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The title characters of Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie and Antigone by Sophocles face life challenges because of their identities. The characters belong to distinct periods with separate locations, but their womanhood, family duties, and moral standards determine their actions toward power relations and resistance. The padlet examines how their distinct identities determine their decisions and how they interact with their environment. exist in our present world.

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The title characters of Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie and Antigone by Sophocles face life challenges because of their identities. The characters belong to distinct periods with separate locations, but their womanhood, family duties, and moral standards determine their actions toward power relations and resistance. The padlet examines how their distinct identities determine their decisions and how they interact with their environment. exist in our present world.

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Home Fire

Set in modern London and the U.S. post-9/11.

Muslims are viewed with suspicion, especially young men like Parvaiz.

Isma faces extra checks at the airport—“They took her to a separate room for questioning... she recognized it as the familiar ritual of being marked as suspect.”

Antigone

Set in ancient Thebes after a civil war.

Creon, the king, forbids the burial of Polyneices.

Antigone defies the law to follow what she believes is right: “It was not Zeus who made that law... nor did that Justice who lives with the gods below mark out such laws.”

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Isma

Gender: Woman

Religion: Muslim

Ethnicity/Nationality: British Pakistani

Social Role: Older sister and caretaker

Class: Working class, first-generation college student

Identity Themes: Religion, gender, immigrant experience, being watched by the state

Antigone

Gender: Woman

Religion: Greek gods

Ethnicity/Nationality: Royal Theban family

Social Role: Sister, part of a cursed family

Class: Royal family, but powerless in politics

Identity Themes: Gender, family duty, moral beliefs, defying the king

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Isma is watched closely because of her Muslim identity. Even though she’s smart and tries to make a good life for herself, society treats her with suspicion and limits her freedom.

Isma is educated, yet still seen as a threat because of her religion and ethnicity.

Evidence: “She had known from the moment she started speaking that the man interviewing her at the airport had already made up his mind.”

Her brother is criminalized, and her family is viewed as dangerous by the media and the government.

Antigone has royal blood, but because she’s a woman, she doesn’t have a say in politics. Her defiance of the king shows how she’s willing to fight for what she believes is right, even if it costs her everything.

Even though she is from a royal family, her role as a woman gives her no power.

Evidence: Creon dismisses her as weak: “We must stand on the side of what is orderly... no woman shall rule while I live.”

Still, she speaks out and takes action despite knowing the punishment.

Both characters are treated unfairly by the societies they live in, yet they resist in different ways.

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Home Fire

Isma, a British Pakistani woman, is trying to move on with her life after taking care of her younger siblings. Her brother, Parvaiz, joins ISIS, and her sister, Aneeka, tries to bring him home. Their family gets caught up in the politics of national identity and security.

Antigone

After a civil war, Antigone’s brother, Polyneices, is denied a proper burial by the king, Creon. Antigone believes that it’s her moral duty to bury him, even if it means breaking the law. She is punished for her defiance, leading to tragedy for her and her family.

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Many different aspects define Isma's life, which makes her experience multiple challenges. Islamophobia puts hurdles in her path because she belongs to the Muslim faith.

The suspicious reactions against her stem from her educational background, despite her knowledge.

Judgment against Isma emerges from multiple facets of her identity as she is Muslim and a woman as well as British Pakistani.

When Eamonn’s father leverages their family for political purposes, and during her airport experience, both incidents illustrate her minimal ability to control the images others have of her.

Royal status fails to protect Antigone from being subjected to a lack of power. She prioritizes her family obligations above everything else, as well as her convictions about what is morally proper, even though it requires defying royal mandates.

The societal gender norms, along with governmental laws, force Antigone to remain suppressed.

Her refusal to stay silent stands as evidence when she declares to others, “I was born to join in love instead of hate—that is my nature.” The moral code of her family stands higher than political affairs in her view.

Both characters show how social and religious identities, together with family obligations, restrict individual action because of the way society responds to them.

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Many different aspects define Isma's life, which makes her experience multiple challenges. Islamophobia puts hurdles in her path because she belongs to the Muslim faith. The suspicious reactions against her stem from her educational background, despite her knowledge.

Royal status fails to protect Antigone from being subjected to a lack of power. She prioritizes her family obligations above everything else as well as her convictions about what is morally proper even though it requires defying royal mandates.

The characters show how social and religious identities, together with family obligations, restrict individual action because of the way society responds to them.

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hamsie, Kamila. Home Fire. Riverhead Books, 2017.

Sophocles. Antigone. Translated by Robert Fagles, The Norton Introduction to Literature, 11th ed., W.W. Norton & Company, 2012.

Crenshaw, Kimberlé. "Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color." Stanford Law Review, vol. 43, no. 6, 1991, pp. 1241–1299.