The village in Gathering Blue also strikingly reminded me of the village in the M Night Shyamalan film The Village. Both communities lack modern technology, and the people stay within the village boundaries because of a fear of beasts in the forest. When Shyamalan's movie was released, many people noticed the similarities between the color-coded system of fear that his fictional village had created and the color-coded system of warning (or fear) created by the Bush administration after September 11th. That movie made many viewers (or at least this one) think critically about communal fear and how societies both protect individuals from danger and also create panic and fear. Likewise, Lowry shows how political leaders can maintain power by creating fear within the community. The guardians in Kira's village want to maintain the fear of beasts so that they can control the inhabitants of the village. Jamison fears people learning the truth about the beasts so much he has Annabella killed for telling Kira that "there be no beasts."
Lowry states early on that fear is the primary motivator for this society: "She felt a small shudder of fear. Fear was always a part of life for the people. Because of fear, they made shelter and found food and grew things. For the same reason, weapons were stored, waiting. There was fear of cold, of sickness, and hunger. There was fear of beasts" (2-3). I would like to hope that our society is not like this one, and for the most part, I think we are different. Although we could certainly use more compassion and acceptance, our society values these qualities and praises people who demonstrate selflessness, like Mother Theresa. Lowry does show, however, how much of our actions and motivations are centered around fear. We also obsess over food and shelter because of fear of not having these essentials. Our country certainly knows something about storing weapons and creating armies because of fear. I think our obsession with insurance of various forms is a symptom of our fear of sickness and loss. We may not be at the point of abandoning the lame and weak to beasts, but Lowry shows how close we may be to such truly frightening practices. I am thankful for a great piece of literature that not only entertains, but also addresses complicated ideas and helps the reader think more critically.
I find it interesting that Lowry groups the people's fear into two sentences at the end of the quote you used, so that it seems "fear of beasts" represents a different kind of fear than "fear of cold, of sickness, and hunger"(3). The people have first-hand knowledge of cold, sickness, and hunger, and naturally they prepare for and guard against these inevitabilities. But none of them have actually seen the beasts they fear.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I don't find anything unreasonable about maintining food sources and shelter, or even in buying insurance to provide for a variety of contingencies. I think the issue with weapons and armies is much more difficult to understand because our culture shields us from/hides from us the realities of our present war, our progress in it, and how our expectations have matched up to the reality of fighting a war against an ideological weapon (terrorism) rather than a force similar to our own. Our culture is much more divided than Kira's community because everyone in her community agreed that there must be beasts, and were united in their fear. Many in our own culture feel similarly, but many also doubt the existence of our beasts, the nature of our beasts, and/or our strategy for keeping safe. We are like Kira in the middle of the story - unsure what to believe, unsure what to fear - a dangerous position, to be sure.
Fear is a complicated issue. I'm glad that you've brough it up, and I'm sure we haven't come close to exhausting the topic.