Escaping Earth vs. Escaping Humanity: A Literary Analysis of Sue Burke's Semiosis

Disclaimer and Content Warning: This analysis contains spoilers for the novel Semiosis by Sue Burke, which you can buy and read for yourself here on Amazon. The analysis also touches on the subjects of murder and sexual assault as they pertain to the novel.

     In the second chapter of Sue Burke’s Semiosis, Half-Foot Wendy explains to her daughter that the group volunteered to leave Earth and start a new life on Pax in order to “do it right this time, without the unfairness that made some people rich and some people poor” (57). While the Pacifists on Pax do avoid struggles relating to wealth, unfairness still permeates their new civilization. The first generation is still from Earth, and while they may escape the planet itself, they have not escaped all facets of their identity and culture. They make decisions and mistakes that a human on Earth would make, and the examples they set are the only examples for their children to observe. The unfair divides on Pax may look different than the ones we face on Earth, but they stem from the same Earthly roots. The issue then is not escaping Earth, but escaping the undesirable elements of humanity, which finally begin to unravel when several generations have passed. Semiosis represents this departure from Earth’s corruptions through the role of lies and secrecy within the novel, and Sylvia’s steel knife is used as the main symbol of deceit versus truth.

The first generation, known as the parents, are perhaps the worst offenders in terms of repeating the cruelties they wished to escape on Earth. This is fitting, as they are hardly removed from the planet---they still grew up there. However, their previous lives on Earth do not dismiss the horrific scope of their actions to assert control over the children of the second and third generation. 

The first issue created by the parents is ageism. Rather than a divide based on wealth, there is a divide based on generation that impacts rights. The parents expect to be listened to and obeyed even when they do not listen to the children, and they lie/hide information from the children as well, which is unfair treatment. Based on the lies from the parents (and the lies of future generations as the novel continues), lies and secrets become symbolic, representing the Earthly ideals that the parents initially found insidious enough to leave the planet over.

When Sylvia and Julian leave to find the Rainbow City, it is parallel to the parents leaving Earth: Each has a hope for something more in their future. Rather than recognizing this similarity, the parents (and mainly Vera as moderator) see this as something to be punished for, as the children have acted without approval from the parents. The parents choose punishments over granting the children equality through admitting their lies and listening to their perspectives, and the punishments they choose are some of the worst that Earth and humanity have to offer. Julian is murdered, though it is played off as an accident--”They lied about Earth, they lied about the city, and now they were lying about how Julian died--and Sylvia is raped--”They’d hurt me as badly as they could” (69, 78). Vera/the parents contradict the peaceful expectations they have set for Pax by enacting these crimes to control and silence their children. 

One of the most interesting aspects of this violence is that the parents resort to it in what they consider to be the best interest of Pax. Octavo reveals that the parents are afraid of the bamboo: “They knew about the city, all the parents did, but they were afraid of the bamboo, so afraid that they killed Julian to make sure we wouldn’t go back” (75). This fear reveals that lying and avoiding the city (and the bamboo that inhabits it) is a method of protecting the children in their eyes. Yet it is beyond cruel for them to believe that raping and murdering their children, and creating more layers of lies in the process, is the best way to protect them. Their “safety precautions” are actions that take or greatly damage lives, which breaches the constitutional goals of peace on Pax.

Luckily, with each passing generation, the Pacifists distance themselves from cruel Earthly customs, as well as non-violent customs. A non-violent example from the second generation is that the children feel no shame over nudity, though they are aware that it makes the parents uncomfortable: “I took off my clothes because parents hated nudity for some Earth reason” (73). These kinds of non-violent shifts help Pax feel more well rounded in their departure from Earth’s ideals, especially as it sets up their revolt against the parents. The fact that they have observed parental discomfort over nudity and have not adopted that discomfort themselves makes it more realistic for bigger thoughts and ideals to differ from the opinions of their parents. Their willingness to protest against their parents comes as less of a surprise when we see that they are already shifting away from the beliefs of the parents in these other ways.

Sylvia herself, only of the second generation, breaks away from a large portion of the evil that is still rooted in the parents when she takes over. She puts an end to moderators organizing murder and the problem of rape, but the shroud of Earth’s evils remains in the fact that her role as moderator is covered by a lie. When she kills Vera to overthrow her, this story is recorded in the official written records, but it is not common knowledge among the colony. This violent overthrow of Vera as moderator is kept out of social circulation for the same reason that the parents lied about the rainbow city: they feared that knowledge of it would lead to bad things, and wanted to protect Pax. Though the Pacifists do become much more like real pacifists without Vera, the cycle of lies is still continued.

The cycle is passed on to later generations when Sylvia, in confidence, transfers the knife to Tatiana of the fourth generation and assigns her the role of commissioner of public peace. The knife is not the only secret that Tatiana holds as she takes on this role; she becomes responsible for privately handling matters that endanger the Pacifists, such as addiction and domestic violence: “Lief had beaten his wife and children until I intervened, another of the secrets I carry for my job” (141). Tatiana’s role is one of the novel’s most obvious ways of connecting its themes of deceit to evil as well as the Pacifists’ notion of deceit as protection. The horrible deeds that Tatiana deals with represent evil, and her role itself of handling matters privately represents actions taken in secret for the assumed benefit of Pax. Her possession of the knife also strengthens its symbolism. 

We finally see the colony make a clear separation from Earth’s cruelties when Stevland reveals the knife to the Pacifists and Bartholomew of the fifth generation becomes moderator. The true story of Sylvia overthrowing Vera comes to light along with the reveal of the knife, as if the colony is not only facing the evil within it, but digging up the roots of evil as well by reviewing the earliest lies on Pax: the lies that the parents created and how they were revolted against. Bartholomew marks a new beginning, which is shown in the chapter from his perspective in which his inner thoughts show how removed from Earth he is by his generation: “I tried to imagine Earth, and I couldn’t” (330). Furthermore, Bartholomew shows a separation from lies, resolving to write a true history of Pax for future generations to be able to look back on and understand their way of life: “I tried to imagine writing a history of Pax… it needed to be done. I could start with what I knew and what I could learn so our story could survive, so we could discover our true selves” (330). True selves. Bartholomew represents a new path toward honesty, and the novel rounds out this new hope by returning to the knife’s symbolism in the novel’s final line: “And I would leave the knife in the museum, no longer a secret” (332). This placement within the museum lands the knife somewhere important--it is not only out in the open, but in the place that documents their history. The knife and its secrets are Pax’s history--but not its future. Through this framing, there will hopefully be no more dark secrets in Pax’s future.

Through the cruelties that unfold amongst the earlier generations on Pax, it is clear that Semiosis is commentary on the evils rooted in mankind. Though the colony tries to escape from Earth, they are truly trying to escape from their own Earthly ideals, which the earlier generations can’t help but perpetuate as they are not far enough removed from their original planet’s customs yet. The evils that we, and the colonists, blame on the Earth are actually the evils of humanity. Semiosis teaches us that mankind has to face the problems within ourselves rather than using Earth as a scapegoat. Only when the Pacifists confront their history’s dark secrets can they move forward, and only with honesty can they expect a brighter future. With lies and secrecy as the main representation of Earthly evils, readers are asked to look inside ourselves and question what lies we maintain, especially in relation to the Earth. Do we really believe that the Earth is bad, and that bringing mankind to new planets will save us? No--it is not an evil planet that we must overcome, but the evils within ourselves.