torberntsson

I have chosen the subplot about the love between Manjit and his girlfriend. I think that this is a very important subplot in the book because it makes you understand how contrary opinion Manjit and his parents have about love.

Manjit loves Lisa (his girlfriend) and she loves him, there is only one huge problem. Manjits family should never let him have a girlfriend if it is not an indian girl and the other fact is that they have already picked out a girl that he suppose to married in some years. And he do not even know that indian punjabi-girl, maybe she does not even speak english. So all because of that he is sneaking with their relationsship, so that his family do not found it out. Manjit can tell Lisa everything and she knows about the arranged marriage that he suppose to have. She tries to help him and bring him happiness, but it is not always that easy. She and he knows that if he got married they probably can not see each other no more. Manjit got to know about his arranged marriage before he met Lisa and then he had not even experienced love yet. But now when he is together with Lisa it is even worser to realize that he have to get married when he is only seventeen. He tries to tell them that he do not want this marriage, but they do not care at all. His mother only cry when he bring it up and his father tell him that he is going to ruin the honour of the family. He also have no where to go, he can not even get a job because he got kicked out of school. So he have no choice.

I think the author included this subplot because he wanted to show that it is a strict line between real love and imagination love. His parents also had an arranged marriage and they think it is good. They say to him that when you get to know the one you married, you start to love him or her. Of course you can fell in love with that person, but you would also be very pushed in to that direction. His parents maybe did not even had love before they got married and do not know how real love and pushed love is seperates.

Those who live in Sweden probably think this is crazy, just as i do. But in India and other countries around the world they think that arranged marriages are just as normal as getting married to a person you love from the beginning. I do not think i ever could marry a man that i did not know at all. I think that you have to love the one you get married with, because it is that person you are going to live with the rest of your life. The fact that you marry a person you do not know much about can lead to that you found out that the person have a personality that you hate, who knows? It is so wrong to let your parents pick your wife/husband, they have nothing to do with it. If i love somebody that i am lucky with,  my parents would be happy for me.  But if Manjit say that he loves Lisa to his parents they would be really concern and probably give him some sort of a punishment. But you can not help who you love. It is very much injustice in this world.