Over the course of history, there have been countless times where society has fought for their freedom. When Martin Luther King Jr. said, "Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed,” he means people will never hand you what you want unless you insist upon it, in this case, freedom. In order to gain freedom or independence, you must fight for what you believe in. If you are not willing to fight or stand up for your own opinion then why will anyone else do it for you? Nothing will ever change in society if you don’t speak up and voice your opinion. Instead, you must demand a change and as a result these changes will occur.
In the play “Antigone”, by Sophocles, a major cause of struggle between the King of Thebes, Creon, and Antigone is related to their respective gender. Creon does not want to go back on his word of a death sentence for the person who committed the crime of burying Polyneices, especially since that person was a woman. Creon says, “So we must stand on the side of what is orderly; we cannot give victory to a woman (Sophocles 1147).” Creon wants to obey the law he set out for the city and he wants to hold true to his statement even more due to the fact that Antigone is a woman. But Antigone would not go down without a fight. Antigone did not believe that what she did was wrong and ultimately made her own decision of committing suicide instead of obeying the king and accepting her death sentence. Antigone’s freedom was dying on her own terms instead of being oppressed by the King of Thebes.
A movie that relates to the Martin Luther King Jr. quote is The Shawshank Redemption. The main character in the movie, Andy Dufrense, is wrongfully sentence to life in prison for murdering his wife for cheating on him. Andy showed extreme dedication, commitment and hard work while in prison. He managed to get a new library for the prison so he could study whenever he wanted to. He didn’t let the fact that he was in prison break his spirit; instead he was committed to fight for his freedom. In the end Andy escapes the prison from a tunnel he built while inside the prison for over twenty years and ultimately was a free man.
No comments:
Post a Comment