Özen 1

Alperen Özen

Asst. Prof. Dr. Fatma Aykanat

IDE-502/566 Environment, Culture and Literature

04.04.2024

SARAH HALL’S CARHULLAN ARMY AS AN ECOLOGICAL DYSTOPIA

How high is the probability of ecological problems that may occur in the

foreseeable future to negatively affect the world or the society people live in, or how

seriously do people take the possibility of nature’s being cruel to them in the future? Even

though people do not consider these possibilities, the way they live may make them come to a

bad end. Furthermore, if people encounter such a bad end, will they hold women responsible

for it? Sarah Hall, who was born in Cumbria in 1974 and took a degree in English and Art

History at Aberystwyth University, partially answers these questions in her novel The

Carhullan Army (Kander). In The Carhullan Army, there are critical approaches to these

questions. The words ‘Ecology’ and ‘Dystopia’ stand for a combination in which a chain of

bad events and ecological problems led by a catastrophe interoperate. Pelin Kümbet, in her

essay, describes the novel, “Retrospectively narrated by “Sister,” the novel depicts a bleak,

near-future Britain, mostly underwater, undergoing severe economic depression, relentless

wars, eco-disasters, lethal epidemics, social turmoil, cultural breakdowns, and massive

gender inequality.” (326). Hall draws on ecofeminism to create a work to be considered an

Ecological Dystopia in the novel. Malvestio offers, “Eco-dystopia qualifies as a hybrid genre,

in which rumination on a catastrophic event (usually climate change) is not simply a narrative

tool, but a way of reflecting on our present. Eco-dystopia merges the narration of the

catastrophe of the post-apocalyptic novel and the predictive speculations of dystopia.” (28).

In this regard, it is significant for a novel to be considered as an Ecological Dystopia that a

catastrophe and a death spiral ensue. The novel goes forward with a woman, who prefers to
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be called “Sister” and tries to escape from the Authority, which imposes birth control on

women and takes everything under control supposedly to prevent ecological disasters and

diseases after a catastrophe, to the Carhullan Army in which women are supposed to resist the

“Authority” under the leadership of Jackie Nixon. “Sister” retrospectively narrates the near

future of Britain, which is sunk underwater and undergoes ecological problems, abandoned

cities and regions, and gender inequalities. This paper explores that life and women are

directly interrelated to sustain the natural cycle in the world, and that the totalitarian

“Authority” seizing power as a consequence of a catastrophe targets women and makes

nature even more dysfunctional in The Carhullan Army. Additionally, this research shows

how each individual draws advantage from the present state when it comes to holding the

reins of power and that a chain of bad events will influence societies fatally.

In The Carhullan Army, Rith’s agency, the town where “Sister” live, is that it

stands for a dystopian microcosm of England in the near future, which is ravaged by many

anthropocentric attitudes of people (Kümbet 327). In the early parts of the novel, while

“Sister” is running for her life from Rith, where she lives, she encounters a man, and the man

murmurs, “There was a reason he had seen only one person travelling on this road in the

years since the collapse.” (Hall 16). This quote proves that a flood has occurred, and since

then, the man has not come upon anyone but “Sister”. Hall reveals how, after the ecological

problem, places that have been previously living spaces have been destroyed and condemned

to silence and abandonment. It is emphasized very effectively in the novel that death is not

only the end of the individual's biological life activities but also the mental collapse of

individuals as the balance of nature is disrupted and their living spaces are ruined. “Sister”,

who tells the events retrospectively, also talks about her experiences before the catastrophe,

“I remember seeing him in the Union bar, strong-featured, attractive I thought. Both our flats

had been flooded when the new estuary defences failed, and we were caught up in the first of

the big insurance scandals, put in temporary housing, close to each other.” (Hall 17). In the
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novel, in which the ecological balance is disrupted and people's life energy is almost

completely destroyed, Hall emphasizes that mental collapse is perhaps much worse than

biological death by describing how “Sister” was previously in love with her husband and how

the “Authority” behaved unjustly toward them. Moreover, Hall’s frame of mind unfolds the

stereotypical perspectives toward women and nature. Why do only women exert to escape

from the “Authority” and why does nature get exposed to the anthropocentric impacts? Are

women and nature able to intertangled? In the novel, the “Authority” holds women

responsible for the catastrophic disasters and the nurses insert coils into the wombs of the

women. “Sister” remembers these days and they flash before her eyes, “The nurse clenched

her fist around the coil to signify a womb, and she smiled at us. We could all expect heavier

periods after insertion, she said, and perhaps a fraction more pain. But really it was nothing to

worry about.” (Hall 21). As women are human beings, who are inseparable parts of nature

and vitalize nature, it should be considered why women are marginalized?

Considering the pleasure that holding the reins of power gives people, everyone

tries to rule their world as much as they can. While Sister runs away from Rith, she doesn't

think of her husband since her husband, Andrew, seems like an "Authority" in his way against

“Sister”. While everywhere is full of debris, the system and people are trying to satisfy their

egos and protect their interests against the problems that are snowballing towards people.

However, the harsh responses that nature gives to people demonstrate that each particle in

nature is essential for a more desirable life, still, people cannot comprehend the value to

understand it. No one either wishes to see carrions stinking with their own eyes or wishes to

see the towns, where they lived happily before, become nothing by their own hands. “Sister”

describes the disrupted nature and an animal carcass in a living place she encounters during

her escape to the Carhullan Army by saying:

Beside one of these piles was a rotting dog. The muzzle was sodden and

decaying and its jaws looked set in a wide snarl. The eyes and fur were gone.
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Its belly had distended and under its tail was a writhing patch of maggots. I

stood over the creature until the smell that rose from it became unbearable.

Then I walked away (Hall 27).

In this research paper, this quote, which Hall describes through Sister in her The

Carhullan Army, suggests that nature may have a response as a result of the anthropocentric

attitudes that people exhibit nature today. In the novel, Hall impressively describes women

and ecological problems, telling the reader that nature and women are two elements that

cannot be separated from each other for ecological balance. While everyone in society is

exposed to the consequences of damage to nature, the fact that only women are held

responsible attests that women are victims at least as much as nature. It would not be wrong

to correlate the future lives that Hall describes in an eco-dystopian way in the novel with the

problems of today. It is undeniable that earthquakes or floods that occur in some countries are

a fact of nature, however; even though these disasters are situations that can be guarded

against scientifically, the fact that people still suffer from such disasters due to the political

and economic plans of authorities is a sign of how right Hall is.

These ecological disasters that humanity has experienced many times are not

catastrophic disasters that are likely to occur in the future, but the reaction of nature, which is

a toy of politics and pragmatic thinking, to which today's world is constantly exposed, using

the harsh reaction technique. Famines experienced by societies in different geographies of the

world, bodily sicknesses caused by radioactive waste and, many uncountable disasters are

proof that this discourse is not just a literary concept. When considered from this point of

view, “ecological dystopia” is not a discourse of the future, however; it has become a lifestyle

that societies are currently living and no one believes they are living. In Curhallan Army,

“Sister” explains what Jackie Nixon has said in a conversation with Sister's Jack Nixon, the

leader of the Curhallan Army:

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Jackie told me that it was a temporary spike; their numbers would probably

dwindle again in a few years, when disease and starvation knocked the

population back. It seemed hard to believe. Everything was in abundance.

Moss and lichen thrived, and the place was almost exotic with foliage.

Buzzards circled the warrens, and hawks fell in long stoops towards their prey

on the slopes. Without the human cultivation of the previous decades, I could

see that true wildlife had returned to the Northern mountains. We were living

in the wilderness (Hall 117).

Societies continue to live and will continue to live, with the comfort of always

living in abundance, without thinking about the needs of nature and the need to be gentle

towards nature. The increase in population density and the fact that science, which

approaches nature and nature’s woman as if it were protecting them and examines every

microorganism, has given up on nature for economic and political aims cannot be explained

with any logic. In this quote, it would not be wrong to express that Hall has, in one way or

another, lost hope against this order. The bad effects of oil wars, using people as machines,

economic crises, and natural disasters in today's world are realized in the novel. In Carhullan

Army, another of Hall's most effective depictions is how the desire for management destroys

first people and then nature. The corruption within the Carhullan Army, which consists

entirely of women who are feminists and misogynists in a way, reveals how the community,

which supposedly serves a good purpose, has misapplied its purpose. In The Carhullan Army,

the effects of despair and ecological balance on human life are depicted more clearly as time

passes by. Human and non-human creatures and beings are currently equal to each other. The

mental collapse of the people who came after the flood is unlikely to recover. Stray animals,

unused vehicles, piles, debris, and everything else reflect on the inside of people's minds. At

the end of this novel, Sister speaks recklessly about what she saw:
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The settlement was the same as it had been when I left. Everything looked

familiar, run-down and debilitated, still caught up in the failed mechanism of

the recovery plan. Nothing seemed to have improved. The cyst-like meters

hummed on the facades of buildings. Fetid rubbish was piled in open plots –

electronics, prams, moulded plastics – and hundreds of vehicles lined the

concrete aprons of the old supermarket. I saw a litter of feral puppies curled

underneath a bus. They looked up with hungry solicitous eyes as we walked

by, and growled. The lower-lying streets were under water and on the doors of

the houses a red X had been dashed. We passed by the turbine factory. The

gates were locked, and a heavy chain sat between their bars. There was a

notice secured to the post. Closed until further notice (Hall 124).

The streets where everyone once walked happily have now turned into the scenes

of horror movies intricately. The worst is that people have forgotten how to be surprised by

these desperate scenes. The debris here depicts people, and the minds of these people are

worse than the debris.

Consequently, Societies are currently experiencing dystopia and will continue to

experience it. Time and place will always change, but the perspective on women and nature’s

woman will continue to live as if it will never have a bad impact on these societies. In

Ecology Dystopia and Fictionalization, written by Bülent Cercis Tanrıtanır and Fatma

Karaman, they express, “In ecology novel, time is an essential element because all the

destructive deeds of human occurred in a long time period which is not taken seriously while

they continue polluting unconsciously” (Tanrıtanır and Karaman 34). This research paper

touches upon the holistic effects of ecological problems that can happen to today's societies at

any time and also examines the realistic ecofeminist and eco-dystopian narrative of Sister's

experiences in The Curhallan Army. The anthropocentric attitudes of authorities and societies

have already created major threats for the future. Moreover, people with ambition for power
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The fact that power-hungry people abuse the ecological system and even turn these disasters

to their advantage has turned today's world into an Ecodystopian novel.

WORKS CITED

Hall, Sarah. The Carhullan Army. London: Faber and Faber, 2007
Kander, N. Sarah Hall. Available at: https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/sarah-hall.

Kümbet, Pelin. “Sarah Hall’un Carhullan Ordusu Romanına Materyal/Eko Feminist

Yaklaşım.” Dil ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları/Journal of Language and Literature Studies
(2021): n. pag. Web.

Malvestio, Marco. “Theorizing Eco-Dystopia: Science Fiction, the Anthropocene, and the
Limits of Catastrophic Imagery.” The European Journal of Creative Practices 5.1
(2022): n. pag. Web. 29 Mar. 2024.
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Tanrıtanır, Bülent Cercis, and Fatma Karaman. Ecology Dystopia and Fictionalization. Van:
İksad Publishing House, 2021. Print.