Wild Outsiders: How Sorrowland Examines Social Issues Through Nature SOPHIE JONSSON
IN THE GENRE of Dystopian Literature, the
the feelings and actions Vern is criticized for
examination of a dystopian society is often
in that society are normalized and prevalent
paired with commentary regarding the social
throughout the natural world.
issues of our current world. In Rivers Solomon’s
Through the character of Vern, Solomon
recently published novel Sorrowland, the
examines life as a black person in America,
main character, Vern, is forced to live in both
more specifically a black woman, and even more
the dystopian society of Cainland, as well as
specifically,
the wild woods. Through interactions and
on a personal journey of self-discovery and
experiences in these places, Vern explores
acceptance. In Sorrowland, readers are taken on
many social issues that our society is grappling
multiple “journeys” through Vern’s character:
with today, particularly those related to gender
the first being the physical traveling journey
and sexuality, as well as ancestral trauma.
that Vern takes, the second being the journey
Throughout Sorrowland, Solomon connects
she takes mentally to discover and accept
Vern’s personal journey to self-discovery
herself, and the third journey being the bodily
and self-acceptance to elements of nature,
transformation that Vern undergoes as she is
particularly mushrooms and other fungi, as
enveloped by fungus and other earthly beings.
well as the idea of wildness in general. In doing
a
black-intersex-albino
Throughout
Sorrowland,
after
woman
Vern
so, Solomon argues that many marginalized
has escaped Cainland, she is reminded of the
groups have to look beyond human society to
memories of others in that place, degrading any
find peace and acceptance because, ultimately,
sexual orientation besides cis-heterosexuality.
S O P H I E J O N S S O N is an English major in the class of 2022. This piece was written for Dr. Alexandra Neel’s Postapocalyptic and Dystopian Fiction class she took during the Fall 2021 semester. For her final paper of the class, Sophie wanted to write about how the genre of dystopian fiction compares and contrasts human society and the natural world, as well as challenge herself by writing about a work that has been minimally referenced in scholarly texts due to its recent publication.
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