Civil Disobedience

Civil Disobedience The works of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Nonviolent Resistance,” Natasha Bedingfield’s song “Unwritten,” and Sophocles’ play Anitgone all exhibit a common theme: the idea of civil disobedience. All three works express the idea that people cannot abide by the decisions of others but rather make their decisions themselves. Speaking of the Negro man, Martin Luther King, Jr. stated that “he cannot listen to the glib suggestion of those who would urge him to migrate en masse to other sections of the country” (King, Jr. 160). Natasha Bedingfield, in a song written for her younger brother, tells him that “no one else can speak the words on [his] lips” (Bedingfield). Infuriated at the fact that Creon will not bury her brother, Antigone tells her sister Ismene that “what Creon says is quite irrelevant. He is my brother, and I will bury him” (Sophacles 4). Martin Luther King, Jr. expresses that the Negro cannot listen to those who want him to move, as Bedingfield states in her song that no one can speak for you; King, Jr. says listen to no one, and Bedingfield says let no one speak for you. Wanting to share her view that Creon’s word is not as powerful as the gods’ law, Antigone tells her sister that Creon’s laws and opinions will not affect her decision in burying her brother, showing that she does not let others affect who she is and what she does. As intended by the authors, these compositions also express disobedience to unjust and unfair notions. “Nonviolent Resistance contains a proposal that “[the Negroes and he] will not obey unjust laws or submit to unjust practices” (King, Jr. 161). Bedingfield sings in her song “Unwritten” that people have “been conditioned to not make mistakes, but [she] can’t live that way” (Bedingfield).Antigone stood up to Creon, her uncle, for her belief that his laws were unjust: “I don’t consider your pronouncements so important that they can just…overrule the unwritten laws of heaven” (Sophacles 12). Both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Antigone believe that they are being forced to obey unfair laws, and they push to put an end to it. In Bedingfield’s song, she states that she cannot live in the same way that other people do, because they live in ways others want them to only because society does not want people to make mistakes. This idea takes away some freedom and creativity of the human mind. A need to be governed and ordered by nobody but oneself is expressed in these examples. Throughout the extent of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Nonviolent Resistance,” Natasha Bedingfield’s “Unwritten,” and Sophocles’ “Antigone,” the specific quotes in the text of these works clearly express the theme of civil disobedience.