"Less than an Animal": An Introspection on Race, Class, and Ideology in the United States Through Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn

Identifier

239

Author

Vera E. Brown

Date

2024

Document Type

Honors Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Major

English

Committee Member

Shelby Crosby

Committee Member

Kathy Lou Schultz

Abstract

In Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn: The Final Empire, the dynamics between the skaa and the nobility classes compare to the relationship between the Black and white communities within the U.S.. The skaa's oppression is seen through economic disenfranchisement, government targeting and violence. Which shows how African Americans are disadvantaged by a system with embedded racism. The nobility perpetuate this oppression even when the government system also targets them because of the privileges they get to hold, like poorer white Americans. The system relies on feelings of superiority to keep it going. Through a rebellion, characters develop different ideologies on what the best way to dismantle this system is. Some want the groups to work together like integrationist ideas during the Civil Rights Movement, while others want to gain strength on their own like the idea of Black separatism. Sanderson prefers the integrationist thinking but does not portray separatism in a negative light.

Comments

Undergraduate Honor's Thesis

Library Comment

Honors thesis originally submitted to the Local University of Memphis Honor’s Thesis Repository.

Recommended Citation

Brown, Vera E., ""Less than an Animal": An Introspection on Race, Class, and Ideology in the United States Through Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn" (2024). Honors Theses. 152.
https://digitalcommons.memphis.edu/honors_theses/152