In 1990, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, stated that the greatest impact of climate change would be on human migration. A steep rise in the Global Mean Sea Level, or GMSL, will become a dangerous result of anthropogenic climate change. The GMSL is projected to rise between 17 and 29cm by 2050. This extreme change in sea levels will result in coastal flooding and, therefore, a 25% decrease in the area of coastal lands. Along with a dynamic rise in sea level, global warming will lead to drastic climate changes, which will result in extreme temperatures, droughts, and floods. This striking climate change will affect 77% of the cities around the world (Crowther Lab). In the end, making huge stretches of the world uninhabitable. This loss of housing and living resources will result in a steep rise in forced climate migrants. According to the World Bank, if no climate action is taken, the number of forced climate migrants will rise up to 143 million by 2050. That means that “one in every 45 people will have been displaced” due to climate change (International Organization for Migration).
In The Wall, John Lanchester presents a future society that has experienced catastrophic climate change, leaving millions displaced. These forced climate migrants are seen floating endlessly on the sea, outside a concrete barrier, termed by Lanchester as “the Wall” (Lanchester 10). This “concrete monster” is the “National Coastal Defence Structure,” which encircles Britain, securing its citizens from both unwanted water and climate migrants (Lanchester 11, 22). These unwanted and feared climate migrants are termed the “Others” (Lanchester 15).
In order to protect the Wall, from the Others, the young citizens of this frigid fortress state are deployed to guard the Wall for two years. These forced guards are known as “Defenders” (Lanchester 10). If they succeed in guarding the Wall for two years, they are permitted to live the rest of their lives inside the safety of the Wall. Although, if they fail and Others cross the Wall during their watch, they are forced to take the place of the Others and are put to sea. Thus, transforming the fate of these Defenders in an instant, from young citizens to induced migrants.
Although the cause of displacement of the forced climate migrants, or Others, and the induced migrants, or prior Defenders is different, they both share a doomed fate, resting in the unpredictable hands of Nature. The forced climate migrants or Others are displaced due to uninhabitable conditions of their homelands. While induced migrants or prior Defenders have been relocated as planned by the state and agreed upon by the community, as they failed to defend the Wall, and, therefore their lives.
The protagonist of this dystopian fable, Joseph Kavanagh, crosses over from being a citizen to an induced migrant, from a Defender to an Other. Kavanagh, who shares his name with Joseph K. from Franz Kafka’s The Trial, also shares his fate of becoming an outlaw for no defendable reason. He is put to sea for failing in his “duty as a Defender” (Lanchester 124). This induced migration can be seen in the division of the book into three parts. Kavanagh migrates from being a citizen on “The Wall”, which is the first part, to an induced migrant on “The Sea”, which is the third part, with the intermediary stage of identifying himself and understanding “The Others”, in the second part.
Unlike previous usages of the wall as a metaphorical barricade, Lanchester does not use it symbolically but as a practical structure. This is similar to the cold on the Wall, which “isn’t a metaphor” (Lanchester 10). The practicality of the Wall is portrayed through the graphic visualisations of concrete poetry and haiku. The visuals move from the shape of a tree:
“a
poem
about a
tree in the
shape of a tree,
in this case a Christ-
mas tree, not a very con-
vincing tree and not a very good
poem but it’s not trying to be a death-
less masterpiece it’s just to show the idea
yes?”
to a block of concrete:
“concrete concrete concrete concrete concrete
concrete concrete concrete concrete concrete
concrete concrete concrete concrete concrete
concrete concrete concrete concrete concrete
concrete concrete concrete concrete concrete
concrete concrete concrete concrete concrete”
and then to a haiku:
“sky!
cold
water
concrete
wind”
(Lanchester 17, 18, 19)
This change in shapes captures the Change that has occurred after a catastrophic climatic event that has left the world consisting of “concretewaterskywindcold” (Lanchester 18). It is this lack of spacing that represents the looming Wall, dividing the citizens and forcing climate migrants.
Lanchester’s Wall also has a stark resemblance to the Wall of Westeros of George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones. They both keep out unwanted migrants. Although, unlike the Wall of Westeros, Lanchester’s Wall is not magical but a massive concrete barricade. Whereas those attempting to cross the Wall are not white walkers who are “inhuman beings with mystic powers” or wights who are “dead people” turned into “zombies” but actual human beings (Renfro). In stark contrast to the white walkers, these forced climate migrants are “black-clad” figures hoping to “hopping silently over the Wall, knife in its hand, murder in its eyes, nothing to lose” (Lanchester 34). Therefore, it can be said that Lanchester, a self-proclaimed Game of Thrones addict, takes a realistic but inspired approach to the Westeros legend.
This fantasy turned reality does not hit Kavanagh until he is forced to experience the first turn of violence, when Mary, the cook of their squad, is shot while serving coffee to Kavanagh. This shocking turn to violence leaves Kavanagh in a phase of confusion and denial. Originally, Kavanagh is presented as a person who has blinkers on and has numbed himself to a life without perspective. It is this violent shot that forces him to understand the desperate hope of the forced climate migrants on the other side of the Wall.
The Others who are successful in making the breach are “always caught and offered the standard choice.” They have to choose between “being euthanised, becoming Help or being put back to see” (Lanchester 40). This choice provided to forced climate migrants is similar to that offered to war captives. In order to survive, these migrants choose to become Help, which is a form of state-sanctioned slavery. They make this choice as it has the “attraction” that if they have children, “the children are raised as citizens,” which resembles the current British Citizenship by Birth law for immigrant parents (Immigration Advice Service). This powerlessness over their identity is similar to the Pearls or immigrants of Gilead in Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments. While Lanchester’s climate migrants are offered to choose their identity, Atwood’s Pearls are “observed carefully” and “assigned” their identities as “potential Wives or Econowives, or Supplicants, or, in some unhappy cases, Handmaids” (Atwood ch. 47). This limitation of choices provided to the migrants puts them in a tight spot. Thus, although they have entered a climatic safe space inside the Wall, they have not become liberated. Prior to setting foot inside the Wall, they were in the open, and their lives toed between their free will and the forces of Nature. Whereas, after their successful escapade from Nature, they are now shackled by the state. Thus, the Wall confines them rather than rescues them.
The Help, as presented in The Wall is considered by Kavanagh as a “life upgrade,” a “status symbol” which makes life both easier and “nicer.” Kavanagh wants to become “rich enough” that he can afford Help so that he has “somebody else to do the boring and difficult bits” for him (Lanchester 62). Apart from domestic chores, these difficult bits include the time spent guarding the Wall, which the “rich and powerful people” are suspected of being exempted from by rigging their IDs and sending their Help instead of going themselves (Lanchester 83).
As opposed to Kavanagh’s wish of having Help, Hifa’s mother, a retired art teacher who already has Help realises that having another “human being at one’s beck and call” is a “lessening of one own’s humanity”. Although she is later seen justifying this act of slavery as “a form of providing welfare and shelter and refuge to the wretched of the world”. She further argues that she would never have succumbed to this decline of humanity in earlier times before the Change had occurred. Nonetheless, she defends her mannerism of a do-gooder as a reason for the “terribleness of age”. She reasons that although the “spirit is willing”, the “flesh is weak, and if we’re being completely honest, the spirit isn’t always willing either” (Lanchester 107). Therefore, it can be argued that irrespective of the Change, having Help, a pretentious term used for slavery, is a falling of humanity, a decline of civilisation, for which no argument can be regarded as reasonable and just.
The Others who cross the Wall tend to become Breeders, a term given to those who reproduce. The citizens, on the other hand, “don’t want to Breed, because the world is such a horrible place”. The rule is that if “you reproduce, you can leave” the Wall, so Defenders use breeding as an incentive to save their own lives (Lanchester 31). Thus, in order to live, they should create life. This is reflective of Kazuo Ishiguro’s take on mortality and hope in his dystopian novel, Never Let Me Go, where the existence of the clones, Tommy, Ruth, and Kathy, is to donate to create life. The purpose of the clones is parallel to that of the Others who have entered the Wall, as selfless providers for the rich and the powerful. Thus, the act of providing refuge to these forced climate migrants is a sham, in order to justify the state’s exploitation of the climate migrants as Help and Breeders.
This realist story of a Kafkaesque character leaves the future of forced climate migrants at an uncertain but hopeful edge. Similar to Kafka’s endings, The Wall ends in the confused state of settled in displacement, as Kavanagh and his partner, Hifa, find “some sort of installation” in the middle of the unsettling sea (Lanchester 172). Although, unlike Kafka, Lanchester adds a flicker of hope for survival in the literal sense of the flicker of a flame from a lamp. Therefore, providing light and warmth to the fear of uncertainty by stating, “Everything is going to be alright” (Lanchester 189).
Works Cited:
Atwood, Margaret. The Testaments. Vintage Books, 2020.Kindle ebook file.
“British Citizenship by Birth: Child Born in the UK: IAS.” Immigration Advice Service, iasservices.org.uk/british-citizenship-by-birth/.
Brown, Oli. “Migration and Climate Change.” IOM Migration Research Series, 2008, doi:10.18356/26de4416-en.
Cities of the Future: Visualizing Climate Change to … crowtherlab.pageflow.io/cities-of-the-future-visualizing-climate-change-to-inspire-action.
Day, Jon. “The Wall by John Lanchester – a Brilliant Dystopian Portrait of Britain.” Subscribe to Read | Financial Times, Financial Times, 11 Jan. 2019, www.ft.com/content/b0d3708e-1284-11e9-a168-d45595ad076d.
Fox, Annie. The Handmaids Tale: Margaret Atwood. Oxford University Press., 2017.
IPCC First Assessment Report, Volume I. The Panel, 1990.
Lanchester, John. The Wall. W W Norton, 2020.
Martin, George R. R. A Game of Thrones, George R R Martin. BCA, 1999.
Nevala-lee, Alec. “Rising Seas, Migrants, War: A Timely Novel From John Lanchester.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 5 Mar. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/03/05/books/review/john-lanchester-wall.html.
“Overview.” World Bank, www.worldbank.org/en/topic/climatechange/overview.
Reinheimer-Wolf, Rita. Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go. Westermann, 2019.
Renfro, Kim. “Here’s the Difference between White Walkers and Wights on ‘Game of Thrones’.” Insider, Insider, 10 Apr. 2019, www.insider.com/game-of-thrones-white-walkers-wights-skeletons-difference-2017-8.
Seattle, Town Hall. “John Lanchester: The Wall | Town Hall Seattle.” YouTube, YouTube, 20 Mar. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a0I0-0s44E.
Irram Irfan is a PhD research scholar at English and Foreign Languages University at Hyderabad, India. Her research interests include Migration Studies, Postcolonial Literature and Transnational Studies.