No two characters could appear more different than Lloyd and Yumi, Ruth Ozecki’s father-daughter duo at the center of her novel All Over Creation. Lloyd, a small-town Idaho farmer, holds very strong conservative views and religious beliefs, while his daughter, a runaway at fourteen and now the mother of three children, all with different fathers, prides herself on being incredibly progressive and open in her values and way of life.

Burying Seeds of Thought  

Through their science fictional essay, the authors of The Collapse of Western Civilization argue that people of the Western world are not taking action against climate change, despite having complete knowledge of its existence and causes, because of belief in capitalism and market fundamentalism. Resistance to government regulation of any kind means resistance to government regulation of industries and products that harm the environment. This resistance and the prioritizing of short term economic benefits over future concerns is preventing Western nations from enacting time sensitive economic measures to finance clean energy infrastructure.

The Suffering Child of Humanity

In Ruth Ozeki’s novel, “All Over Creation”, there are many times where cultures clash both due to identity and environment. There are clashes between race and values that cause tension and separation between the Fuller family.  When Yumi comes back home after 25 years, she forms her new identity that is very different to that of most people in the community, both racially and culturally.  Ozeki shows how much community and environment are intertwined. The community very much defines the environment because the interactions between people within a community can project a certain feeling that impacts the overall environment.

In Ruth Ozeki’s novel All Over Creation, identity and environment intersect in a complicated way. For one character in particular, this intersection is quite complex and difficult to define. Yumi Fuller, the daughter of a Japanese woman and a native Idahoan, grows up in an area where she, as an Asian American, looks quite unlike any of her other peers. At age fourteen, she runs away, leaving her home environment behind and focusing on creating a new life, as well as a new identity, for herself. No longer is she the foreigner in Idaho: she is now the self-made woman: A real-estate agent, professor, and single mother.

 Elliot Rhodes is only highlighted as the teacher that rapes Yumi in “All Over Creation”. However, he is also the new guy in town and everyone is wary of him for good reason. Elliot is the real foreigner in their quiet farm town and this is emphasized by Lloyd’s representation of the American Dream and Momoko’s assimilated nature.

In the novel All Over Creation by Ruth Ozeki, Cass Unger Quinn begins by having to play a potato in the school Thanksgiving pageant and ultimately develops her identity as a potato as well as negative body image. From her childhood to her adult life, Cass has been surrounded by potatoes and they influenced her identity. Throughout the novel, she consistently returns to the idea of her as a potato and it plagues her mind. Her similarities with the potato are also even more accented when placed next to Yumi.

Who is to Blame?

      What is to blame for the collapse of Western Civilization? Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway wrote the Collapse of Western Civilization to show the fictional future of what Western Civilization will be like if we do not put emphasis on climate change. It raised the question of who is to blame for why the environment is deteriorating? Is it because we need better leaders, greed for money, or there is no trust in the scientists? I know that there are many factors that play into effect on the climate, but I think there is one that has the greatest effect.