Layla and Manjun Love

 Shamsie used Layla and Majnun in her story as the love relationship between Eamonn and Aneeka. Manjun loves Layla, but after being deemed crazy by society, Layla’s parents rejected the marriage proposal. Manjun and Layla continue to love each other through and even when Manjun was forced by his parents to go to the Kaaba, a holy Islam site, to lose his obsession with Layla, Manjun prays to be 100x more obsessed. Eventually, after Layla dies, Manjun kills himself when he finds her grave. This story relates to Eamonn and Aneeka but in a kind of gender role flip. Aneeka is deemed crazy by society because she is Muslim and her brother and father are both jihadis. Eamonn’s father is the one who rejects their marriage even though Eamonn loves Aneeka because of the fact that Aneeka’s brother and father are both jihadis. Then Eamonn’s father sends Eamonn on vacation to hopefully lose his love for Aneeka, but it ends up causing Eamonn to still love her even more and eventually go to find her in the Middle East, even though it could potentially cause his death. He does eventually find her and when he does they die together from explosives. In both cases, two characters were not able to marry because society deems one as not suitable for the other and the parents of one agree with society. However, both characters continue to love one another even through all the trials and die together as lovers. Shamsie’s adaptation of Layla and Manjun’s love into her story through Eamonn and Aneeka was, in my opinion, portrayed perfectly.

Comments

  1. CassiOctober 9, 2022 at 9:08 AM

    Hi Paulos! I agree, especially with your last statement. When I first read the passage about these Layla and Majnun, I didn't think much of it. However, after reading through the story in class, it was really cool to see all of the parallels (just like you explained) that I had missed throughout the whole book! Thanks for sharing all of this!

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  2. Gema Sanchez GamezOctober 9, 2022 at 5:48 PM

    Hi Paulos! I think it's super important that you touch on the role of parent's in their children's relationships. Although children should be completely free to choose the person that truly complements them, they also seem to have to choose the person that perfectly complements their whole family. This search for autonomy ultimately ends in tragedy because people's worldview couldn't expand to fit Aneeka and Eamonn's love into it.

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  3. Eloise DanielloOctober 10, 2022 at 12:19 AM

    Hey Paulos! This post perfectly portrays the similarities. I, too, think that Shamsie connected these two stories with grace and made them similar enough to see the inspiration without copying it. The ending really solidifies the similarities with their tragic deaths.

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