The Effect of Privilege on Social Awareness
Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behavior provides a new perspective on how one's social class can shape their concerns, particularly about broad social issues such as climate change. The novel reflects on the tension that exists between social reform and the everyday struggles of working-class adults. Kingsolver utilizes Dellarobia’s perspective to illustrate that for those living in poverty, long-term global issues often take a backseat to immediate survival.
One central theme in Flight Behavior is the misconception that those who dismiss climate change do so out of stubbornness or arrogance. Kingsolver challenges this idea by highlighting the physical conditions that shape the town’s viewpoints and ideas. Dellarobia and countless others in their Appalachian community struggle with economic insecurity on a daily basis. When people are struggling to survive and put food on the table, debates about environmental reform can feel irrelevant.
The divide between white-collar and blue-collar struggles becomes evident in the clash between local farmers and the visiting scientists. For the scientists, the monarch butterflies symbolized a global environmental crisis. However, for the farmers, it served as an immediate threat to their land and livelihoods. Kingsolver contrasts these perspectives to demonstrate how poverty can limit someone's motivation to engage with larger social issues. She states, “There were two worlds here, behaving as if their own was all that mattered”(Kingsolver 206). To the blue-collar workers of the town who are struggling to survive, being judged from a place of privilege and education made them feel infuriated and disrespected.
Kingsolver’s novel suggests that if America wants to eliminate climate change, society must shift how it supports its most vulnerable members. Education and economic security are key aspects of this transformation. Once Dellarobia begins working with the scientists and gains exposure to new knowledge, her perspective on the butterfly shifts. She moves from a place of rejection and ignorance to one of reformative thoughts. This shows that education is a critical tool for spreading awareness in America. The novel underscores the privilege of being able to focus on social reform. To expect those struggling with poverty to prioritize global issues, when they are struggling to feed their families, is unrealistic. If we want to foster engagement and education for climate change, we must first ensure that people’s immediate needs are met. Only then can we hope to build a more informed and proactive society.
In conclusion, Flight Behavior serves as a reminder of the effects social class can have on broad global issues. Kingsolver challenges us to consider how privilege shapes our priorities. If we hope to address global issues like climate change, we must first address the systemic inequalities that prevent many from even entering the conversation.
Works Cited
Kingsolver, Barbara. Flight Behavior. HarperCollins Canada, 2014.
“Give me a list of quotes that best align with the ideas of my blog post” prompt. Chat GPT, Version 4o, Open AI, (10, November. 2024)
The blog post accurately reflects Kingsolver’s intention to demonstrate the different perspectives people have on climate change by focusing on their privilege in terms of their social class that shape their mindsets. I agree with Russel’s take that it’s hard to concentrate on the long-term impact of actions like logging by Bear and Cub when their livelihood and standard of living depend on it. For people in lower income brackets or with less education, it’s undoubtedly difficult to feel connected to global issues like climate change when they’re not directly affecting their daily lives. As Russel states, it’s largely true that social awareness and privilege go hand in hand in shaping people’s paths. However, I think it’s also important to highlight Dellarobia, who comes from the same community and shares a similar background with Cub in terms of education, social class, and environment, but still manages to break through that gap. She is curious and willing to understand the larger implications of climate change. Dellarobia’s curiosity is evident in actions like asking Josephina to write down the name of her town, and her openness to hearing about and understanding climate change before dismissing it, as her husband does. While I agree with the blog post’s points, I also think it’s important to consider the varying levels of tolerance people have when it comes to engaging with societal issues despite their privilege and social class .
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ReplyDeleteI agree with a lot of things said in this post. Outside of the Feathertown residents’ inability to make changes toward climate change, Kingsolver incorporates the media into the argument. Your point that being judged from places of privilege is interesting since Juliet, a folk researcher, notes that the town’s refusal to believe science is “not indigenous” and really like “a cargo cult [] introduced from the outside” (Kingsolver 395). Elements of climate change denial have become a part of local culture because of how information gets to the residents. This is seen through how Tina tries to change the narrative about the butterflies during the interview with Ovid. Making more money and getting viewers leads to science becoming warped to merely “improv[ing] ratings” (Kingsolver 366). Climate change denial is an integral part of the community’s understanding of the world. Your point about education is important too, but it goes both ways. Kingsolver wants to explain that climate change is real to those who are indifferent to its effects, as you mentioned, but she wants outsiders to understand that their methods aren’t universally applicable. While scientists and those with wealth have the information needed to stop climate change, there’s an inability to teach that knowledge for fear of being “imprecise [] [t]oo theatrical” (Kingsolver 323, 324). When Leighton Akins promotes a climate pledge, the goals are almost exclusively aimed at those who are better off. These poor examples of communication of climate change and measures to prevent it are in contrast to the video of Ovid laying everything out straight. It’s a viral video and garners nationwide attention. Here, Kingsolver is demonstrating how good media and other forms of information should be treated when directed towards the climate. People need to be told the truth instead of half-lies, which has led to the binary of beliefs between the rich and the working class.
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