Civil disobedience is the term for the refusal to follow certain laws in a peaceful form of political protest. With diverse use of literary devices such as rhetorical questions, allusions, and imagery, authors such as Henry David Thoreau, Martin Luther King Jr., and Sophocles are able to give the reader personal insight into why they believe civil disobedience is necessary in each of the respective companies. After reading several sources, it is evident that civil disobedience is necessary for change to occur anywhere. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Starting from the first source written by Sophocles, the protagonist Antigone shows us the reader how to increase civil disobedience in her tyrant empire, it was the only way to make everyone understand the importance of her actions. Using the rhetorical question in episode 2, “Who among us can say what the gods deem evil?” She asks Creon who the gods would consider the worst, her or him. All because he wanted to bury his brother, which was against the law. Antigone burying her brother was breaking the law, and since she did so voluntarily and at her own peril, it counts as civil disobedience. The gods will not punish her because she is doing the right thing, so by asking Creon who the “evil” one is, she gives the whole thing back to him and allows him to think about the unjust things he has done. In addition to using RQs, Sophocles also uses allusions to Ares, the god of war to show the beginning of the play which raised the whole action of Antigone burying her brother. The quote is: "A forbidding city stands (..)". By confronting Ares with the problem his brothers had with each other, he made the reader understand why the whole situation was unfair and what Antigone did was right. Breaking the law peacefully ultimately brought Creon to a realization. Following the second source written by MLK JR., he writes his letters from prison to get the people of Birmingham to understand his and his followers' motive to directly take action in civil disobedience in order to raise awareness and fight for change. For this reason, using allusion was MLK JR's choice. For example, by mentioning “Socrates”, “Reinhold Niebuhr”, “Thomas Aquinas”, great world leaders who without us would not be here, we can see the truth of what Source B is trying to convey to the people. “Socrates” himself is responsible for inventing civil disobedience. “Reinhold Niebuhr” is an American reformist theologian, he reminded people that “groups are more immoral than individuals”. Referring to the white priests who together are bringing chaos to all African American communities in the USA. Finally, "Thomas Aquinas", an Italian Catholic priest and theologian, teaches us this. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. Every segregation (...) inferiority. This means that the segregation laws in Birmingham are harming the souls and lives of so many people, that raising civil disobedience right now is everyone's best-case scenario. Continuing with the last source, written by Henry David Thoreau, he portrays in his writings that civil disobedience is necessary to fight for change in the nation's system of government. In his text he uses images to show how the government really looks in the eyes of the people. He says: “It's a kind of wooden gun for the people themselves.” Proving that people believe government is as useless as a wooden gun, so they must act on their own to make a difference in the union. Thoreau uses paradox to make a comment.
tags