The Sunlight Pilgrims: Setting

The novel The Sunlight Pilgrims by Jenni Fagan is set in:

• a place (mainly the Highlands of Scotland, and specifically the caravan park at Clachan Fells, a fictional setting)
• a time (the winter of 2020-2021. The novel was published in 2016, so the situation depicted, a harsh winter and possible new ice age, is speculative.
• a hostile climate (both the local community, and the actual climate disaster that unfolds throughout the novel create difficulties for the main characters).

Looking for some quick revision? Try an interactive quiz for Higher English.

Most of the action takes place in a caravan park in Clachan Fells. This is a fictional resort in the north of Scotland. It is surrounded by mountains and the sea, and the scale of the surroundings makes the characters feel small and vulnerable in comparison. Despite the modern day setting, this adds a sense that this is a timeless story about human survival.

We are introduced to the setting alongside Dylan. His move from London to Clachan Fells provides a contrast between a busy city and the isolated community. Alongside Dylan we feel a sense of awe as he begins to discover his new world:

Dylan looks up at millions and millions of stars, clusters and trails, and as he turns around in a circle he finds the entire Clachan Fells region is surrounded by vast mountains. Hemmed in. When he looked online he could see Clachan Fells as a spine of land in between the sea and farmland, but he imagined it flat. - Chapter 2)

Although the characters are dwarfed and threatened by the natural world, it is also a source of beauty. The characters take time to observe the parhelia, aurora and the approaching iceberg.

The caravan park is a place where people stay long term rather than visit on holiday. But there is still a sense of impermanence in both the homes and their inhabitants. In a similar way, the characters, or humankind in general, could be seen as impermanent visitors compared to the age of the landscape.

The caravans are functional and, in some cases, shabby, rather than decked out for tourists. The location feels deliberately remote, and on the fringe which again echoes the people who have made it their home.

Clachan Fells is cut off – they’re on the fringes of the fringes. – Jenni Fagan

The characters living there tend to be people on the edges of society, marginalised by their lifestyles, and sometimes vulnerable, poor or alone. Examples include Constance, Barnacle and Ida.

The events of the book take place between November 2020 and March 2021. The book was published in 2016, and the situation portrayed, the possible start of a new ice age, is speculative. It could be read as a warning - depicting a dystopian vision of the near-future.

The basic concept is possible. There is evidence that the Gulf Stream is slowing down, and there are different opinions about if and when it might collapse.If it did, this would have a dramatic effect on the climate, and western Europe, including Scotland would become much colder.

Climate change and catastrophe have continued to be urgent global issues since the book's publication, however in 2020, the coronavirus pandemic meant that there were public lockdowns in many countries across the world, in an attempt to halt the spread of disease. The vision the novel presents is unaffected by the events of the real time in which it is set; the message remains the same.

The hostility of the community beyond the central characters, and the worsening of the climate create a tense and difficult atmosphere for the main characters to exist in.

Community

This community conforms to the worst stereotypes of small communities - small-minded, judgemental and parochial. We see this in the disapproval towards Constance and Stella. They disapprove of Constance because:

• she lives an unconventional life
• she does not live with the father of her child, or indeed have an exclusive monogamous relationship with him, but chooses partners to suit herself
• she does not have a conventional job

They also disapprove of Stella, because she is transgender. We see the silent hostility of the women at the school and the group attitudes at the community meeting. Stella remembers being questioned by the nuns, who organise relief for the community, about her sexuality.

They took her into a meeting in school and she had to say in advance she wasn't a lesbian, or they wouldn't have let her even try to use the girls' changing room. – Chapter 19

The antagonism erupts into violence from Stella’s old friends, a gang of whom have beaten her up before the action of the novel begins. None of Stella's former friends support her, and her isolation is all the more marked as the rest of the young people seem to be a group that excludes her, for example at the meeting.

Climate change

The worsening weather is the ever-present but ever-changing background to the novel. The weather is also a catalyst for events, driving the action forward.

For example, when Constance and Dylan are out looking for Stella in harsh conditions, they kiss for the first time. Constance and Stella finding Barnacle collapsed in the snow is a reminder of the danger for vulnerable people - and foreshadows the moment later in the book, when Dylan finds him, frozen to death. The climactic moment when they reach safety and uneasy reconciliation with Alistair is prompted by the blizzard which threatens to overwhelm them at the harbour.

The novel is rich in its description of nature transformed by the beautiful snow and ice, and a sky full of light features. Through the aurora borealis, the parhelia, shooting stars, the phenomenon of the ice berg, the ice feathers and the snow-covered mountains, the characters experience the magic and wonder of nature. But this magic comes at a deadly price.