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4 Examples of Social Allegories in Fantastical Fiction: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly


Metaphors and allegory for current social issues and prejudices have been a big thing in sci-fi and fantasy almost since its conception. TV Tropes dubs these metaphors “Fantastic Racism” saying it’s “the old trick of dealing with thorny issues through metaphor… Instead of having the hero encounter racism between, say, whites and blacks…they encounter racism between two-headed aliens and three-headed aliens”.  Of course, this trope extends to other types of discrimination besides racism, such as homophobia or sexism.

Like any writing tool or trope, social allegories in sci-fi and fantasy have their upsides and downsides. I’ve been doing a lot of research on the whole deal for grad school and I decided to share my findings with you in a format more accessible than an academic paper.

In order to truly examine the good, the bad and the ugly aspects of the trope, let’s go through some examples and discuss the pros, cons and general impact of each narrative’s use of the trope. On our way, we might be able to figure out why social metaphors in sci-fi and fantasy are worth using…and why sometimes they’re not.

  1. Harry Potter and Discworld

    One of the most prominent examples of fantastic racism in modern fantasy is the conflict between pureblood wizards and Muggleborn wizards in Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling herself has confirmed that the conflict is supposed to parallel both racism and anti-Semitism.

    A lot of studies have been done on the impact that metaphorical messages of tolerance in works like Harry Potter have on children. The general consensus is it’s a good teaching tool and these metaphors can sometimes reach kids more deeply than more realistic parables about racism do. Fantastical representations of these events and issues is more likely to seem more “fun” to them- unlike the civil rights movement, wizards vs goblins isn’t something they’re forced to learn about in school. 

    In fact, it had been proven that children who read fantasy that contains positive social metaphors are more likely to be tolerant. In 2015, a study was done where several groups of students were required to fill out questionnaires about marginalized groups, such as immigrants, refugees and the LGBT community before and after reading Harry Potter. It was found that after reading Harry Potter, student’s attitudes towards these groups became more compassionate. This was clearly thanks to the series’ themes of standing against prejudice. So there we have it- proof that social metaphor in fantasy can really shape and change people’s minds for the better.

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    Witches Abroad full cover

    The late, great Terry Pratchett’s Discworld is another series of books that deals with “fantastic racism”, by representing conflicts between humans and non-human creatures (such as trolls, werewolves and vampires). Pratchett’s depiction of these conflicts has been praised as nuanced and biting at times. Even his “good” characters struggle with tolerance, so he isn’t afraid of dipping into gray areas.

    However, both Rowling and Pratchett fall into the trap of telling stories about racism and anti-Semitism while largely only representing white gentiles in their work, making the message of tolerance and multi-culturism ring a little hollow.

    In his book Witches Abroad, Pratchett claimed “Racism was not a problem on the Discworld, because–what with trolls and dwarfs and so on–speciesism was more interesting. Black and white lived in perfect harmony and ganged up on green.” Many critics think this claim of multiculturism is not reflected in the books themselves. It’s been noted there are very few explicit people of color in the Discworld novels. Mark Oshiro and other bloggers have pointed out the problems with this.

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    Harry Potter, Warner Bros

     The same issue has been noted in Harry Potter. Despite the main conflict being a metaphor for anti-Semitism, there is only one confirmed Jewish character (Anthony Goldstein), who is only mentioned a few times in a very minor role. Anyone in the books who is explicitly mentioned to be a person of color are also in minor, supporting roles.  Critics like Kayhan Nejad note that this makes the books rather contradictory, as they uphold the very attitudes they criticize.

    Another concern with these “magical cultures” created by the likes of Rowling and Pratchett is that they often rely on stereotypes, rather than being represented as an actual complex race.  Both Pratchett and Rowling have come under fire for their version of goblins for this reason. Rowling’s goblins in particular have been accused of being perceived as anti-Semitic stereotypes, as they are large nosed beings obsessed with money. It doesn’t help that the one goblin who plays a large role in the plot ultimately betrays the main character.

    Of course, I highly doubt Rowling sat down and thought “I’m going to create this magical creature as a stereotype”, but sometimes this stuff is so deeply ingrained we fail to see the potential implications of what we put on the page.

  2. The Telling by Ursula K. Le Guin

    Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Telling is a book where a woman called Sutty visits the planet Aka, only to find a repressive government has taken over and suppressed the religion of Aka’s inhabitants.

    In both the forward to the book and interviews, Le Guin revealed that she intended the planet’s struggle to be a parallel to the suppression of the Taoist religion by Mao Tse in China. Le Guin wanted to write about this event, but didn’t feel comfortable writing a novel about China due to what she called “a poverty of experience”. She decided a fantastical, broad representation of the problem would work better for her and so she wrote about the repression of religion on a fictional world.

    This shows another reason social metaphor in fantasy is often used. It can give a writer who doesn’t have the confidence necessary to do a real life historical prejudice or social issue the justice it deserves, it can still give them a way to write out their thoughts and feelings.

    Of course, a lot of people would call this a cop-out, and perhaps they would be right. But  I think the key is for a writer not to get lazy with an issue just because they’re doing a metaphor. Instead, work off that historical event to create a story that is less grounded in a particular place and time and more open to the reader’s interpretation, while still respecting the basis of your story…I think if you do that, it can turn out okay.

  3. Octavia Butler's Fledgling

    Another advantage of using fantastic metaphor is that is can allow writers a unique way to rip apart prejudiced stereotypes that dominate both fantasy and real life . An example of this is Octavia Butler’s novel Fledgling. The story is about a black vampire named Shori. Most of her vampire race, the “Ina”, are pale skinned, but Shori is black due to genetic experimentation to make vampires more resistant to sunlight- her vampire genes were merged with those of a black human girl. Shori faces prejudice and violence from people who disapprove of the genetic modification that created her, not liking how she is part human.

    It’s been noted that Shori being black because she is part human is likely Butler’s way of ripping apart and criticizing persistent racial stereotypes. Historically, black people were (and are) often dehumanized by those around them. But in this case, Shiori’s blackness is a marker of her humanity. The other vampires are pale because they are completely inhuman,  but they instantly know by Shori’s dark skin that she is the most human among them. In Butler’s world, blackness is a source of humanity, which is a powerful statement in the face of a history of racists saying the opposite.

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    Fledgling book cover

    Butler also uses her fantasty world to completely invert the idea of blackness being inferior and whiteness being superior (a trope that is sadly apparent in a lot of fantasy fiction, especially vampire fiction. For instance, in Twilight, Stephenie Meyer outright stated that all vampires turn white when they gain their sparkly undead superpowers, regardless of their original race). Rather, in Butler’s world, blackness provides power were paleness does not. Shori has a natural advantage over vampires since she is resistant to sunlight, thanks to both her darker-skinned humanity.

    By creating a world where blackness is an advantage and black people are looked down upon for being too human, Butler uses fantastical social metaphor to call attention to how inherently ridiculous it is to look down on and dehumanize black people.

  4. Octavia Butler’s “Bloodchild” vs Victoria Foyt’s “Save The Pearls”: Good vs Bad Writing

    A common trope when representing social prejudices in sci-fi and fantasy is to explore what it would be like if oppressors and oppressed in our current society were reversed- what if women oppressed men? What if black people oppressed white people? This sort of idea seems good in theory as a way to call attention to the arbitrary nature of prejudice.

    But, as Victoria Foyt’s novel Save the Pearlsproved, the idea can produce a book that’s little more than thinly veiled excuse to trot out offensive stereotypes and have a  protagonist endlessly insult marginalized people.

    Foyt’s novel depicted a dystopian future where, after an environmental disaster, black people, called “Coals”, became a ruling class that oppresses the white people, deemed “Pearls”.  It…really doesn’t make any sense. If black people wanted to oppress white people, why would their name for them be so flattering? Why do black people get compared to a fast-burning chunk of fossil and white people get to be pretty jewelry? If we’re going with weird gem-based race-naming, wouldn’t “onyx” at least be a little more sensical?

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    Save the Pearls: Revealing Eden cover

    The entire project was just cringe inducing. The promotional trailer for the book was blasted for depicting a white woman in blackface.

    However, there are instances of the “reverse oppression” trope in science fiction being done in a non-offensive matter. One example is Octavia Butler’s short story “Bloodchild”, which shows a world where humans are dominated by aliens. Humans, preferably human males, are turned over to the female aliens and forced to bear their young. This is a strict reversal of gender roles compared to our world, where men have been known to dominate women and force them to bear children.

    However, Butler’s depiction of the issue does not fall into the traps Hoyt’s did. The female characters in the book aren’t misogynist stereotypes. Unlike Foyt’s book, we aren’t forced to listen to the main character go on an endless diatribe about evil women and long for the days when men were in power .In fact, the man is fairly conflicted in what he feels for his “chosen mate”- he’s afraid, affectionate, resentful and confused. It’s a very realistic parallel to how women can feel about oppressive men they nevertheless care about. The alien woman also seems kind of conflicted herself, though Butler never uses this to excuse her actions.

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    Bloodchild cover

    Human women are also mentioned as being victimized by the aliens in this story along with the men, so the story doesn’t make any claim about the inherent evil of women.

    The likely explanation for Butler’s success in using the reversal narrative is that as someone who has experienced sexism, she kind of actually knows what she’s talking about. Meanwhile, Hoyt clearly had no idea how racial oppression works to begin with or even of basic things like “holy crap, don’t do blackface”. So, it’s probably a rule of thumb to be very familiar with said oppression before you go about “reversing” it.  

    In fact, since the whole concept is so dicey and can be done so badly so easily, I’d make a suggestion to future authors to just leave it to the people who experience said oppression in the first place to tell these stories. But hey, that’s just my two cents.

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