Stand Up For Your Beliefs

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Martin Luther King Jr., one of the most prominent African-American civil rights leaders, said, “man who won't die for something is not fit to live.” In the play Antigone, Sophocles uses Antigone and Haimon’s rebellious characters as they stand up to Kreon’s authority to risk their lives for their own respective beliefs. Similar to the rebellious characters in Antigone, in Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, Nwoye and Okonkwo disobey authority and voice their own opinions. Achebe and Sophocles use characters who challenge authority to reveal the importance of standing up for one’s beliefs, regardless of the consequences.

Antigone risks her own life to bury her brother, therefore, she goes against Kreon’s edict that Polyneices should be left unburied; she believes Polyneices deserves to reach the afterlife. Antigone tells Ismene, “I will bury him myself. If I die for doing that, good: I will stay with him, my brother; and my crime will be devotion” (Sophocles 23). Antigone is willing to risk her own life by disobeying the king’s authority; She stands up for her religious belief that Polyneices should be buried. Kreon tells Antigone before she takes her own life, “I won’t encourage you. You’ve been condemned” (Sophocles 57). Kreon believes that Antigone’s crime is severe, and righteousness should be used to justify her crime. At this point of the play, Antigone realizes she will be put to death, but she does not regret her act of loyalty. In Antigone’s last speech before she takes her own life, she exclaims, “Land of Thebes, city of my fathers… see what I suffer at my mother’s brother’s hand for an act of loyalty and devotion” (Sophocles 57). Here, Antigone addresses the nation’s leaders and declares that they should notice th...

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...ath. Through Haimon’s character, Sophocles reveals the importance of staying true to one’s beliefs no matter the circumstance.

In Antigone and Things Fall Apart, the readers are left with glaring lessons of injustice that, if left unchecked and unquestioned, would never change. Achebe and Sophocles offer characters who go against society’s norms and traditions for the good of humankind. Throughout history, leaders, such as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Susan B. Anthony, have helped to bring equitable balance to mankind. Individuals who represent opposing views mold and change the course of history; without such risk takers, life may never progress for the good of humanity.

Works Cited

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Anchor Books, 1994. Print.

Sophocles. Antigone. Trans. Richard Emil Braun. New York: Oxford UP, 1973. Print.

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