Critiquing Colonization of Nature: Buying from Killjoy's "Wardens"

Introduction

The story is by Killjoy is a narration done by a young tree that personifies its experience amidst human interference. The story personifies the life of a forest and focuses on the point of view of a young tree that experiences the invasion of the forest by human forces. In the story, there is a group of soldiers who are in combat and some of the gunshots get to the barks of the trees. The poetic narration explores the typically human fear of death but from the perspective of nature that dies with human interference. As such, the story undertakes an eco-feminist tone concerning the interrelationships between nature and human activities. The destructive influences of human activity on nature are often understated in this view and there is a need to consider nature with the weight that we would adorn human life (Warren et al., p.3). The story, although short and rather simple, discusses the possibility of a perception of the non-human aspect of nature as personified, with individuals in it. A concern raised in the story is that we should respect the non-human individuals in our environment. Margaret Killjoy, in the story, portrays a part in the life of an individual tree, its hopelessness in finding a future amidst human colonization of their kind and the eminent annihilation of its kind.

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Colonization often adorns the Eurocentric idea of invasion and control yet renewed focus on the place of nature in such a process exposes much larger concerns on the relationships between man and nature. It is thus important to explore concepts such as colonization and nature. Plumwood, suggests that the concept of nature is rationalist in itself and originates from an ideation that the 'non-human' sphere is less ideal and more primitive in relation to being human (p.503). The author points out that similar dualisms have also been applied to the perceptions on women and thus their subjugation under a white male supremacist ideation. "An encompassing and underlying rationalist ideology applying both to humans and non-humans is thus brought into play in the specific processes of European colonization" (Plumwood, p.503). The rationale is that the Eurocentric perspectives that justify colonization of indigenous 'primitive, less rational' cultures outplays also within the anthropocentric ideations that rationalize the imposition of human intelligence in nature through artificial landforms, constructions and transformation of landscapes. Killjoy's story attempts to address such dualities by offering an unconventional perspective with regards to that which we have been taught to perceive as less rational and below our standards of reason.

The ecofeminist aspect of Killjoy's story is depicted in the character of the young tree that bears viewpoints and experiences similar to human but rather shunned or rubbished in our dualist ideations. Human construction of nature as a lesser 'Other' buys from the same notions that encourage supremacism in gender, race or nationality. "I walk through the elder grove unafraid, and for me that is something..." (Killjoy, n.d.). In the story, the author personifies nature and attempts to communicate its concerns through the voice of the narrator (young tree). The author's mood in the story is that nature through the character bears fears almost similar to those of indigenous cultures. In the story, there is a fear of loss of freedom from a much more sophisticated life form; a fear that the colonized cultures also bore. In the story the young tree understands its place in the universe and its responsibility to protect this freedom but the tranquility is quickly broken by the fatality of gunshots (Killjoy, n.d.). Parallels with the Eurocentric colonization of indigenous populations are evident in the story. Most of the communities that the Europeans colonized probably had a younger, growing generation that had just began enjoying their naturally adorned freedom and a harmonious continuation of their life. Such a generation must have been gripped with horrific fear with the entry of Europeans and the ensuing destruction and loss of life.

The story further portrays an image of subjugation and loss of freedom inherent to women, diverse populations and nature, in the voice of the narrator, which depicts the experience of hopelessness under a depressive authority. In the story, the narrator reckons, "I started shaking, I'll never not, I've come to accept," (Killjoy, n.d.). The statement creates the image of a predicament that the narrator hopes to change but it is continually proving permanent. As in the real world where women and nature are continually kept secondary to the supremacy of reason, and duality inherent to masculinity, the narrator perceives that there is much lost already. In the story, the colonizers have arrived and all that the narrator and her companions can do is hide from being ravaged and killed. Parallels to the experience of women way before sophistication of human development or colonization are evident in this scene. The narrator perceives that her shakes are nothing new but a feeling that she had endured ever since. Throughout history of human civilization, the subjugation of women was rather common and wars, conflicts and colonization were but an added stress to an already depressed state of the feminine.

The author also essentially keeps notions such as violence and war masculine contrary while femininity is depicted as the opposite. In the story, the attackers are men and they are portrayed as demons that would not spare anything that is worthwhile or lasting. The wastefulness of man is well depicted in the story; "A second barrage came...a human commander ordering his men to hold their fire..." and "hired soldiers of a human empire," typically allude to masculinity. Indeed, the role of masculinity in establishing difference and inferior treatment typically buys from the ability to separate human rationality from that to which we cannot form links and is non-human. "...the human colonizer treats nature as radically Other and humans as emphatically separated from nature and animals," (Killjoy, p.504). Such an ideation may have justified the actions by the soldiers in the forest that they did not consider the personality and value of life of the narrator. In the story, the narrator perceives of the men as devoid of understanding only up to doing harm to that which they are not entitled and is much more worthwhile and important.

Killjoy therefore depicts a revolt, surpassing the events in the story to involve a strife against rationalized ideations of being. Masculine and harmful notions of Western civilization explained being in a way that justified wasteful actions such as colonization, war and manipulation of nature. In the story, the narrator recalls her grandmother's stories of demons in legends that the narrator says came upon them from the west with axes, cattle, "rending and slaughtering every tree in their sight" (Killjoy, n.d.). Indeed, the narrator expresses a perceived disconnect in idea of being on the part of the attackers. The character considers the ignorance of the antagonists towards the fact that she and the rest of the forest individuals. The traditional Western Great Chain of Being, that creates a hierarchy from God to kings to men, and then women to animals and so on, also underlies modern belief that the world is a resource to be manipulated by humans (Jensen, p.27). Under the hierarchy there is also the perception that evolution of nature is meant to achieve some level of perfection within which humans, principally male are leaders.

However, as the narrator comes to terms with herself she vows, "Those of us who can walk fight for those of us who cannot." Such a reckoning goes beyond the fight for nature alone but also for those who are human and are 'othered' by the Western supremacist ideologies. The young tree narrator probably uses 'walk' to imply growth of new trees to cover for the loss caused through human activity; a long term vision from the human time scale. The underlying message of the story is that though dual supremacism we have come to exploit and breach boundaries that we ought not to in the first place. "I try not to draw the line at all...I was, like nearly all of us, taught to draw that line, by religion, by science, by entertainment, by art, by day-to-day interactions" (Jensen, p.31). Such a call for change is also visible in the story where the narrator speaks of other trees joining in a struggle against the invaders. Although the trees are outnumbered, they keep on charging. Indeed, there is an extent to which the story's predicament is extended to the audience. The narrator acknowledges that there is a grander problem that cannot be solved through individual action but that there is a need for unison towards change. However, the change is not specified and rather involves all that the story encompasses; colonization of nature, otherness, supremacist and separatist ideations.

Conclusion

Conclusively, Margaret Killjoy, in the story, portrays a part in the life of an individual tree, its hopelessness in finding a future amidst human colonization of their kind and the eminent annihilation of its kind. The young tree, as a narrator exposes the individuality of nature as an aspect clouded and rubbished under a white masculine ideation of nature. The story depicts nature as similar and equal to humanity. The voice of the narrator also depicts a connection with human indigenous cultures that were colonized by European civilizations. As such nature, in the story too, is colonized by the imposition of human intelligence and the influences it bears on the individuals categorized as nature in the masculine dominated world. The story brings to light questions concerning the reality of the human conception of nature as separated from our being. The Great Chain of Being philosophy is depicted to be alive in the very idea of nature that colonizers adopted. The perception of nature as different and separate from humans also underlies the discriminatory dual ideas of superiority that separate genders, race, ethnicity or nationality. However, Killjoy uses poetic language and first person narration to offer the experience of a non-human individual and what such an experience connects to colonization of indigenous cultures.

References

Killjoy, Margaret. "Wardens." Birds before the Storm. (n.d.)

http://birdsbeforethestorm.net/2015/01/wardens/ Accessed June 13th 2018.

Warren, Karen, Karen J. Warren, and Nisvan Erkal, eds. Ecofeminism: Women, culture, nature. Indiana University Press, 1997.

Plumwood, Val. "Decolonisation relationships with nature." PAN: Philosophy Activism Nature 2 (2002): 7.

Jensen, Derrick. "Ch.1 The Great Chain of Being." The Myth of Human Supremacy. Seven Stories Press (2016): pp. 27-40.