Aneeka and Antigone

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After reading Antigone, I have noticed a lot of similarities between the character Aneeka in Home Fire and Antigone in Antigone. Right off the bat, I noticed that there was a lot of character and personality similarities. If we were to go more based on the structure of the characters or their role in the play, Aneeka was the one who openly wanted to seek justice for her brother and be able to bury him in London with her mother. Antigone, wanted to properly and ceremoniously bury her brother despite the law prohibiting her from doing it. In both stories these two characters are the ones to go against the law of their times and do what they believed to be right. In both cases neither of the characters backed down. They did everything in their power to get the justice they believed their brother deserved.

    Something that I also notice right away between these two characters, is that they both have this prevailing attitude and strong-willed, willing to do whatever it takes to do what needs to be done in their eyes. Especially, after reading Antigone, it answered my question on Aneeka's own behavior. Without much context on Antigone, I was sort of confused about Aneeka's character. In my eyes at least, she was such an odd character and acted in ways that I never quite have seen, experienced, or read about before. She was emotionally vibrant and reckless yet at the same time she was smart and crafty. I have never quite seen a character woven quite like Aneeka before. After reading Antigone though, I was able to see how Shamsie adapted Antigone's character into a more modern and complex character in Aneeka. 

    Perhaps it is because Antigone and Aneeka are quite different then myself, but just reading about their characters and their motivations have never quite seemed right for me. It's like they were full of blunt talk and action, but I never quite understood their thought process and motivation behind their actions. For instance, Aneeka always talked about how much she loved Parvaiz and after reading her section and her actions, it is understood that she really did care for him deeply, but, perhaps because I can't quite get Aneeka's character, that I never truly felt the emotion behind her actions. It seems obvious that she loved him but to me is seems it was a more selfish love. She made Parvaiz a part of her and, to me at least, she mourned that it was gone more than her brother himself. But that is just my personal opinion about Aneeka. Shamsie does make Aneeka far more relatable and easier to sympathize with then Antigone. Antigone herself I do not quite understand either. I get that her motivation was to do what she believed was right, but it does make me wonder behind her actual emotions she feels for her brother who the entire city called a traitor. There just doesn't seem to have the same emotion backing in the characters motivation that Shamsie added to Aneeka.