Similarities Between Antigone And Martin Luther King Jr

Antigone and Martin Luther King Jr. are both very important figures when it comes to discussing the topic of civil disobedience; both fought for what they believed to be right and against the injustice of the state. Antigone went against the edict of the king and buried her brother and Martin Luther King Jr. broke the law to try to end segregation and racism in America. Even though some similarities can be found between the two, ultimately they went about civil disobedience in very different ways. Antigone’s method was personal and selfish and she took an extremely defiant and rash stance while martin Luther King’s approach was more analytical and thought out. It is for these reasons that I believe King’s method was more successful and is the

is the prime example when talking about civil disobedience, for in the 1960s he was the head of the civil rights movement. MLK’s method required one to think logically; with his reasoning segregation was not only unjust but illogic. He achieved his goals through peaceful marches and sit-ins and often used rhetorical questions to accomplish his shared goal of ending segregation. MLK also did what he did for the long run and so that future generations could live peacefully while Antigone did what she did to bring respect to the gods and the dead. MLK believed an unjust law is no law at all so breaking it in his mind is moral and right. He has a duty to break the unjust law in order to achieve the greater good, which was what his civil disobedience was based on. Martin Luther King was a strong courageous leader who sought out the best way to make the most people better off than they were. MLK’s purpose for direct action was to get people to listen and to see the injustice in America, by “seek[ing] to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue and “It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored” (King). It is this non-violent approach that MLK is so well recognized for because it was revolutionary; the normal response to such injustice should have been riots and violent protests but by being “civil” it caused people to take notice of the real

was a powerful figure in the history of civil disobedience and left lasting impacts on our society. While Antigone, important in literature, was no more then the cursed daughter of Oedipus doomed like her father to be rash and selfish. It was not Antigone’s but MLK’s version of civil disobedience that made had the most profound impact; he helped end segregation and racial injustice in America through non-violence and self-enlightenment. MLK fought for justice for all and fought to insure the rights of future African