Jenni Fagan is a Scottish author of the novel The Sunlight Pilgrims. The Sunlight Pilgrims tells the story of two broken, yet interconnected families. At the onset of the novel, Constance is in a love triangle with Caleb and Alistair. Alistair and Constance no longer live together. However, they have a daughter named Stella. Stella is a transgender teen, and she resents Alistair for calling her by her birth name, Cael. Dylan is a single man from London. He moves to Clachan Fells following the deaths of his mother and grandmother. There, he falls in love with Constance, but she is not ready to settle down. Through an intrinsic need to work together, this brokenness and confusion is transformed into togetherness and survival.
Constance, Dylan, …show more content…
Kinship is a theme that runs throughout the novel. “Kin is a wild category that all sorts of people do their best to domesticate (Haraway, Staying With the Trouble, 2).”is typically defined as a familial relationship. However, Haraway simplifies the definition to include friends and others around us. She explains the various ways in which people can “make” kin. The main characters in The Sunlight Pilgrims have a complex family tree. Towards the end of the story, Dylan finds this family tree, and makes two important revelations: Constance and Alistair are half siblings. Also, Gunn and her brother Olaf incestuously conceived Vivienne. It is implied that this conception was through rape (The Sunlight Pilgrims, Fagan, 211). This complicated history was brought to the surface during a time when everyone had to depend on each other for survival. The temperature outside was at an all-time low, and a severe snowstorm had developed. Stella, Constance, and Dylan were trying to make their way home, but the storm was too powerful. Their only choice was to seek refuge at Alistair’s house. “They sit on the sofa in a row. Alistair, Constance, Dylan, Stella (Haraway, Staying With the Trouble,
Constance, Dylan, …show more content…
Kinship is a theme that runs throughout the novel. “Kin is a wild category that all sorts of people do their best to domesticate (Haraway, Staying With the Trouble, 2).”is typically defined as a familial relationship. However, Haraway simplifies the definition to include friends and others around us. She explains the various ways in which people can “make” kin. The main characters in The Sunlight Pilgrims have a complex family tree. Towards the end of the story, Dylan finds this family tree, and makes two important revelations: Constance and Alistair are half siblings. Also, Gunn and her brother Olaf incestuously conceived Vivienne. It is implied that this conception was through rape (The Sunlight Pilgrims, Fagan, 211). This complicated history was brought to the surface during a time when everyone had to depend on each other for survival. The temperature outside was at an all-time low, and a severe snowstorm had developed. Stella, Constance, and Dylan were trying to make their way home, but the storm was too powerful. Their only choice was to seek refuge at Alistair’s house. “They sit on the sofa in a row. Alistair, Constance, Dylan, Stella (Haraway, Staying With the Trouble,