Smilla's Sense of Snow and Danish Prejudice Against Greenlanders
This essay analyzes Peter Hoeg's novel Smilla's Sense of Snow as a literary reflection of Denmark's treatment of its indigenous Greenlandic population. Through the protagonist Smilla — a woman of mixed Danish and Greenlandic heritage — the paper examines how the novel portrays systemic prejudice, legal marginalization, and identity crisis faced by Greenlanders. Drawing on sources about Danish multicultural policy, indigenous legal systems, and social discrimination, the essay argues that the novel accurately captures a broader cultural reality: despite Denmark's self-image as a liberal society, Greenlanders have historically been denied equal legal protections, cultural recognition, and social support, leaving them in a state of postcolonial limbo.
- Introduction: Identity and the Murder Mystery: Smilla's mixed heritage and the novel's dual focus
- Smilla's Alienation and the Limits of Assimilation: Greenlanders unable to assimilate or retain identity
- The Legal System and Indigenous Marginalization: Greenland Home Rule and legal limbo for indigenous people
- Danish Society's Prejudice Against Greenlanders: Stereotypes and discrimination Greenlanders face in Denmark
- Language, Culture, and Colonial Erasure: Forced assimilation strips Greenlanders of language and culture
- Conclusion: Fiction as a Mirror of Policy Failure: Novel reveals real gaps in Danish indigenous policy
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What makes this paper effective
- It moves fluidly between literary analysis and documented social policy, using the novel as a lens through which real-world inequalities are examined rather than treating them as separate discussions.
- It draws on multiple credible external sources — legal scholarship, multicultural policy studies, and advocacy journalism — to validate the atmosphere the novel portrays, strengthening the argument that fiction reflects reality.
- The paper maintains a consistent thesis throughout: that Denmark's self-image as a liberal society contradicts its treatment of Greenlanders, and that Hoeg's novel captures this contradiction with authenticity.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective use of literary evidence alongside sociological and legal sources. Rather than simply summarizing plot points, the writer uses specific quotations from the novel to anchor broader claims about Danish society, then corroborates those claims with policy documents and academic research. This cross-disciplinary approach — blending literary criticism with postcolonial social analysis — gives the argument both depth and credibility.
Structure breakdown
The essay opens with a thesis-driven introduction establishing Smilla's dual identity and the novel's thematic focus on prejudice. It then develops through thematic sections covering Smilla's personal alienation, the Greenlandic legal system's failings, documented social prejudice among Danes, and the colonial erasure of language and culture. The conclusion ties the fictional narrative back to a concrete policy argument, asserting that the novel reveals genuine gaps in Denmark's treatment of Greenlanders.
Introduction: Identity and the Murder Mystery
The protagonist of Smilla's Sense of Snow, Peter Hoeg's thriller, is a product of a union between a native Greenlander — an indigenous person — and a wealthy Danish doctor. Although the plot is ostensibly a murder mystery, it is just as much about Smilla's struggle for identity. Smilla embarks upon her detective quest partially because she believes a fellow Greenlander named Isaiah Christiansen has been murdered. Although Isaiah was only six years old, Smilla identifies with the boy's sense of loneliness and isolation. The novel depicts the Danish legal system as shadowy and unknowable, and much of the book revolves around Smilla's attempt to unravel it and understand it, as well as to get to the bottom of Isaiah's death.
The book is an accurate reflection of the spirit of much of Denmark — a society that prides itself on its liberalism yet has also been characterized by prejudice against Greenlanders. This tension is embodied in Smilla, particularly in her relationship with her father, who was willing to have a relationship with an indigenous woman even though he embodies conventional Danish norms of patriarchal authority. Whether the precise legal details of the book are accurate is less important than the atmosphere and mood of prejudice and existential disenchantment with one's identity that the novel conveys.
Smilla's Alienation and the Limits of Assimilation
"I think more highly of snow and ice than love. It's easier for me to be interested in mathematics than to have affection for my fellow human beings" (Hoeg 45). Although she is of indigenous heritage and connected to the land, Smilla is presented as a cold character, without a true sense of self. She feels disconnected both from her native heritage and from her father. Her love of snow is not merely a reference to her heritage but also to her icy temperament. Greenlanders are portrayed as unable to assimilate into Danish society, either resorting to alcoholism like Isaiah's mother or utterly detaching into a world of numbers like Smilla.
The legal system, rather than encouraging Greenlanders to uphold their heritage proudly or to integrate successfully, seems to regard them as dwelling in a kind of never-never land: neither equal to Danes nor possessing a recognized, valuable separate heritage. The alcoholism of Isaiah's mother is presented as almost inevitable, and Smilla's embodiment of a different potential character for a Greenlander is treated as an exception — a product of her mixed heritage — or simply ignored.
Works Cited
"Denmark." Multicultural Policies in Contemporary Democracies. 13 Nov. 2012.
Hoeg, Peter. Smilla's Sense of Snow. Delta, 1995.
Loukacheva, Natalia. "Autonomy and Legal Systems of Greenland and Nunavut." Havighurst Center. 13 Nov. 2012. http://www.units.muohio.edu/havighurstcenter/publications/documents/Loukacheva.pdf
Madsen, Lars, and Kimberly Sullivan. "Greenlanders in Denmark: A Realistic Perspective of a Varied Group." Humanity in Action. 2003. 13 Nov. 2012. http://www.humanityinaction.org/knowledgebase/275-greenlanders-in-denmark-a-realistic-perspective-of-a-varied-group
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