Antigone: Current Events & Pop Culture

Antigone Meets the Streets: Service Learning in a Classic Context

Antigone tends to be the favorite reading of students in this teacher's service-learning class – even when compared with works such as Invisible Man, the Autobiography of Malcolm X, and Race Matters. The teacher explores why in this article: students find relevance in a story which asks critical questions about our daily life, including:

• What is our obligation to family? To the gods? To the State?
• What is the nature of loyalty? What are its limits? What is a friend?
• What is a community? What are our obligations to community members?
• What is justice?
• What is the purpose of death?

Robert Anderson gives interesting examples of real-life applications of these questions as they relate to poverty, homelessness, abortion, and other important social issues discussed in his classroom.