Peeler 1

Matthew Peeler

Royston

Diversity in Genre Fiction

3 May 2020

Examining the Racial Subtext of the Orogenes

In literature, authors use metaphors to express the degrees of experiences, illustrations, and

emotions within their works in order to portray a specific idea by comparison of another idea. In The

Fifth Season, Jemisin focuses most of the plot on characters who are known as Orogenes. They are

individuals that possess abilities allowing them to steal the heat energy from the earth and their

surroundings to manipulate the earth beneath them with kinetic energy and are looked down upon for

this very reason. Throughout the story, a recurring location in all three perspectives is the Fulcrum, a

training center and a collective of Orogenes that are, essentially, the property and slaves to the

government of the Stillness. Jemisin is clearly using Orogenes as a metaphor for African-Americans

during the era of slavery with the only exception being that Orogenes possess destructive abilities. The

question is, how effective is this metaphor with such a drastic difference between Orogenes and

African-American slaves? To answer this question, it is important that we explore the three distinct

perspectives that are provided throughout the story to fully understand why Jemisin chooses to

symbolize and compare the African-American slave experience to powerful individuals like the

Orogenes. Throughout this paper, I will include how each of the protagonists views their situation

differently, but still acknowledges its presence and significance within their world.

To begin, the story chronologically begins with the character, Damaya, who is a young, Northern

comm girl possessing the power of orogeny. Her parents discover her abilities through an incident that
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occurs at her school with another child who pushes her down, and so they decide they cannot bring

themselves to put their own daughter down like an animal and, instead, they contact the Fulcrum to send

a Guardian to retrieve her. After reading this, it was so hard to believe that a family could become torn

apart over orogeny, but it seems to be a huge dealbreaker when it comes to living amongst the powerless

Stills. An interesting point to make regarding Damaya’s parents is that they are both Stills because they

do not possess any form of orogenic abilities. In real life, an African-American cannot be born to two

individuals who are white so this is a very distinct difference in the analogy used by Jemisin. The

Guardian arrives to examine Damaya and her living situation alluding to slave auctions made by white

traders which is the first thought that came to mind when I read this part of the novel. Jemisin is trying

to portray the Orogenes as these tools to be sold off or sent away much like the African-American slaves

of the United States. Over the course of their journey, Damaya and her Guardian, Schaffa, discuss what

is to be expected of her once she arrives at the Fulcrum, how she is a danger to society, and why she

must be trained to benefit the goals of the Fulcrum. During this discussion, Damaya believes and

explains to Schaffa that her powers are under control and she will not let her emotions get the better of

her but Schaffa decides to test her by breaking her hand to judge her on how well she handles pain and

danger. She is able to control herself but seemed to be very close to breaking and wishes that it not

happen again. Schaffa is mentally and physically abusing Damaya as a way to train her powers and it is

quite similar to how slaves were treated during that era in order to keep them in control and submissive.

The young girl arrives at the Fulcrum and begins her training sessions but experiences some bullying

from the older Orogene children. I want to believe this symbolizes how some African-American slaves

were treated with more respect and earned better treatment because of their submissiveness toward their

owners while the newer slaves were looked down upon and to be treated like savage animals. A year
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goes by and Damaya informs Schaffa that she wishes her rogga name to be Syenite before going to take

her first ring test. This is very similar to slaves and how they were forced to change their names to a

more acceptable standard for white owners to better understand and as another way to take their

identities and control them. Overall, Damaya sees her enslavement as the new normal for herself and

wishes to train as she is supposed to in order to become one of the top grits at the Fulcrum. She wants to

show the Stills and Guardians that she is in control of her powers and she deserves her rights even if

they do consider Orogenes as monsters.

Chronologically, the next perspective that takes place is Syenite, formerly known as Damaya,

who is to earn her fifth ring next. She is assigned to conceive a child with an Orogene possessing ten

rings in a matter of a year and it seems that she is fully prepared to go along with this mission because

she cannot refuse but the ten ring Orogene she is assigned to can because he is the only ten-ring Orogene

and has earned a sense of freedom and choice. I believe this to be another example of Jemisin making

allusions to slaves because they were also forced to conceive children for white slave owners to own

more slaves or, eventually, be able to sell off their offspring to make decent money. The only difference

is they did not have any right to refuse, no matter what, or else they risked being whipped, beaten, or

killed. We learn that the ten-ring Orogene’s rogga name is Alabaster and their mission is to go to a

seaside comm called Allia to destroy the invasively growing coral reef from halting trade ships but they

take a rest in an inn of a small town where Alabaster is poisoned by an unknown individual. This goes to

show that people are not fond of Orogenes at all and they wish them dead; even if they are trained by the

Fulcrum as tools to Still society. Syenite is treated very poorly by the deputy governor in their initial

meeting to discuss their mission but gains some respect and authority when a higher official steps into

the situation. Syenite discovers a large, unknown mass beneath the coral when trying to clear the harbor
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of it and begins to raise it out of the water to discover it is one of the mysterious obelisks that,

surprisingly, contains a dead stone eater. The pair are instructed by the Fulcrum to remain where they

are until further notice and a Guardian appears before Syenite and Alabaster to assassinate them but

Syenite taps into the raised obelisk and talks to the stone eater at which point the obelisk shatters and

Syenite blacks out. While it is known that African-American slaves were used as workers and tools to

build, cultivate agriculture, and for domestic use, they were not used as the Orogenes are to clear unseen

blockages in the ocean or prevent seismic activity. Brought there by the stone eater of the obelisk,

Syenite and Alabaster awaken on an island inhabited by more stone eaters and Orogenes that are not

under the watch or control of the Fulcrum. I compared this Orogene pirate paradise to the runaway

colonies that began in secret areas of the United States which welcomed and kept runaway slaves from

being captured and returned to their owners. This is what I believe Jemisin is hinting at with a seemingly

safe, picturesque idea of an isolated sanctuary away from the chaos, enslavement, and oppression of the

Stillness mainland. Syenite sees this comm as a peaceful existence and finds it livable compared to the

former life she was experiencing on the mainland. When you think about it, Syenite is not entirely

bothered by the idea of living out her enslavement through the Fulcrum because it has helped control her

powers and learn things she never knew about herself but, at the same time, she has longed to escape to

a place like the island she was brought to. She feels things would never change in her lifetime on the

Stillness because she had never heard stories of Orogenes and stone eaters working together to create a

system where they are in charge for a change.

The final perspective of the novel’s timeline focuses on the Orogene mother, Essun, and is told

in a second-person point of view as a way to immerse the reader as a person possessing orogenic

abilities. Essun discovers her son, Uche, in their home of the comm, Tirimo. He was beaten to death by
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her husband, Jija, who fled and took their daughter, Nassun. After being with her dead son for two days,

Essun’s friendly neighbor, Lerna, checks up on her and learns of what occurred there. He is the only

Still who knows of the abilities of her and her children. I believe Jemisin wishes to provide us with a

point of view for us to imagine what it is like for an Orogene person to experience oppression and by

providing the character, Lerna, as someone who is not afraid of Essun and her children, we are able to

see that not everyone is as judgmental and insensitive towards them. This can also be said for

African-American slaves where some people were against the enslavement and oppression of

individuals because of the color of their skin. While Essun decides to leave her comm to kill her

husband, the townspeople watch her as she leaves and someone attempts to kill her with a crossbow bolt

which unleashes her powers in a Carrie White style of rage. While many Orogenes do not risk killing

almost an entire town for fear of being hunted down and killed by the Fulcrum, Essun is in such a state

of grief and anger that she does not have a sane mind during this moment. I want to say this moment

symbolized the idea of a revolution of slaves and the slave revolts that were made to overthrow the

entire system of slavery and racism. While it did not fully stop the problem, it did send a message to the

rest of the country that slaves are powerful in numbers but the big difference is that one Orogene seems

to equal an entire community of slaves that led revolts and riots which is a very powerful thought.

Throughout her travels, Essun meets a mysterious boy named Hoa, who turns out to be a stone eater, as

well as Tonkee, who she believes to be a trained geomest. Hoa leads them through a ravaged, ashy path

to a comm containing many Orogenes and stone eaters because he is tracking Nassun. At this point,

Essun is revealed to be Syenite, and Alabaster, who is dying, was the cause of the enormous shake and

massive rift that began the Season. I wish to believe this ending to the novel is a cliffhanger to a

revolution made by the Orogenes, possibly led by Alabaster, in order to usurp the powers of Yumenes
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and overthrow the entire system as many African-American slaves attempted to do in our own history.

In this perspective, Essun initially wishes to hide what she is to protect her loved ones but, over time,

had come to realize that it is the only thing that can save them.

In conclusion, while it may seem that Orogenes are far different from humans in regards to their

strange and powerful abilities, they are experiencing the same pain and oppression felt by many minority

groups in our world but they truly symbolize the enslavement of African-Americans. Although

Orogenes are powerful enough to level cities and towns on their own, the biggest difference that I find in

Jemisin’s analogy is that African-American slaves were not able to do this because their true power is

within the community they build with each other through the experiences they shared in abuse and

racism. African-Americans fought for their rights to be considered human beings and many perished

along the way and I think the end of this novel was just the beginning of Orogenes realizing that they

deserve rights as well. Overall, I do believe this comparison was highly effective in the way it was used

and it kept me wanting to know more about what would happen to them in the next book.
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Bibliography

Jemisin, N.K. ​The Fifth Season.​ London: Orbit, 2015. Print.