Emotional Dissociation, Suicidal Ideation and Apathy: An Analysis of Climate Trauma in Sam J Miller Blackfish City

Abstract

This research paper endeavours to examine Climate Trauma in Sam J Miller’s Blackfish City (2018). Miller’s novel portrays the characters suffering from Climate Trauma exhibiting symptoms such as suicidal thoughts, pre-anxiety, apathy, emotional dissociation and other ecologically induced mental distresses. The major character, Fill, is a victim of Climate Trauma and he exhibits Climate Trauma through his psychological distresses like emotional dissociation, numbness and apathy. This research paper gathers and interprets relevant textual evidence of Climate Trauma and its symptoms while employing close reading to select relevant text and textual analysis to analysis the selected text in the light of the theory and context. The analysis concludes that Climate Trauma is a real ontological, epistemological and psychological rupture which is the result of the chronic, ever-present and imagined ecological calamites. In the novel, Fill’s condition is shown to stem from the way he is disconnected from nature at various level. It demonstrates that his Climate Trauma is due to his mechanistic, materialistic and reductionistic world view. The significance of the paper lies in its contribution to the growing field of ecocriticism; and aims to engage literary scholars and explore it in new ways.