Save The Pearls Literary Analysis
Cody Ball
Richard Schimpf
ENG499: Apocalypse and the American Imagination
10AUG2013
REVERSED RACISM IN THE POST-APOCALYPSE
“Even with the best skin coating, everything about her screamed lower class.” This is a quote from the 2012 novel, Save the Pearls: Revealing Eden, by Victoria Foyt. In this post-apocalyptic story, Foyt depicts a future world where racism seems to have reversed itself. Caucasians or “Pearls”, are a minority due to the harsh solar conditions that exist, leaving fair skinned individuals more susceptible to “The Heat”. The Heat is skin cancer and is common in a world where temperatures average 115 degrees fahrenheit. Asians are referred to as “Ambers” and Latinos as “Tiger eyes.” Blacks are “Coals”, the dominant power and populous majority. Albino’s are thought to be extinct due to their lack of melanin to protect them from UV rays. As I originally intended on writing about the progression of racism in America, I was quite intrigued when discovering a modern story that involved strong racist narratives in the post-apocalyptic genre. Foyt clearly …show more content…
While they are not seemingly connected to the government, they are not opposed by it either. The FFP seem to serve as a rendition of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), a private organization devoted to abolishing the mixing of races. Since this book is the first in what is expected to develop into a trilogy, I expect the FFP will become increasingly discriminant and violent. The fact that the government does not threaten the organization, leads me to believe there are ties between the two. This relates to the dishonesty that was felt by African-Americans in the south towards the local, state, and federal governments due to unjustly actions. Such as the aforementioned Emmett Till case, where the jury was a group of all white males suggesting an unfair and biased
Richard Schimpf
ENG499: Apocalypse and the American Imagination
10AUG2013
REVERSED RACISM IN THE POST-APOCALYPSE
“Even with the best skin coating, everything about her screamed lower class.” This is a quote from the 2012 novel, Save the Pearls: Revealing Eden, by Victoria Foyt. In this post-apocalyptic story, Foyt depicts a future world where racism seems to have reversed itself. Caucasians or “Pearls”, are a minority due to the harsh solar conditions that exist, leaving fair skinned individuals more susceptible to “The Heat”. The Heat is skin cancer and is common in a world where temperatures average 115 degrees fahrenheit. Asians are referred to as “Ambers” and Latinos as “Tiger eyes.” Blacks are “Coals”, the dominant power and populous majority. Albino’s are thought to be extinct due to their lack of melanin to protect them from UV rays. As I originally intended on writing about the progression of racism in America, I was quite intrigued when discovering a modern story that involved strong racist narratives in the post-apocalyptic genre. Foyt clearly …show more content…
While they are not seemingly connected to the government, they are not opposed by it either. The FFP seem to serve as a rendition of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), a private organization devoted to abolishing the mixing of races. Since this book is the first in what is expected to develop into a trilogy, I expect the FFP will become increasingly discriminant and violent. The fact that the government does not threaten the organization, leads me to believe there are ties between the two. This relates to the dishonesty that was felt by African-Americans in the south towards the local, state, and federal governments due to unjustly actions. Such as the aforementioned Emmett Till case, where the jury was a group of all white males suggesting an unfair and biased