Importance of family in Antigone and A Rose for EmilyAs much as society tries to deny the fact that the family one comes from determines one's destiny, in almost all cases the fact is true. Today we see how infants born into wealthy families are treated differently from children born into drug- and disease-stricken poverty. Upper class people stand out much more in society, both locally and nationally, than the average middle class working family. In Sophocles' play Antigone, Antigone is unable to hide who she is, and the family she comes from determines how she is treated among its people. Similarly, in William Faulkner's A Rose for Emily, a woman who has always been protected by her father and never had the opportunity to flourish on her own, becomes a hermit in her own society. The family she was born into created barriers that she was unable to overcome. Birthright is the driving force that Antigone and Emily face in their stories, and the authors, Sophocles and Faulkner, both use this concept to convey a strong message. Antigone is a young woman whose moral baggage leads her to go against the king's will. to bury his brother, Polyneices. Sophocles uses Antigone as a character who undergoes an irreversible change in judgment and ultimately dies. Antigone is a heroine and she represents honor and divinity. Because Antigone's parents were Oedipus and Iacasta, she was born into a powerful family; something she couldn't change. Sometimes Sophocles leads the reader to think that Antigone wishes she were no longer who she was. Ismene, Antigone's sister, refuses to help Antigone because (as she states) "I do not have the strength to break the laws that were...... middle of paper... ...that undermine a character's right. In Antigone, Antigone uses the power of her family name to go against the king's wishes in order to simply give her brother a proper burial. A Rose for Emily, William Faulkner shows the vast influence a father can have on his daughter is dead, his strong dominating presence is still very much alive in Emily The theme of birthright in both stories is evident in the measure. where Antigone goes against the common way only because of who she is, and Emily hides from society because she doesn't know any other way to live. Faulkner, William. from Abcarian and Koltz, “Literature: Reading and Writing the Human Experience” Sophocles. Literature: Reading and Writing the Human Experience. " St. Martins Press. 1998.