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Loyalty and Sacrifice in Literature (Antigone (Antigone is a brave fighter…

- - - - Category #5: Identity
        
        Culture and religion contribute to one's identity/sense of self. One shows true resilience when they stay to true to themselves, despite being rejected from the World. When our identity/ individual conscience is rejected by the authority of the state, do we alter who we are to "fit in"? If we change, are we being losing loyalty to our home community (friends, family, etc.)?
      - Category #6: Oppression/Exclusion
        
        Characters in the novel experience adversity and are treated different because of their religious beliefs. In fact, they have become a part of the minority population. It is this distinguishing factor that causes one to feel like they don't belong. It is probably also this factor that causes one to be more loyal to one entity (such as being more loyal to the state/one in power) rather than to another (such as being less loyal to your home community, family, and loved ones).
      - Category #4: Family and Relationships
        
        Those we share interpersonal relationships with can influence and how we perceive ourselves and the choices we make in the name of love. It is clear that these relationships contribute to one's understanding of who they are, what their place in this world is, and what their limits are as human beings.
      - Category #3: Loyalty
        
        Throughout the events of the novel, the author shows how it can be difficult to maintain loyalty to multiple entities at the same time. The characters attempt to be loyal to their families, their communities, their countries, and their faiths, but these loyalties often require conflicting actions and attitudes.How do conflicting or multiple loyalties influence the struggle between individual conscience and the authority of the state?
      - Category #2: Idea of Home
        
        Home can act as congenial location of sanctuary that unites families together or acts as an escape from the world. What happens we reject who we love and who were are loyal to? It is also important to keep in mind that there is a distinguishing factor between home and family. People to correlate the two but one have a home and not a family, or one can have a family, but not a place to call home.
      - Category #1: Love
        
        Whether love bonds together family members or two people in a relationship, it has the power to unite people together, regardless of their distance apart from each other.
        
        Making Sacrifices in the Name of Love
        
        Aspect #2: Detriments
        
        When it comes to sacrifice, yes one may attain a dear object, but prior to this reception, one must surrender/give something up entirely and permanently. Additionally, what someone attains through sacrifice may not always be a positive thing. For example, one may have to give up a lot to only receive something small in return.
        
        Aspect #3: Selflessness
        
        Through sacrifice, is one considered to be a selfless person because they are giving something up? One who sacrifices in considered selfless if they give a large amount for something small in return.
        
        Aspect 1: Benefits
        
        When it comes to sacrifice, one of the few benefits that comes with choosing to do so is attaining some higher advantage. Additionally, what one has to sacrifice isn't always something bad/ something that results in a severe deprivation.
        
        Aspect #4: Selfishness
        
        Through sacrifice, is one considered to be selfish if the mere purpose that they are giving up something is to attain something better for themselves? One who sacrifices is considered to be selfish if they repeatedly give up something small for something big.
  - - - The author uses this theme to depict the state as a perpetrator of injustice and xenophobia.
        
        Karamat Lone, the British home secretary is the primary representative of the state, pitting him against Aneeka Pasha in her battle to have her brother Parvaiz's body returned to England. Lone is unaware that Parvaiz was fleeing ISIS when he was killed, and he likely would not care, therefore he revokes Parvaiz's British citizenship and sends his body to Pakistan. Aneeka flies to Karachi to intercept the body and stage a protest against the state on the lawn of the British embassy, where she is killed by a terrorist bomb meant for Lone's son Eamonn.
      - The state's xenophobic practices are established at the outset of the novel by Isma's treatment at the airport while attempting to fly to America. She is detained, questioned for hours, and her belongings are rifled through by security. The reader is told that she and Aneeka, who is a law student, have practiced and prepared for such interrogations repeatedly, as their skin color and Muslim garb makes them frequent targets of scrutiny.
        
        When Aneeka learns that Isma alerted the authorities about their brother's whereabouts, she is furious, as she believes it a betrayal of the family and the faith. Isma responds, “We're in no position to let the state question our loyalties...If you cooperate it makes a difference” (44). Neither of them are right or wrong, but Isma is naive to express belief in the benevolence of the state when it comes to the treatment of Muslims, cooperative or not. Their different approaches to this problem are evident in their responses to Parvaiz's death. Isma goes to Karamat Lone to plead for the return of the body – she believes she can make a difference through rational discussion. Aneeka sees the need for direct action, hence her dramatic protest in Karachi at the embassy.
      - Karamat Lone is a shrewd politician who, the author implies, has sold out his religion and the immigrant community. After a scandal where he was seen entering a mosque known for its controversial and radical imam, Lone has been embracing a secular image and arguing for immigrants to make better efforts at integrating into British society. These arguments often come in the form of disrespectful, xenophobic remarks. While addressing a group of Muslim students, he instructs, “Don't set yourself apart in the way you dress, the way you think, the outdated codes of behavior you cling to, the ideologies to which you attach your loyalties” (90). These remarks are viewed, accurately, as a denunciation of Muslim beliefs and culture and evidence that Lone is a shill for the state.
      - Lone's sermonizing can be connected to Farooq's recruitment of Parvaiz for ISIS. Farooq explains Britain's history of imperialism and its “civilizing mission” of conquering (and often forcibly converting) Muslims abroad (131). This is the same kind of cultural suppression (on a larger scale) for which Lone is arguing in favor.
        
        Therefore Parvaiz believes he is protesting the oppressive state by joining ISIS. Parvaiz is receptive to these messages because his father was a jihadi, and Parvaiz wants to believe he died fighting for something legitimate, and because he has faced racism and xenophobia in his own life in Britain. “So this is how it felt to have a nation that wielded its sword on your behalf,” he thinks, regarding ISIS (152). Parvaiz feels more at home with Farooq's ideology, where he is not viewed with suspicion or as a potential enemy of the state.
        
        When he realizes his terrible mistake too late, he is outside the British Consulate, fixated on the symbols of the state he took for granted: “...the red, white, and blue flag...cheerful in all its colors...Mo Farah at the Olympics, Aunty Naseem's commemorative cake tin from the Queen's Golden Jubilee” (183). The author's message is that, while these issues within the state are extremely problematic, embracing radicalism is not the answer.
    - - Throughout the events of the novel, the author shows how it can be difficult to maintain loyalty to multiple entities at the same time. The characters attempt to be loyal to their families, their communities, their countries, and their faiths, but these loyalties often require conflicting actions and attitudes.
      - When Aneeka learns that Isma has informed the government about Parvaiz joining ISIS, she sees this as Isma betraying the family. Isma does not see it this way; she believes she has protected herself and Aneeka from retaliatory actions by the government by being cooperative and helpful. Both are trying to be loyal to family, but they are at odds about precisely what loyalty means in such a difficult, morally murky situation.
      - Eamonn is loyal to his father until he meets and falls in love with Aneeka. When Isma makes it clear that she disapproves of Karamat Lone's political opinions, Eamonn argues that his father is doing the best he can in support of “Public service, national good, [and] British values” (53). However, after his father revokes Parvaiz's citizenship and refuses to allow him to be buried on British soil, Eamonn chooses to be loyal to Aneeka. Knowing exactly how disastrous it will be for his father's political career, he goes to Karachi to join Aneeka in her protest, and subsequently dies there.
      - Isma is correct in her opinion of Karamat Lone. Not only has he abandoned his Muslim beliefs in order to advance his political career, he has encouraged others to do the same. He then begins revoking the citizenship of individuals with suspected terrorist ties. These actions are disloyal to the religion in which he was raised and the immigrant community of which he is a part, assimilated though he may be.
        
        When he tells the group of students that they should not differentiate themselves by their dress or their attitudes, he may believe that he is speaking in their best interest and arguing in favor of loyalty to Britain, but he is in fact arguing in favor of suppression and a homogenized culture. Had Karamat chosen to be loyal to his son and/or the Muslim/immigrant community, he might have acquiesced to Aneeka's plea to bury her brother in England. He chooses his political career instead and his son is killed as a result.
      - Parvaiz's decision to join ISIS is certainly an act of disloyalty to his country, but he is disgruntled for some legitimate reasons, like the unjust treatment of Muslims by British authorities. He is also disgruntled for not so legitimate reasons, as he believes Isma's act of renting out their house to be an act of disloyalty. This is part of what makes him so receptive to Farooq's recruitment tactics.
        
        He is angry that Isma is going to America and Aneeka is studying law, as he believes they are embracing westernized culture and consequently being disloyal to the Muslim community. Farooq takes advantage of Parvaiz's need to belong, and cultivates a loyalty to the cause of radical Islam. When Parvaiz comes to his senses and tries to flee, this is viewed by Farooq and ISIS leadership as an act of grave disloyalty, and he is killed for it.