Antigone and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Paper Summary:

This paper takes a look at Martin Luther King, Jr. and Antigone, both famous for their acts of civil disobedience. Their motives and methods, millennia apart are compared and contrasted in this essay. The author first defines civil disobedience and provides brief backgrounds of both King and Antigone. The paper then discusses their motives for knowingly committing civil disobedience which, in the case of Antigone, was punishable by death. The author notes that both King and Antigone, eventually died for their causes and by doing so, achieved their goals of being feted and esteemed as heroes.

From the Paper:

"It is possible to protest a curfew law, for example, by trespass or illegal assembly. A law against posting garage sale signs in public might conceivably be protested by violating a doggie leash law in front of city hall. In general those engaged in civil disobedience are non-violent and are willing to peacefully surrender to police authority and go to jail. The disobedience can range from minimal to acts on a large scale, organized, synchronized and subsidized."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Gandhi, M. (1983) The Essential Gandhi New York, Vintage Books
• King, M. (1991) A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. New York, Harper Collins
• Sophocles (2005) Antigone Clayton, Delaware Literary Touchstone Press
• Thoreau, H. (1989) On the Duty of Civil Disobedience Chicago, Charles H. Kerr Publishing Company

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