It's Not Just All About Fantasy

By Sarah

In fantasy literature, you easily see themes in magic, good versus evil, supernatural things, etc. What you don't see right away is an environmental theme. I definitely didn't in The Amber Spyglass.

In The Amber Spyglass, this environmental theme shows up predominantly in the land of the Mulefa and also in the land of the Ice Bears. The Mulefa have noticed that the seed pod trees are dying. "Dust" is barely hitting the flowers of the trees that produce the seeds and therefore there are less seed pods that the mulefa can obtain and the mulefa NEED those seedpods. The seedpods are what help the young grow up and "settle" as it would be for Lyra and Will and their daemons. It appears symbolic of how our world environmentally is declining and will be lost if we don't try to fix it. We are losing habitats, we are losing animal and plant species, and we are losing resources. This leads into the example of the kingdom of the Ice Bears. Due to the massive explosion made by Lyra's father that also made a gateway into the sky and worlds beyond, the climate and natural systems are in a funk. The ice bears kingdom is melting. They end up leaving to search for a new home in the new worlds and try to survive in the mountains. But it doesn't work and a decision is made to go back and just try and live with what is there. This is very similar for our nonfictional polar bears. Global warming is destroying their home and the ice caps are melting and depleting. If we don't do something, we may lose them and this magical habitat in the near future.

Another example of environmental themes in fantasy is in The Lord of the Rings. The shire is this green, beautiful, magical happy little heaven in Middle Earth. It is threatened at one point in the trilogy when Sarumon goes to the shire and turns it upsidedown and in peril. When the hobbits come back to their beloved home, its like walking into hell. They have to fight one more fight to reclaim their Shire and then bring it back to life and green and beauty. War definitely changes a place that at one point is beautiful. It then always has to be worked on to return it to its original state but there will always be a scar on the environment there. It will never be the same. This shows how important our landscapes and different habitats are and how we need to protect them from getting destroyed or broken.