Samira Ahmed’s realistic fiction novel, Love, Hate, and Other Filters, takes place in modern-day Chicago where a suicide bombing has engrossed the attention of America. Maya Aziz, a Muslim teenager, is targeted for her heritage while attempting to lead a life free of high school drama, controlling parents, and difficult relationships. As Maya copes with Islamophobia, prejudice against Muslims, she begins to understand the horrors and shortcomings of violence. One lesson the story suggests is that hatred is an infectious and blinding motive. From the very beginning of the story, readers are familiarized with the source of terrorism through thorough description and sentence structure. First, before the terrorist attack, a flashback is provided: “Too late to disappear. Dammit. I’ve told you a million times not to play in the house. You’re going to pay for that, boy, the man yells as he loosens his belt and wraps it a couple times around his hand to get a tight grip. …show more content…
Hate and violence both tend to spread like a disease. When hatred is introduced to an individual, he/she often cannot see past this burning motive - they yearn for revenge. Hatred and violence become a means of getting what someone wants. Author Samira Ahmed further elaborates on this topic: “In recent times, we’ve seen hate emerge out of the dark corners, torches blazing in the night. We’ve witnessed so-called leaders not merely against the forces of hate, but for equality and justice. Bigotry may run through the American grain, but so too does resistance. We know the world we are fighting for” (277). Ahmed introduces the importance of peace in a crowd filled with hatred. People have the power to destroy hate before it transforms them into ugly and regretful individuals. In the end, it comes down to whether individuals are willing to help themselves and others control themselves under the influence of