How effective can a novel be at
addressing racism if the novel is not about human racism?
We have talked a lot in class about how the novel is an allegory for
racism, sexism, and discrimination within our world. Jemisin challenges the
status quo in our world without directly addressing human racism. Jemison
creates this allegory by making the treatment and experiences of characters in
the book similar to those of human experiences. Despite orgenes having magical powers that make them inhuman
they still create an allegory with oppressed people. The third emperor of the
Sanzed said that orogenes “must earn the respect which everybody else receives
by default” (76). The idea that some people are born without the same respect
and status of others, is applicable to issues in our world. There is a very
similar quote by Adichie as to how people are treated within the U.S. By seeing
orogenes oppressed in a similar manner to how black people are oprressed, the
audience is able to relate orogenes experiences to that of oprressed black
people. Orogenes learn while at the academy that “when you’re dirty, all
orgenes are dirty” (193). The way that flaws of one orogene are pushed onto all
other orogenes is similar to how minorities are treated within our society. In
the U.S. the faults of one black person are also pushed onto to other black
people and used to criticize the whole race. Thus even though the book does not
explicitly portray racism towards black people, the way that orogenes are
treated is similar to how black people are treated within the U.S. Thus
Jeminism causes the audience to relate oprressed Orogenes to black people in
the US.
Jemisin fights the
status quo of our society by demonstrating how the treatment of orgones is
morally wrong and unjustified. The novel is focused on Essun’s life. Thus
Jemisim shows the audience how a victim of the oppression within their society
is affected. Jemison shows how when racism powerful enough, it affects how
people regard themselves. For example, Essun until convinced otherwise by
Alabaster, believes that she is of a lower status than other people. The reader
sees how unfair it is that a child such as Damaya, regards herself as lesser
than other people. This creates a sympathetic response to orogenes. Feeling
sympathetic to orogenes causes the audience to also question how our society
causes black people to feel that they are at a lower status.
Thus, Jemisim fights
the status quo of racism towards black people through magical characters by
having them experience a treatment that is similar to people in our society.
The concept of a novel addressing the racism found on Earth using a separate race and futuristic time period was lost on me while reading the book; this blog post allowed me to connect the racism expressed in the novel to the racism found around the world today. Connecting the orogenes to black people seems like a stretch at first, however, using quotes like the third emperor of the Sanze empire’s quote helps to connect the struggles experienced by blacks during the Jim Crow era. The point about representing your race is also a good point to connect the orogenes to black people. Showing the plot from Essun’s point of view helps to show the self-concept orogenes have in the Stillness and Jemisin shows how the self-concept of blacks is similar. Jemisin also shows the similarity between the perceptions of orogenes and the perceptions of blacks during the Jim Crow era. By writing the book in this manner, she allows people who do not come from that background to look through the lens of someone who is actively discriminated against in the Stillness and the connection that has to oppressed minorities today. The little excerpts at the end of the chapters also show the founding principles of the Stillness and are able to be extrapolated to oppressed peoples in the modern world.
ReplyDeleteI think it was really interesting and important that this blog post connected a concept from this novel to Adichie’s novel that we read earlier in the year. I think the part when orogenes the flaws of one orogene are attached to all orogenes relates back to how Adichie describes a negative experience with one black person can cause people to think negatively about all black people. Specifically when she discusses tipping at restaurants and how black people must all tip well otherwise if one black person or table doesn’t then the rest of the black customers that come in will experience bad service from the waiter/waitress. I think this is an important connection because when connecting Adichie’s real world example with the orogene characters in this book one can see how the race allegory is developed. Orogenes have these magical powers that can be dangerous but that does not mean that all are. However the use of the powers from one orogene or few orogenes as can be seen in the book cause the entire race to be oppressed and abused. The commentary on this aspect of racism is an important one that is expressed throughout the novel. A foundational component of racism is this idea of projecting negative traits of one onto the many and treating the entire race as such and this can be seen in Jemisin’s race allegory with the orogenes.
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