The Ethics behind Antigone and Home Fire

The Ethics behind Antigone and Home Fire:

9th March 2020

Throughout Antigone and Home Fire, the morality of the decisions made by characters have been questioned. In some situations, the ethical decision to take may conflict to that of your own intuition. Relativists argue that there is no absolute truth, and the ethics behind a decision is relative to the norms of your culture. Individuals who have a conflict in their identity, such as Isma in home fire, have to choose which culture they associate the most with. Therefore, questioning Isma’s loyalty has less to do with her brother but which culture she associates herself more with. Western societal norms tend to encourage the family to speak out and doing so would be protecting the rest of there family by informing the government and providing them with assistance. On the other hand, Asian cultures such as Pakistani ones strongly believe in loyalty towards your family, even if it risks the rest of your family. Isma being raised in the United Kingdom and someone who is well-informed of the risks would ethically justify her decision by stating that she has a role as a citizen to inform society. Especially in western societies, state governments suggest that either you support the state or you are a traitor who goes against policies and is a terrorist. Informing the police about Parvaiz’s intention would be perceived as the right decision, as British intelligence would eventually find out about the situation and perhaps accuse Isma and her sister for hiding such a secret. Isma being someone who has fought against the stigma against Muslim individuals is simply ensuring that the rest of the family is not held liable for Parvaiz’s decisions. In a troubling world where there is a stigma placed against minorities, one must be loyal to society in order to be loyal to there family. Parvaiz wasn’t loyal to the British community, and him leaving the UK for an extremist group meant that he not only betrayed society but his family as he’s left Aneeka and Isma in a tough place. While it must have been difficult for Isma to tell on her own brother that she raised, moral universalists would believe that this was the only right decision she could make.