Two Worlds, One Island: Social Class & Interpersonal Interaction in "In the Beginning Was The Sea"
By: Alexandra Orta
This visualization explores how social class affects interpersonal relationships in the context of the Colombian armed conflict. As a result of the visualization, we suggest that those in lower social classes are more likely to establish positive interpersonal relationships, while higher classes are less likely because of their negative interactions.
The visualization was constructed in Tableau, utilizing about 60 pages worth of collected data from the novel. Interpersonal conversations and actions were cataloged, and sorted by the character’s gender, social class, and social group. Each dialogue or action was then assigned a category of action. These categories were assigned a relative positive or negative impact based on how they could presumably affect interpersonal relationships.
Possible explanations for this hypothesis include the presence of communal experience and memory; those in lower social classes are more likely to be impacted by displacement and overcome more challenges in re-establishing communities similar to the villagers near J and Elena’s farm in the novel, creating a greater sense of empathy and desire to form positive connections to replace the ones they have lost to the conflict over time.
Another explanation on behalf of the higher social classes is that because individuals in higher social classes have not experienced the same kind of communal experience and do not have a hold in the communal memory, their actions are much more self-focused and according to self-interest. This would explain more negative interactions through self-indulgence on the part of higher-class characters, as well as negative interactions through believed self-defense on the part of higher-class characters (like Elena reacting viciously towards villagers, who she believes are trying to violate her and her privacy at the waterfall).