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How to Define Freedom
If any theory about humanity could be deduced from this collection it would be that humans are obsessed with freedom. As Meroe in “The Trojan Girl” remarks when considering his pack alongside another, “They all hoped for the same things, they all wanted to be free” (144). Enri, in “Walking Awake” makes a similar comment when discussing the desires of him and the other child wards: “all [we] can think about is how much [we] want to be free” (219). It’s clear that no matter what corner of the universe or in which time period a being dwells, freedom is the most sought-after condition.
Unfortunately, this simple desire is hard to come by since what defines freedom so often changes. For some, freedom is the ability to have choice. For example, in the utopia of Um-Helat, both choosing to fly and choosing not to fly are “honored” (2). The inhabitants’ choices are not limited by others’ judgement and thus “every child knows opportunity” (4). The girl in “Stone Hunger” also gets her taste of true freedom not when she is running wild and unsupervised, but when she is given “options” (278).
For others, freedom means an escape from life. For example, in “Red Dirt Witch,” Emmaline—forced into a life of servitude and solitude because of the color of her skin—finds death desirable since it frees her from these constraints. For others, freedom means an escape from the bonds of religion. This is true in “The Trojan Girl” as the characters long to be free of the gods who created them, and in “The Narcomancer” where the bonds of Cet’s religion nearly keep him from love.
Freedom can mean escape from financial burdens, and for some, freedom is the ability to have an opinion. Freedom can also entail having the ability to choose who one loves. All three of these concepts are explored in “The Effluent Engine” where Eugenie must decide between the freedom that comes from financial security or the freedom that stems from intellectual and emotional support.
Freedom can also mean self-sustainability, as is the case for Tookie, who can’t feel happy until his freedom is a result of his own hard work in “Sinners, Saints, Dragons, and Haints, in the City Beneath the Still Waters,” and for Sadie in “Walking Awake” who realizes that those without masters are capable of great things, such as building “vehicles […] roads [and a] whole city” (229). This collection demonstrates the connection between freedom and human happiness, as well as how subjective the definition of freedom can be.
The Power of Classism to Dehumanize
While many facets contribute to the objectification of human beings, class is one of the most prevalent indicators of how a human will be treated. This collection showcases just how dehumanizing classism can be. For example, Franca in “L’Alchimista” almost doesn’t feed the man who eventually makes her a fortune simply because he appears poor. Due to his low-class appearance, Franca questions whether the man deserves to eat. The White Woman in “Red Dirt Witch” also thinks that lower class people do not deserve the same respect she does, and therefore dangles her wealth in front of them to get what she wants.
Most of Jemisin’s characters are victims of classism rather than perpetrators of it. For instance, the homeless narrator in “The City Born Great” feels so dehumanized he would rather have the upper classes mock him than ignore him, because it would at least prove his human existence. He says, “even if all they do is drag me off…they should react to me” (29). He describes his existence as a member of the lower class by saying as a homeless person, one is “hungry and tired all the time, scared all the time, never safe […] nobody values you” (22).
It isn’t only poor adults who are shunned for their class, but poor children as well. As Zinhle learns in “Valedictorian,” “[n]obody cared if poor children got locked away in institutions or left out on the streets to shiver and starve” (165). The last story, “Sinners, Saints, Dragons, and Haints, in the City Beneath the Still Waters” demonstrates once again how poor people are treated like trash, not sentient beings. As Tookie, Miss Mary, and Dre demonstrate, those who are poor during natural disasters are left without a way to escape, are ignored by the government, are left unfed by the rescue teams, and are in general left to die and wash out to sea with the rest of the detritus. It’s clear that while the upper class continues to treat the lower class like objects, Gimmen’s claim in “The Narcomancers” that some people “are too poor to survive” remains true (321).
The Dehumanizing Power of Racism
Racism is prevalent across the globe, and one of the reasons it is so powerful is because it dehumanizes people, making it easier to cause suffering and not feel guilt or shame about it. Racism’s power to dehumanize comes up often throughout this collection. “Red Dirt Witch,” for example, takes place during the time of segregation in America when the law itself verified that white people were superior to people of other races. Emmaline must fear for her children’s safety since white people are upset simply because black children are now “sitting next to,” “competing against,” and “befriending” white children (38). Pauline, Emmaline’s daughter, experiences this objectification firsthand when she asks for a truck driver’s fallen fruit, knowing he would let her keep it because a “white man wouldn’t want” something she “touched” (39). The White Lady who arrives at Emmaline and Pauline’s house does so with a little African American girl in tow. Having suffered so much already from the white woman’s wrath, the little girl’s walk is more of a “twitch” as “if she jerked on strings” (44). The fact that the little girl moves more like a puppet than a human is further proof of racism’s dehumanizing force.
In “Sinners, Saints, Dragons, and Haints, in the City Beneath the Still Waters,” Tookie’s childhood was jammed full of people telling him he wasn’t capable enough and telling him he was a “nigga” (377). These two elements connote ways that racism robs its victims of their humanity. Later, when Tookie is an adult and a deadly hurricane crushes his hometown of New Orleans, he is repeatedly reminded of his place as an object. He—as well as the other black people in his neighborhood—are ignored by the rescue helicopters. If they are noticed, it is only so the rescue team can snap pictures of them in their suffering and keep them as objects forever. Additionally, the African Americans have several possible routes of escape closed to them because cops will more likely kill than help them. Everywhere Tookie and his black counterparts look appears to be a dead end, cut off by a racist white ruling class who refuses to see them as anything other than vermin.
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By N. K. Jemisin
