Week 4: Antigone and Home Fire: The Dead and Disgraced Brother

     Between Antigone and Home Fire, the thing I was most interested in comparing is Antigone’s Polyneices and Home Fire’s Parvaiz. Both of these characters are considered enemies of the state, killed and refused burial in their home country. They also have sisters that fight for his right to be buried in his homeland. It is clear that they serve the same purpose in their respective stories, but with one major difference. Antigone begins after Polyneices is dead, and we never see anything regarding his perspective or thoughts on the matter. Conversely, Home Fire goes a large portion of the book without getting Parvaiz’s perspective— but once we do, it is in full force. He takes up a major portion of the book, and we get to see his motivations, beliefs, family relations, character growth, etc. I much prefer the Antigone moment coming later in the story, as it gives us time to understand and empathize with Parvaiz before his death and denial, and we may even feel angry for him as Aneeka does. With the character of Antigone, we understand her desire to give her brother a proper burial, but don’t have much emotional connection outside of that. In Home Fire, the unshakable bond of twins resonates throughout the text, and I feel that this specific aspect is executed better than in Antigone.

Comments

  1. Critical Thinkers and WritersOctober 25, 2022 at 9:46 AM

    A good observation--some of this is the historical and cultural difference between an ancient and modern worldview and subjects. The latter have an interiority that the former do not in texts.

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