"The 100" and Colonialism

As of recently, I have been watching a television series called, “The 100”. It is a science fiction series about the post nuclear war that destroyed the entirety of Earth. Since then, twelve nations have established a space station that hovers about Earth’s radiation soaked land. Because the spaceship known as “the Ark” is old since it’s birth, it can no longer serve as a safe place to live. Due to this malfunction, the people of the Ark must send 100 of its young offenders down to Earth, to see if it is survivable. Luckily enough for these 100 criminals, the ground is safe, and the radiation has subsided over 97 years. Unfortunately for those who found refuge on Earth, there were those who managed to live on Earth post nuclear war and they are referred to as “grounders”. The majority of the first season is spent showing the brutal and violent conflict between those 100 young offenders, and the grounders. While watching this, I found myself analyzing the story, and how the series takes an interesting perspective on colonialism. It is interesting because whenever colonialism is discussed, we are reminded of history of different races taking over another race’s land. But with “The 100” it is not about race, it is about who came from the sky, and who was already on the ground.

The series takes an interesting perspective on language as well as colonialism. The language that the grounders use to communicate with one another is not English, nor any other detectable language. If the viewer listens closely however, grounder language resembles that of English. (The series takes place in post nuclear war Washington D.C. area, so the language sounding similar to English would make sense). The language that they have created as their own derives from English and in class I was reading over how the language of Creole was formed. It was said that a number of cultures become mixed together, and suddenly people are blending their original culture with a new one. In “The 100”, the indigenous people that have lived on Earth through the radiation have created their own culture, traditions and language based on ways that people used to exist pre-nuclear war.

Another cultural aspect of the series that I was curious about was that the culture of the grounders is completely established from the remnants of what Earth was once like. The main chamber where the leader of the grounders is an old subway system, and it is old and damaged. There are small pieces of what life once was.

The series portrays those 100 who once lived in space as invaders to those who live on the ground. It is interesting though because, these people aren’t trying to take over the land to claim it as theirs, they are merely trying to settle into the territory because they happened to land there and literally have nowhere else to go. The show does an excellent job of not portraying one group of people as the enemy, they both are seen as victims of the situation. I just thought it was interesting that two groups of people are fighting over the right to a land, but they are both victims of a horrible existence on an Earth that is cruel and destroyed. This show is an excellent representation of how language and culture are formed due to colonization. The way societies form comes from the blending of two cultures.