Sky Full of Elephants

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism.

In the novel, before Vivian becomes queen of Mobile, Alabama, she’s a prominent activist. Pre-event, she leads a protest to remove the statue of Raphael Semmes, a Confederate Navy officer, in Alabama. The scene links to real life, as Alabama officials removed the statue on June 5, 2020. The removal of the statue relates to George Floyd. On May 25, 2020, a white police officer killed George Floyd in Minnesota. Floyd’s death had a consequential impact on American society, sparking an array of activism and discussions about race and racism. Campbell’s book touches on the numerous racial issues that American society has faced after and before Floyd’s death.

The event in Sky Full of Elephants presents a binary viewpoint of race, reflecting the belief that white people, directly or indirectly, uphold and benefit from a racist system, so they’re inherently guilty. Such a perspective turns race into the central part of a person’s identity. In the novel, race determines the fate of the characters. The white people die because they’re white, and the Black people live because they’re Black. The American writers Robin DiAngelo and Ibram X.