One day I'll have the time and energy to write a proper essay with quotes and everything.
But GOD I love the themes of overcoming dehumanization in The Lunar Chronicles
And every protagonist has to deal with it to some degree! Let's take this step by step shall we?
There are the obvious cases of course:
Cinder being treated as a second class citizen and constantly being degraded as dirty and untrustworthy all because of an accident she can't remember and life-saving body modifications she didn't ask for. Being treated as a servant and blamed for her stepfather's death by the woman who should have cared for her and loved her. And then having to deal with the angst of being first a defective Lunar that nobody wanted and then THE long lost Lunar princess who's treated as a MacGuffin to be used or destroyed instead of as a person just trying to keep herself and everyone she loves safe.
Cinder slowly coming to love her cyborg traits without ever becoming less human for it. Cinder using her big beautiful human heart to lead a revolution, end a plague, and save two planets. Cinder slowly surrounding herself with people who grieve the pieces of her humanity she's lost with her, but who never make her feel less human for it, and celebrate what she's gained instead.
Wolf---Ze'ev Kesley---who's had his humanity systematically stripped away from him piece by piece his entire life. Starting when he was just a kid with the poverty the low-class people of Luna are subjected to, and then when he was just a kid being stolen from his family and having his brain and his body altered to be an animalistic weapon subject to someone else's control. Being raised in the military to kill or be killed and to never have desires of his own. Only to be a weapon. Watching his own brother go through the same thing and having to treat him as an enemy a threat and an embarassment instead of a fellow human. Meeting Scarlet and having to pretend to be human and feeling wildly out of control because he finally has a taste of something fundamentally important that he's been robbed of and he has to give it all up to survive. Him choosing Scarlet---humanity---over his safety and a lifetime of abuse and brainwashing. And then being taken by his abusers again. Having the little bits of his humanity he managed to save by being strong and clever stolen from him so thoroughly.
And still not being any less human for it. Still being just as capable of feeling love and using his pain and fear and rage as a source for good and change. Finding people who can make the name "Wolf" not a reminder of how non-human he's become and instead a reminder of everything good and human he managed to do with it. Getting to settle down and live a domestic dream where he takes orders from nobody (except Scarlet, who only gives orders out of love).
Iko who IS human in her soul. Who hopes and dreams and imagines and laughs and grieves and feels emotions and desires just as much as any of her fleshy companions. But who is trapped in a body of wires and metals and told that her existence is a glitch. A defect. That she should not feel. That her desires are some kind of freak accident that should be erased. That she is a servant at best, a piece of furniture at worst. Nobody even tells her she's "confused" or tries to give her comfort because they do not think she can feel at all. She's not a person to them, she's a tool.
Iko finding people who respect her humanity so much that they find a human-shaped body just for her. People who rescue her from peril and deliberately include her in their pain and joys. People who respect her so much they look up to her and aspire to be more like her. People who respect her humanity enough that one of them even falls in love with her.
And then there are the less obvious cases.
Cress who has never been treated as a full person. Who has been separated from society and told there is something wrong with her and that she has to be fixed before she's worthy of connection. Cress who carved out connections to that world herself wherever she could. Cress desperately trying to connect with the rest of humanity through fiction and news. Cress who is expected to have no desires and disregard not just her own comfort but her own morality so that she may be another tool in Luna's military machine. Cress who is treated worse than some of the most abused zoo animals by being locked in a cage with nothing and nobody to care for her. She had to do that on her own from age 9, and it was so bad she created a "little sister" for herself with her satellite computer. Cress who has never known true warmth or kindness from another person until she meets Thorne.
Cress who takes what little contact she gets to educate herself on the humanity she's grown to love. To plan and work and scheme to save them. Cress who escapes her prison and is able to see the entire world, full of more wonder and life and people than she could have fathomed. Cress who loves so fiercely that she genuinely changes the heart of someone who believed he was a lost cause. Cress who gains a group of ride or die friends. Cress who's condition once made her a dangerous outcast now makes her valuable, but who is even more valuable for her brain and her kindness and everything she taught herself. Her humanity.
Jacin who has never been seen as more than an object for someone else to use. Who's been forced to watch as not just his childhood best friend but everybody around him that he cares about gets tormented and abused and jerked about by Luna's upper class. Who's never been allowed to have a reaction or an opinion about it because if he lets himself feel anything, then the little protection he can offer his loved ones vanishes. Jacin whose dream of becoming a doctor and helping people was tossed aside so he could be a meat shield to someone he despises. Jacin who has had to abandon many of his values for the sake of keeping himself and Winter safe.
Jacin who managed to protect Winter anyway. Who managed to make time and safe spaces for them to just exist together as peacefully as they could. Jacin who escaped and used the brain that everyone disregarded to help lead a revolution and save EVERYBODY. Jacin who does finally get to chase that dream of becoming a doctor, and being able to protect and save as many people as modern science allows him to.
Winter whose choice to be kind and respect the humanity of those around her makes her a prisoner in her own mind. Winter who is seen as nothing but a joke or a pretty little prize by most of the Lunar court, and nothing but an enemy to be destroyed by her stepmother. Winter whose choice is mocked and whose odd behavior is treated as a silly novelty. Who is written off as nothing but the crazy little princess. Winter who has such restricted agency in her own life and her own brain, but who holds fast to whatever choices she can makes and defies the entire world with those choices.
Winter gaining a multitude of close friends that recognize her as a person who is worthy of respect and admiration, but who isn't to be put on a pedestal or kept in a glass box. Winter whose kindness gains her the love and assistance of more people than anyone ever could have gained by using the Lunar gift. Winter who is able to recieve a remedy for her hallucinations and is able to actively choose her own eccentricities. Winter who is able to shed the royal title and aristocratic life she never wanted and be her own person.
And then the least obvious cases of all.
Kai whose position as first the crown prince and then the emperor of a nation takes priority over his humanity every time. Kai whose entire life has been broadcast and watched and reported on for everyone to see. Who has to make immense personal sacrifices for the sake of his country and the world. Who has to kiss up to and be disrespected by both the Lunar upper class and the other world leaders. Who has to run around in a "disguise" any time he wishes for a moment of normalcy or privacy, and whose first genuine friendship with another person his age seems to be Cinder. Kai, who lost both his mother and father at a tragically young age and instead of being given space to grieve, he had to put his emotions and needs aside and step up as the political leader his country needed.
Kai who finds such a close and respectful friend in Cinder that they fall in love. Kai who joins a gang of outcasts and criminals to lead a revolution against the powers threatening his home and his people. Kai who isn't treated as some kind of idol to be adored on board the Rampion, but who is treated as an equal teammate---worthy of listening to and able to help of course, but not more important than anybody else on board. Kai, who, with help, is able to make the changes he wishes to see in the world and has people who see him as a human and love him for it.
Scarlet who grew up being so disrespected by her father, that she ran away to live with her grandmother at the tender age of SEVEN. Scarlet whose burning and unapolagetic humanity made her a target and a plaything for a group of assassins. Scarlet who was told her humanity and her intense beautiful emotions made her weak. Scarlet who was literally sold into slavery and treated as a fun educational toy for an upper class noble, who was forced to chop off her own finger in front of a court of heartless onlookers, and who spent time living in a cage with actual animals.
Scarlet who is so burningly unshakeably human that she inspired countless others (most notably Wolf) to embrace their own humanity. Scarlet who looked at every single person who tried to make her feel small and told them to go fuck themselves. Scarlet who never once stopped believing in herself or stopped BEING herself no matter how many people tried to make her think she was worthless or crazy or both. Scarlet who's humanity is what makes her strong and who used it to save the world.
And Thorne, who grew up in a house where his parents didn't see him so much as a person as an extension of their own will. And when he made it clear he would not be the perfect son who followed their orders and made them proud, he became an object of disdain. A problem to be dealt with, not someone whose personal desires actually needed consideration. Thorne who got so used to thinking of himself as a disappointment, a conman, and an all around asshole, that he actually believed it. Thorne who was told he'd never amount to anything, and so stopped trying and resigned himself to being a slimy hustler.
Thorne who ended up with a bunch of people who believed in him despite everything. People who refused to let him keep running away and being selfish because the fate of the world is at stake and he was in the right place at the right time. And Cress who was so convinced he could be a hero and cared about him so much that he actually believed it. Thorne who was able to muster real self-respect and turn himself into someone he could be proud of. Not his parents. But himself. Who got to live out his dreams of flying free, traveling the world, AND saving the day, and became a person he could actually like.
I love this theme so much. The Lunar Chronicles is a book series that said "What measure is a non-human? That doesn't fucking matter, everyone deserves kindness respect and autonomy," and doesn't back down. Every protagonist's story reinforces that over and over and over again. Dehumanization is the weapon of the enemy. We do not need it. We will not use it. Even in side stories, it continues to be reinforced. Star, The Little Android made herself human and saved lives with how big her heart was. Levana herself is like that because she is a deeply fucked up human (as seen in graphic detail in Fairest). This is a story about humanity and how it cannot be destroyed even when everyone tries to deny it.
