Crime is Pride

Think: all men make mistakes

But a good man yields when he

Knows his course is wrong,

And repairs the evil: The only

Crime is pride.

                The excerpt from Antigone implies that although all men make mistakes, but not all men are perfect. There are those who have a conscious, and know what they are doing; and there are also those that do the evil things that are discussed in line four of the excerpt, who do not have a conscious, and do not recognize what they are doing. The final line of the excerpt states “The only crime is pride” which means that even though man can do great things, they can still be self-centered enough to feel pride over what they had done rather than the feeling of greatness for accomplishing something for someone else.

                I know from personal experience that people make mistakes, and I assume all of us do. It could be something as simple as missing one point on a test, or it could be something much more serious, but we have all made some sort of mistake at some point in our life. I would find it hard to believe that there are people out there who don’t make mistakes- there’s a reason there is a backspace button on keyboards. People are known to make mistakes, but that doesn’t mean you are a bad person. Lines two and three of the excerpt support this, as they say that good people know when they are doing the wrong thing. Making a mistake on a test is one thing, but making a much more serious mistake, such as one that could affect another person, is what these two lines are talking about.

                I agree with the final statement from this excerpt. The only crime is pride is very true- to an extent. It is true for those who know what they are doing right, and still choose to take pride in it; but for those who know or don’t know what they are doing is wrong, the statement is false. For those doing wrong, their list of crimes is longer than just one word: pride. Those who do good for others and still choose to take pride in themselves are committing a crime; it is a small one, but it is a crime all the same. These people should feel pride in others, not be self-centered enough to feel pride in themselves. The only crime is pride: in a sense, yes it is. But for those who do not follow the rest of the poem, this statement couldn’t be more false.

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