Tennessee Williams 'The People Of Sand And Slag' By Paolo Bacigalup

While the Industrial Revolution was beneficial to the people of the world, our greed of leading a luxurious life is continuously destroying the environment. Throughout The People of Sand and Slag by Paolo Bacigalupi, a novelette and “The Chalky White Substance” by Tennessee Williams (a play), the intended focus is to show the destruction caused by the human species and imply a future the entire population is heading towards. Both pieces of literature imply a common ending for the population: mass extinction due to the abuse of the environment.
In “The Chalky White Substance,” Williams shows the effect of wars on, not only the land but the people of the world. He does this by providing stage directions and dialogue between two male figures known as Luke and Mark.

The stage directions reveal the passage of a “great” war.

The thermonuclear war has, like expected left marks on, not only the environment but the people too. The impacts are revealed in the characters’ discussion. The discussion of the damage can be categorized as immediate effects and long-term effects. One of the most immediate effect is the death of many people, be it soldiers, doctors or family members as mentioned in “Now women are so much fewer than men…” (Williams, P.468) indicating that the majority of the female population is dying off. Also immediate is the effect on the land such as “…sky that is cloudless and yet faintly blurred by tiny granules of something like old powdered bones….” (Williams, P.467) signifying that the sky cannot be seen clearly because dust and particles have flown into the sky due to the dropping of nuclear weapons. “There’s little food, and even less water” can be considered a long-term effect since the war destroys all crops and edible items in stores. The

human species need food and water to survive, all of which are lost in any war. The effect on one’s mind and body after the war is one of the most prominent long-term effect of any war. Participants of a war not only lose family and friends but also see the killing of millions of people in front of their eyes. Visualizing such events leave those people with poor mental health; regaining mental health takes many years and is also impossible in some cases. Hence, a chain reaction is created in which the last step is the death of the people of the world.
In “The People of Sand and Slag”, Bacigalupi presents to the readers, the possibility of a future world in which humans are altered and, for this very reason, the novelette can be thought of as an extension to Williams’ poem. Set in Montana, the novelette portrays the destruction of humanity. The destruction, which is essentially the extinction of the human species, can lead to genetically modified beings as seen in the characters Chen, Jaak and Lisa in in “Our exoskeletons shattered like glass, flinging leaves into the sky” (Bacigalupi, P.51). While Chen, Jaak and Lisa have certain advantages, they are also deprived of some. “We ate sand for dinner” (P.54) and “I had a bowl of tailings mud…” (P.54) reveals one advantage: ability to eat inedible items. In “…I sliced off her limb…Already, her limbs were regrowing” (Bacigalupi, P.65), another advantage is exposed: if hurt, they have the capability to cut of their respective body part and allow it to regrow. Non- genetically modified humans and animals can think and express their emotions and in “It thinks?” (Bacigalupi, P.61) Lisa is surprised by the dog’s ability to process information. This amusement, however makes it seem as if these genetically modified characters have lost the ability to process information like other humans. While the advantages seem appealing, do we really want to give up our current ways and be altered?
In conclusion to all the above, both Bacigalupi’s and Williams’ works have commonalities. One of the commonalities is that both focus on the theme of destruction. In this common theme, the difference (although slight) lies in the destruction type: Bacigalupi’s focus is on eventual disappearance of the population while Williams’ focus is on land destruction. Interestingly, in either case, both question human activity and influence us to change our ways for the better by instilling fear. Whether the human species change their ways remains a mystery for all to see.