The White Darkness / Geraldine McCaughrean
McCaughrean’s The White Darkness is a fascinating, award-winning young-adult fiction work that takes its readers on a captivating journey to Antarctica. It tells the story of Symone Wates (Sym), a fourteen-year-old girl, who is a hearing-disabled protagonist who lost her father and is a social outcast. Sym is obsessed with Antarctica and with the stories of explorers who went there. Being extremely passionate about Antarctica, Sym is filled with joy and excitement when her alleged ‘Uncle’ Victor kidnaps her to make her dreams come true and takes her to Antarctica.
A Little Bit of History
The book references the famous explorers who endeavored to discover Antarctica, and it would be fascinating to read it even more after familiarizing yourself with their history.
In short, or just the tip of the iceberg, the Terra Nova Expedition, led by the English explorer Robert Falcon Scott in the years 1910-1913, together with Captain Lawrence Edward Grace "Titus" Oates (who is also the protagonist's imaginary friend) and 14 other people, went to Antarctica in the hope to be the first to reach the south pole. Their expedition succeeded, and on January 17th, 1912, they reached the South Pole. However, to their disappointment, they discovered that 34 days earlier, Roald Amundsen, a Norwegian explorer, and his party had beaten them to the punch, and were the first to reach the pole.
On their way back, due to severe weather conditions, they died one after the other. Captain Oates was weak and became a liability for the rest, and his last words, according to Scott's journal, were: "I am just going outside and may be some time," but they all knew that he went outside to die to not be a liability for the rest. However, this act did not help the group, and they all died shortly after.
Edward Adrian Wilson, Robert Falcon Scott, Lawrence Oates, Henry Robertson Bowers, and Edgar Evans at the South Pole, with the Norwegian flag behind them.
The Representation of Antarctica
It is very interesting to pay attention to the way McCaughrean describes Antarctica in the book. The representation of Antarctica transitions from an idyllic place to a sublime landscape, and then finally, to a flawed one that has nothing to offer humans. From a place that offers a "chance of a lifetime" and that is "too good to miss" (McCaughrean 24), to a sublime place that "would kill us if it could [...] and yet [...] so beautiful, so marvellous" (McCaughrean 59), and, eventually, to a place of complete terror, or a "frigid bitch of a place!" (McCaughrean 236).
A poem
It's also a great opportunity to look into this beautiful poem by the English poet Samuel Coleridge, which is generally believed to be inspired by the voyages of explorers who went into the Antarctic Circle. This part of the poem describes the perpetual White continent as hostile and intimidating, and as one that deceives its human visitors to a point where they lose their grip on reality.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner / Samuel Coleridge (1772-1834):
And now there came both mist and snow,
And it grew wondrous cold:
And ice, mast-high, came floating by,
As green as emerald.
And through the drifts the snowy clifts
Did send a dismal sheen:
Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken--
The ice was all between.
The ice was here, the ice was there,
The ice was all around:
It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,
Like noises in a swound!
(lines 51-62) *Click here for the full poem
After reading this poem and other Antarctic stories like The White Darkness, I cannot help but wonder about the motives and ambitions writers have to represent Antarctica in this way, what are they trying to achieve, and what are the potential benefits or pitfalls of this representation. Let me know what you think!
This book is recommended to young adults who love adventure stories and are looking for a book they cannot put aside. Enjoy!
