal leader. They both had so much bravery that they went over their families orders, no matter the consequences they might face and even risked their life for people. Paikea saved the whales which led to her saving the tribe, and Antigone had to put her brother at peace.

An obvious difference between Antigone and Paikea are where they come from and their culture.

Antigone comes from a Greek culture, with beliefs in many gods and punishment from them if they were to do something that would displease them. Paikea comes from the Maori Tribe from New Zealand, they have a belief in a legend that a man named Paikea was drowning because his brother had tried to drown him, and he called upon whales to save him. They think very highly of whales and will call on them during a time of need. In Antigone they believe that if you do something to offend to the gods, you will be punished, Creon was told that the god’s would retaliate if he did something bad, and he believed it, tried to fix his mistake, but it didn’t work. Paikea and her tribe will sing a song and call on the whales for help in a time of need,

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example, when Paikea was caught in the school for training the new leader, she broke something in that and she and Koro then prayed for help from the whales.

Another difference between the two is that they both had different expectations of what role they were going to play in their society. An expectation of Antigone was not much, she was solely related to royalty. She was never meant to significant to her kingdom, although she did end up leaving an impact on it. Paikea was born with a twin brother, but he died. She was next in line to be the tribal leader, her expectations were high until Koro realized that she was a girl, so she could not be the leader. She ended having a huge impact on her tribe, by becoming the first female leader and by saving the whales.

Paikea and Antigone have many more similar qualities and differences besides, loyalty, bravery, cultural differences, and different expectations of their role in society. They both had a huge impact on their society (kingdom/tribe) with their loyalty and bravery. Ultimately , they are both very unique characters despite having many similarities.