A Study of Characters’ Core Issues in Kamila Shamsie’s Home Fire: A Psychoanalytic Perspective

Abstract

This research article aims to explore the psyche of the main characters in Kamila Shamsie’s novel Home Fire (2017). For this purpose, the researchers have drawn on psychoanalytical theory proposed by Sigmund Freud in the late 19th century. This theory deals with the person's unconsciousness. The research is qualitative in nature. It explores the characters’ motives and actions that constitute their personality. The prominent characters of the novel like Isma, Aneeka, Eamonn, and Karamat have been analyzed in detail. The present research highlights how anxiety affects the characters’ lives and different factors such as defense mechanism, and family roles shape the psyche of the characters. The core issues which will be discussed in this study are the following; fear of intimacy, fear of abandonment, fear of betrayal, low self-esteem, and, unstable or insecure sense of self. The concept of family dynamics which is one of the basic concepts of the psychoanalytical theory of Sigmund Freud has been explored through the deep analysis of characters’ actions. Finally, it also examines how characters adopt various strategies as defense mechanism to cope with these issues.