Dust

Dust features three female point-of-view narrators and emphasizes the independence, strength, and social power of women throughout while still interrogating—and sometimes reinforcing—a cis-heteronormative view of the world. It should be noted that the characters in Dust are nearly all implied to be cisgender, and “gender” is largely equated with reproductive function. While the dystopian future of the silos has largely eliminated some aspects of traditional gender roles, many remain as relics of a nearly forgotten patriarchal past, transforming women from independent actors into objects of sexual desire and reproductive utility. Comparing the novel’s three main female characters—Charlotte, Juliette, and Elise—shows how Dust explores the seemingly inescapable dehumanization women face in any version of the future.

All people in the silo system are aware that women are necessary to save the world—yet how this could be accomplished differs. Some women have enough resources to muster agency. For example, Charlotte uses her ingenuity to protect her brother, Donald’s, decision to counter Silo 1’s genocidal plans, while Juliette uses her power of personality to take the initiative to lead her people outside, where men have been too afraid or too misguided to go. In contrast, other female characters have limited options and are at the mercy of those around them. Elise, for instance, is treated as a commodity because of her future potential to have children; she cannot meaningfully resist Rash and the priests because she is only seven years old. Women with agency in Dust protect the future by redefining it; girls without agency, like Elise, are seen as producers of the next generation. It is only by breaking traditional gender roles that reduce women to objects that the cycle can break and a new world can begin.

Each of the primary female characters has at least one male counterpart. The interactions between these sets of characters develop the theme in both positive and negative directions. Juliette and Lukas form the first pair; they are a balanced set, both carrying power and respecting one another as friends, lovers, and equals. Lukas’s death motivates Juliette to survive, emphasizing her role and importance as a leader of the people; even though she wants Lukas around, she does not need him to be successful, establishing her agency. Charlotte’s counterparts are Donald and Darcy. While Charlotte has volition, killing a man in pursuit of her brother, she ultimately relies on both men’s sacrifice to survive. Charlotte, part of the pre-silo past, regularly considers her lack of power as a woman. Only Donald’s and Darcy’s deaths, which symbolize the end of this patriarchal past, give Charlotte full self-determination. Finally, Elise is thematically paired with Jimmy and, briefly, with Rash. Jimmy seeks to protect her, and Rash seeks to possess her. Elise, as a child, nearly completely lacks agency. Rash reduces her to an object, while Jimmy views her as his friend and equal. Elise does not have power yet, but Jimmy’s protection ensures that someday she will.

The ending of Dust wants to suggest that gender roles are a thing of the past, concluding with the hope that, in this new world built by both men and women, true equality can finally exist. Of course, this elides any consideration of the fact that the ability to carry children will threaten to reify repressive gender roles as the survivors seek to restore human populations to pre-apocalypse levels.