Authority

Essay # 100022

African-American Studies > Historical Figures
Film
Literature > Greek and Roman

Authority

An examination of the legitimacy of authority and how it is viewed by the people, according to three works.

1,974 words () | 5 sources | MLA | 2007 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the legitimacy of authority. It considers three types of justification of authority and concludes that their success depends on whether the individual feels that the authority is supportive of themselves and their community. It focuses on the three works "Antigone," by Sophocles, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from the Birmingham Jail," and the movie "Fight Club," directed by David Fincher. The paper also looks at where authority can be derived from and whether it remains legitimate in all circumstances.

From the Paper:

"In Fight Club, the narrator (the main character) feels no connection to any community. The authority of the government and even of his boss at work have no hold on him because he lacks any kind of human connection. He is so alienated that he goes to support groups for people with terminal diseases in an effort to feel any kind of connection. He creates (unknowingly) an alter ego named Tyler Durden who becomes his primary connection, and through that connection he creates a community based on resistance to the culture around him. Tyler Durden gives the main character the strength to "opt out" of the society around him, and he becomes a replaces it with the Fight Club. This touches the lives of other men who are similarly alienated and an alternative society, with its own system of meaning and structure of authority is born. "The first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule is that you do not talk about Fight Club" (Norton, Fight Club). When the movie ends, it is not at all clear what will replace the society that Fight Club was created to destroy. Its laws are based on destruction and resistance, and so it is hard to envision a positive program coming out of it."

Sample of Sources Used:

Fight Club. David Fincher. Edward Norton, Brad Pitt. Art Linson Productions, Fox 2000 Pictures, Regency Enterprises, Taurus Film. 1999.
Hobbes, Thomas. "The Leviathan."1660. Oregon State University. 15 Oct. 2007 <http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/hobbes/leviathan-contents.html>.
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 1968. The Social Contract. Translated by Maurice Cranston. Penguin Putnam Inc., New York, NY.
Sohpocles. 1984. "Antigone." The Three Theban Plays. Translated by Robert Fagles. Penguin Group Inc., New York, NY.
Wu, Ona. "Martin Luther King Jr., Letter From a Birmingham Jail." The Nobel Prize Internet Archive. Almaz Enterprises. 12 Sept. 2007 <www.almaz.com/nobel/peace/MLK-jail.html>.