Short, But Not Exactly Sweet

We’ve got two featherweights this month. The first, Antigone by Sophocles, weighs in at just over fifty pages, and the second, the essay “On Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau, is a mere thirty-two. But don’t let their lengths deceive you! A short selection does not always equal a quick read. And despite the cliché “short and sweet,” neither of these are that, either.

These are two seriously challenging texts, and if you wait until the last minute to read them, you may finish, sure, but you probably won’t have a very good understanding of what you’ve just read.

One thing that will help with the challenge of reading and comprehending these works (aside from starting early and taking your time with them) is a little background. So here you go.

A Little Background – First Up: Antigone

Written by the Greek author Sophocles in about 500 B.C.E., Antigone is part of a cycle of plays referred to as “The Theban Plays.” That’s because they’re all set in and around Thebes, a city in Ancient Greece.

Chronologically in the series, Antigone comes last, but, like Star Wars: A New Hope, it was written before the dramas that come before it. In order, the three plays are:

Oedipus the King

Oedipus at Colonus

Antigone

Even so, we can’t really call the plays that were written after—and yet come before—Antigone in the timeline "prequels." Why? Because all three plays retell segments of a Greek myth that existed before Sophocles got his hands on it. He just put his own spin on the tale by creating these three plays and his version of the myth turned out to be the most widely read and popular.

All three plays can be read on their own, but if you’re starting with something other than the King, which we are, it’s useful to know this: 

• Oedipus seriously messes up in the first play (exactly as a prophecy said he would), and as a result, he and all of his kin are pretty much cursed. In Antigone, we see how the sins of the father (in this case Oedipus) are visited upon his children: his daughters, Ismene and Antigone, and his sons, Polyneices and Eteocles (who are dead at the start of the play, so yeah, cursed).
• Polyneices and Eteocles are dead because they went to war against each other and killed one another in hand to hand combat. Why the war? Because they both wanted to be king. This, too (the battle and their deaths), was foreseen in a prophecy.

That’s enough to get you through, but if you want the whole backstory, check out Shmoop's summary of Oedipus the King  and the CBHS (which I had hoped was Casco Bay High School but turns out to be Christian Brothers High School) summary of Oedipus at Colonus. 

Next (and Last) Up – “On Civil Disobedience”

There’s less you need to know for this one to make sense.

“On Civil Disobedience” is an essay by Henry David Thoreau, and it, along with the book Walden, are his two most well known works. Thoreau was a philosopher and writer who had a lot to say about America’s public institutions, particularly its government. He was big on individualism (the phrase “march to the beat of a different drummer” was paraphrased from his writings) and self-reliance, as you will quickly learn. Like, in the first lines of the essay.

One more thing: It may help to know that Thoreau lived from 1817 to 1862, which means that both slavery and the Mexican-American war were hot-button issues in his day. Therefore it’s no surprise that both of them receive attention in “On Civil Disobedience.”

Okay. Let’s leave it there and get to …

T H E   A S S I G N M E N T S

In honor of this month's selections, I'm going to keep the assignment list short, too. (You can decide how sweet you think these options are.)

Ready?

Do one of the following for our meeting:

OPTION A:
Write a letter that is either:

1. from Henry David Thoreau to one of the characters in Antigone, or 
2. from one of the characters in Antigone to H.D.T.

In this letter, the writer should be "passing judgment," so to speak, on the addressee. For example, Mr. T could write to Antigone expressing his support for or condemnation of her actions and explaining why he feels the way he does about the choices she's made. Or, Creon, say, could let Thoreau know what he thinks about citizens who diss their governments and elected leaders and refuse to pay their taxes.

OPTION B:
Choose a quote from "On Civil Disobedience" or Antigone and link it to a current event. If possible, bring in a news clipping (or article printed from an online source) relating to the current event. If you have no clipping, write a brief paragraph summarizing the current event. At our meeting, share both the quote you've chosen and your information on the current event and explain how you believe the two are related.

OPTION C:
Something clever of your own invention.

Happy reading, and I'll see you on Thursday!