Visualising environmental inequality: An interdisciplinary analysis of environmental vulnerability in the graphic adaptation of Parable of the Sower (2020)

Abstract

This interdisciplinary study investigates the ways in which environmental inequality and vulnerability are visualised in Damian Duffy and John Jennings’ graphic novel adaptation of Parable of the Sower (2020). Building on the intersection of literary analysis and environmental humanities, the research seeks to understand how speculative fiction can serve as a critical framework for examining the disproportionate impacts of environmental crises on marginalised populations. By foregrounding the narrative strategies and visual aesthetics of the graphic novel, the study considers how fiction can illuminate the realities of climate injustice, thereby bridging the gap between artistic representation and environmental discourse. Methodologically, the study combines close textual and visual analysis of the graphic novel with comparative case studies drawn from South Asia. The Sundarbans crisis, patterns of climate-induced migration in Bangladesh, and the recent agricultural challenges in Sri Lanka, together illustrate the lived experiences of environmental precarity in the Global South. These examples are further contextualised through engagement with leading scholarly and activist perspectives on climate justice, including the work of Dipesh Chakrabarty, Amitav Ghosh, and policy critiques by organisations such as Oxfam. The paper argues that environmental vulnerability cannot be disentangled from privilege, class, and access to resources. Wealthier nations and communities, despite being primary contributors to ecological degradation, often possess technological, financial, and political means of protection, mitigation, and even escape. Conversely, poorer communities are compelled to endure the most severe consequences, with limited access to relief or adaptation mechanisms. The study also contends that structural inequalities undermine conventional appeals to shared morality or collective responsibility, since the immediate struggle for survival frequently eclipses broader ethical imperatives. Political instability, cultural resistance to certain adaptive strategies, and the increasing commodification of sustainability efforts further intensify these vulnerabilities, producing conditions in which inequality becomes deeply entrenched. Ultimately, the study concludes that achieving genuine environmental justice requires more than an appeal to individual morality or isolated acts of ecological responsibility. What is necessary is a comprehensive systemic transformation that simultaneously addresses environmental, social, and economic inequities. In this sense, speculative fiction such as Parable of the Sower becomes more than an imagined narrative, emerging as a powerful lens through which to critique existing injustices and to reimagine collective global responsibility.