As the semester is winding down, The Core Essay allows us time to reflect on past thoughts and look within ourselves to see what has changed. English 111 is centered around N.K. Jemisin’s “The Broken Earth Trilogy.” Throughout the three novels, Jemisin writes about orogenes, people who have the power to control seismic events. Orogenes constantly face oppression and prejudice from the non-orogenes that inhabit ‘The Stillness’ with them. In my Lithosphere essay written earlier this semester, I looked at themes of power, oppression, and prejudice from within the trilogy and detailed how they mirror the real world. While I still agree with a large majority of the moves I made within my Lithosphere Essay, my thoughts have expanded and grown deeper.
In my Lithosphere Essay, I detail the discrimination orogenes face because of their powers. “Non-orogenes fear orogenes and view them as monster-like creatures. Non-orogenes are taught to view orogenes as threats to society and feel as though they have the right to hurt them if that is what is deemed necessary to protect others from orogenes powers.” (Lepsch, 2024)A key word of that sentence is “taught”. Often, prejudice is learned from those who surround us. Much of the hate orogenes face, likely stems from a taught hatred and no actual reason in particular. Here we see Jemisin mirroring real-world discrimination with characters from her book.
As my Lithosphere Essay progresses, I provide specific examples of orogenes being racialized. The main example I provide sets the stage for the entire plot of the first novel, The Fifth Season. Jija, a non-orogene kills his son Uche after finding out he is an orogene. We see the anger provoked by Essun, Uche’s orogene mother, when she says, “These people killed Uche. Their hate, their fear, their unprovoked violence. They (He.) Killed your son. (Jija killed your son.)” (58). In my Lithosphere Essay, I focused on explaining the words “hate” and “fear” used in that quote and how it expressed non-orogene’s prejudice towards orogenes. As the semester has progressed, my thinking goes beyond this. After Essun realizes her son is dead, her rage causes her to split the valley floor. Here we see the impact after Essun is pushed to her breaking point. While in the real world, one would not be able to split the valley floor when they are upset, Jemisin mirrors drastic measures those who are oppressed will often take to feel heard when they feel as if they cannot push through the hate any longer. The seismic events occurring throughout each of the three novels represent small instances that build up to a large breaking point.
The next point I made in my Lithosphere Essay was about not only is there non-orogene discrimination, but there are also inequalities amongst orogenes themselves. At the time, I dived into “newbie” orogenes being referred to as “grits” and the symbolism this has as grit refers to sand-sized grains and small pebbles. Flash forward, my thinking has progressed about inequalities amongst orogenes themselves. In the last book of the trilogy, The Stone Sky, Essun destroys Castrima. Ykka, the orogene who ran Castrima, was upset with Essun for doing so. Tonkee says, “She’s a little pissed about you destroying the geode.” (21) Essun seems surprised about this and Hjarka laughs and says, “You actually thought we were all up here topside, the whole rusting comm traveling north in the ash and cold, for fun?’ She strides away, shaking her head. Ykka’s not the only one pissed about it.” (21) Even though Ykka and Essun are on the same team, both fighting for equality for orogenes, in this case, they find themselves having opposing opinions. In a blog post I found titled, “Toxic Self-Marginalization: How our unconscious addiction to being underdogs harms our work,” there is a section about “a fighting mode that’s difficult to turn off.” Author Vu discusses that when persistently working to fight against unjust systems, it can be difficult to know when to stop and who the target should be. The author continues to say, “It’s like soldiers and warriors having a difficult time coping when they are no longer on the battlefield. They may lash out at the people who care about them. In our sector, it means sometimes we attack others who are on our side.” I found this to be profound and see this idea portrayed in Jemisin’s work. Ykka and the other members of Castrima are used to fighting against non-orogenes. In the quote provided above, they are now turning against Essun, a member of their team, because they are used to a constant fight. We see this in the real world when marginalized groups who are used to working together suddenly turn against their own.
As I reached the end of my Lithosphere Essay, I discussed my belief of why orogenes are constantly racialized for their powers. I write, “By non-orogenes treating orogenes as less than human, they are able to remain in power. Therefore, while I do believe non-orogenes were taught to fear orogenes for their powers, the ultimate reason they continue to view them as less than is to keep their society and power structures in order. If non-orogenes ideals of orogenes shifted, power dynamics and hierarchies would change, sending people into a time of disorder.” This ultimately connects to the real world where systemic racism has been built into our society. Racism is so deeply embedded that “To change that hierarchy or power structure, small changes would not be effective. Instead, the entire system itself would need to be rebuilt.” (Lepsch, 2024)I still find myself in agreeance with this move.
In the time since writing my Lithosphere Essay and finishing The Broken Earth Trilogy, I have one newfound take on the books in particular. While Jemisin mirrors the division and inequities we see in the real world, we can also look to the novels as a symbol of strength for rallying together throughout insurmountable challenges. Throughout the novels, we consistently see groups of people coming together in order to survive. For example, in The Fifth Season, Essun, Hoa, and Tonkee travel together in hopes of finding Nassun. The three of them were stronger together than they were apart, each bringing different knowledge and skills. Another place where we see people unite is in Castrima. Castrima acts as a place of refuge for orogenes and allows protection from the environmental impacts of the season. Throughout the trilogy, the orogenes who inhabit Castrima work together to combat the tumultuous challenges that come their way. Therefore, while Jemisin does write the three novels in hopes of making progress towards a more just society, I think the texts work to show the power of numbers and the importance of resilience through tragedy. The human spirit is stronger than we think and Jemisin demonstrates this strength by pushing her characters to their limit, forcing them to work together if they want to survive.
References
Lepsch, Victoria. (2024) ‘Lithosphere Essay: Using Race to Manage Society’. SUNY Geneseo. Published Essay.
Vu. (2019, September 19). Toxic Self-Marginalization: How our unconscious addiction to being underdogs harms our work – Nonprofit AF. Nonprofitaf.com. https://nonprofitaf.com/2019/09/toxic-self-marginalization-how-our-unconscious-addiction-to-being-underdogs-harms-our-work/