One of the amazing things about The Hungry Tide by Amitav Gosh is complex yet simple it is. There is seeming a lot that is going on the novel. Characters, character relationships, plots, subplots, and sub-subplots.

The first character we get introduced to is the self-loving man of many languages Kanai. At the start of the book we also get introduced to the fiercely independent, motivated career woman Piya. As the story progresses we get better introduced to Kanai’s uncle and aunt Nirmal and Nilima. Eventually we also come across another character important to the story, the lovable fisherman Fokir and his intelligent and practical wife Moyna.

Kanai’s role so far in the novel is to be a storyteller in place of his uncle Nirmal, who left him a written account of what the last year of his life held. Almost like a direct connection to the afterlife since Nirmal, in the present time, has been dead for many years. He is also in the role of translator for Piya as she is not fluent in the language. The problem though is that Piya seems to not really want Kanai around as much as Kanai wants to be around.

Speaking of, Piya’s role is that of the researcher on a journey to record information on the dying breed of Dolphin she seems to be so obsessed with, but also simultaneously on a journey towards self discovery in a way. From what we know of Piya so far, her home life was rather chaotic and not very loving. There is a lot about herself that she has yet to discover.

Fokir plays part of the fisherman who belongs more on the waters than he ever has on land and has the knowledge that Piya needs in order to continue her research successfully. He also seems to be someone on the hunt for something too. Maybe acceptance, maybe a bigger purpose, or maybe just some peace on the waters. He seems content with being a crab catcher, but there is unhappiness in his personal life.

Moyna is the woman with dreams of a secure, stable life for her family. She can’t understand why her husband is the way he is and yet she wants him to understand her completely. Her is role sometimes seems small, but her existence itself could be seen as a metaphorical (or literal) obstacle for Piya and an asset for Kanai.

All of these characters have their own definitive life lines in this novel, and yet they all somehow managed to be intertwined with one another. There is still much to be uncovered in this novel, I can only imagine that the lines will continue to cross and blur.

I’ve already stated this in my midterm, but I would like to share my views with my peers. The Clausen essay, in my opinion, has a unique take on what Octavia E. Butler’s novel Parable of the Sower is all about. Specifically, the “How To” idea of it all. For me, Clausen points out that there are three key aspects of the novel. Those key points are knowledge, diversity, and community.

Lauren spent a good portion of her “doomsday preparation” learning about different skills she might need in order to survive in the outside world beyond the gates of her neighborhood. She read books that her father had from before devastation struck humanity. She learned about plants, gun maintenance, and even read about how to build a log cabin if the need ever arose. Lauren absorbed what knowledge she could in order to make survival on the outside the little bit easier.

The key point of diversity is not to be referred to race. Although the group was diverse in race, I am referring to the diverse set of skills that the characters brought to the metaphorical table. Lauren and Henry could read and write. In multiple situations, at least with Keith, that proves to be a vital skill on the outside. Zahara had come from the outside, so she knows her way around the territory and can help keep the others out of unnecessary trouble. Bankole was a doctor in a life long left behind, so he can help with any injuries that may come around. The others in the team did not necessarily have any ‘special’ traits, but them just being present was a positive addition in and of itself.

The third key point is community, or as Clausen would put it, ‘mutual aid’. It is safe to say that community played a big role in the survival of the group. Everyone stuck together, and kept each other safe. Whether it was through taking turns on keeping watch at night or shooting at ravenous dogs to save a baby, everyone helped the other. Even if some were more apprehensive than the others.

Could the group that would eventually become Acorn have survived without one or more of these thing? Probably not in all honesty. I think it was having all of these things that got them all the way to Bankole’s land in the first place. Without either of these things, there are many ways the story could have ended, but the most probable way would have been in death.

What is change? By definition, it is the act of something or someone becoming different. Seems simple enough, and yet, it can cause so many issues in more ways than one. Some changes are for the better, others for the worse. It can impact mental, emotional, and/or physical stability. It can have the the monetarily wealthiest people go from the top of the world to bottom of the metaphorical barrel or vice versa. It can be minuscule or catastrophic, and it could be something wonderful or paralyzingly horrific.

But WHY is it so scary? Because, change is inevitable. The sooner we can all agree on that, the better off we’ll all be in the long run. Our main character, Lauren Olamina, knows that all too well. The problem though, is that we can never be sure of when change will happen. Joanne Garfield knows that. But what is the difference between these two young girls? One embraces the idea of what change was, is, or could be. The other, refuses to acknowledge it and all it could do. People fear the unknown, and so people fear change. Lauren and Joanne are two sides of the same coin. They come from the same place, lead the same lives, follow the same routine, but there is one thing that greatly separates them. Lauren has questions. She questions the state of the world, the way the people of her cul-de-sac are living, and even her definition of religion. She wants to do more then sit around and wait to fall victim to something or someone. Joanne, on the other hand, settles to exist the same way the rest of her neighborhood does. In the same old routines, unprepared for what tomorrow might hold, and fearful of what it may bring.

We cannot control tomorrow, so it is better to be prepared for it, like Lauren. She believes that even though life is manageable, to some degree, it is not set to remain that way. The world outside of their walls is falling apart, and she can only see things getting worse. There will always be something to be thankful for, but it is important to acknowledge that life, and the very world we live in, is subject to change in whatever way it sees fit, and those changes will come with or without warning. However, there are also people like Joanne who would rather live in denial rather than deal with the truth.  Lauren made the point that she doesn’t believe the world is ending. Instead, she believes that the world her parents lived in was ending. If we, as a community, cannot act as one, then we cannot survive. We need to learn and be open to the possibilities in order to able to make it out in one piece.

After having read both Falter by Bill McKibben and The Great Derangement by Amitav Ghosh, I’ve concluded that much both books are tied together.  In the McKibben piece, he goes on to talk about all the ways that the world has changed. The cost of manufacturing and production in the year 1500 cost .42% of what it costs now ($250 billion to $60 trillion). How can more be bad? Well let’s consider all of the resources that go into making all the things we think we need on a daily basis.The trees that go into making notebooks, the petrochemicals that make everyday items, and the waste that gets produced in the mean time. McKibben goes on to talk about the ways the world has changed because of how the humans so carelessly produce waste with so little care of what happens to the world until the consequences are physically and visually effecting real life people instead of just being a scientific possibility. “Climate change, perhaps the greatest of all these challenges, and certainly the one about which we’ve done the least…climate change has become such a familiar term that we tend to read past it” (15). The most recent examples he gave in his writing are the 2017 wildfires that swept through California. Those fires claimed thousands of lives, both human and wildlife. Due to those landscapes being left barren, in 2018 when rain finally began to fall again, a mudslide happened due to the water not having any greenery to withhold it. As a result, more lives had been lost.

In the Ghosh piece, he talks about recognition of the past in order to understand the now. Ghosh mentions the history of his ancestors and how the unpredictability of nature caused the need for migration and change. In turn, he segues into the issues of climate change. One point Ghosh made is how little people seriously acknowledge it in written art. On page 6 Ghosh writes, “climate change casts a much smaller shadow within the landscape of literary fiction than it does even in the public arena…it can even be said that fiction that deals with climate change is almost by definition the kind that is not taken seriously by serious literary journals”. Simply put, writers are more likely to write about climate change under the genre of non-fiction rather than fiction. Which then dilutes the shock factor of the facts delivered from the writing. The same can be said about any creative media that centers itself around the issue of climate change. Movies, tv shows, songs, etc., they all for whatever reason, dilute the impact of the what is in actuality a very serious issue in the present and foreseen future.

How exactly does this all tie in together though? That part is easy actually. If we are humans are tossing ourselves head first into a catastrophic future, we need to do all that we can to reach as many audiences as possible. But, we can’t do that if the people that need to be reached aren’t taking the impending obstacles that climate change will cause seriously. The sad truth is, oceans are warming, ice caps are melting, sea levels are rising, droughts are spreading, and fires are killing, but very few of the populous are comprehending. Nature, without the help of humans, is already unpredictable, but because of the evolution of human technology, we’ve altered the speed at which that unpredictability unfolds itself.