Lights Of Differences In The Darkness:
Shadow and Bone and Equality
Final Draft by İpek Kır and Melike Hayran
Shadow and Bone is a fantastic novel that is written by Leigh Bardurgo in 2012. The novel is set in Tsarist Russia and follows the society who live with creatures as neighbours in a divided universe. Alina who is a soldier finds herself in a middle of the war when she discovers there is a magic power that can unite the two countries (Ravka and Fjerda) and she is a sun-summoner.
In general, we often see the classification system in our book. The nobility’s disrespect and contempt for lower class people is an example of class discrimination. Lower class people as represented in the novel are more uneducated and ignorant. During the war, the people do not receive any help from their king and they are left to their fate. People generally do not have any means to ensure their safety. There are such powerful creatures in this fictional world that even if there are soldiers, there is need for stronger and more qualified people to protect the weak from the creatures.
However, there is no king who cares about his people, especially the lower class. Even though people travel in groups in this scary world, they cannot get rid of the state of fear and insecurity. This tells us how a dystopia emerges in the absence of the concept of equality that
we see in European values. The marginalization of people makes clear the absence of this system of equality that privileges only the high-ranking noble group. In the book, we have a land that is often feared and in order to protect it from this land, the king provides his people with the necessary conditions of arms but gives no other assurances. The lower class who are not given the right education, cannot have access to information as easily as the upper class. There is such an inequality that even the literacy needs of the lower class are almost never met.
In the lower class, a general issue of superstition circulates, as illiteracy is rampant. The people who are not given the necessary education, can easily believe the information they get through gossip while the noble people can easily reach the right information at first hand. There is so much false information floating around that the lower class people find it difficult to believe the argument defended on the other side during a discussion and question the veracity of the thought they defend within themselves. If they’re lucky, some dukes may reward them with such philanthropy but only if they’re lucky.
The concept of inequality seen in our book also applies even to our main character with special powers. General Kirigan who is called Darkling, manages to manipulate our character by using the perceptions in our dystopian universe.
