Research Question & Annotated bib

For this blog post I wanted to discuss the different societies/different ideas of the best way to survive discussed in “Parable of the Sower” towards the beginning/middle of the book. I wanted to start of with Lauren’s father, who runs the Robledo community. He believes in a sort of patriarchal society and he is the unofficial leader of their community. He controls the guns and artillery and he seems to be the person everyone goes to. He believes that if the community can band together and have eachothers backs that is the best way to survive, there is a power in numbers. He urges his community that the best way to survive is to share their resources amongst each other and stick together.

Another community that is briefly mentioned is the KSF, which is more of a work camp.The KSF works to filter water on the coast to make it drinkable to people, as we know clean, drinkable water is a resource that is very scarce They provide work, board, and pay for anyone willing to move in. Lauren and her father are suspicious of the idea of the KSF, they believe its a modern day slave camp. To back this up the book states, “Anyone KSF hired would have a hard time living on the salary offered. In not very much time, I think the new hires would be in debt to the company. That’s an old company-town trick—get people into debt, hang on to them, and work them harder. Debt slavery.”  When a radio announcement comes through announcing that the KSF is looking for teacher Lauren’s stepmother, Cory, who is a teacher advises her husband to apply. To this request, Lauren’ father respns that they are, “Too poor, too black, too Hispanic..” to apply, suggesting that the camp is more accepting of white families. Later on in our story, Lauren’s best friend, Joanne, and her family, the Garfields, move to Olivar. We don’t hear anything more about the Garfields again in the book.

The idea of the North is mentioned throughout this part of the book very vaguely. Multiple times Lauren mentones that there is hope for a better life North. It is believed that north is the area towards Washington state and Canada, she explains that the land is better, there is less violence and cleaner water. Her father is not a fan of this idea because he believes these could just be rumors and they would travel North to find nothing better than they had when in Robledo, in fact they’d be even worse off with no community no home and limited resources. Later n inthe story she does achieve this, she does build a community to go North with her. She finds exactly what she was looking for and even expands a community that begins to share her newfound Earthseed religion. In a way she becomes a new version of her father.

One last thing that intrigued me that was only talked about the in the beginning of the book, Keith’s idea of survival. Keith expressed the idea of wanting to move to Los Angeles and survived on the streets, being the predator instead of waiting to be the pray, which was completely against what his father stood for. Keith eventually did turn towards a life of crime. Keith gave into the violence of the world, and for a little bit he did come home with more money. He joined a street gang of thieves who put his ability to read and write to good use and accepted him in. In the end, Keith did end up dead as a result of his commitment to his life style.

Throughout this part of the book, Lauren saw and learned about multiple different communities and ways of survival before she was forced out of her home. When she lost everything  and everyone she ultimately decided her idea of heading North was the best thing for her. She encounters Harry and Zarah right before she takes off and this is where she starts to build her own community. Lauren got to witness a lot of different people’s ideas of survival and community some of which, mostly her father’s ideas, she incorporates into her Earthseed community throughout the book. While she does incorporate her father’s ideas of community she also gets to see a lot of what she doesn’t want in her community. Being exposed to so many ideas, she plans out what works and what doesn’t for her community and their survival. Eventually she builds up Earthseed and creates a community of people who share her values and want to be part of her idea of a family. She loses everything and has to build it from the ground up, but she builds it in her own way and in the end it works out for her and the people she chooses to surround herself with.

While reading “The Hungry Tide” one can notice the rising tensions in what some would call a loved triangle between Kenai, Piya and Koshir. Kenai, as usual, puts himself on this pedestal. He believes that because he has a better job and is more modernised and successful it makes him a better man. He finds it hard to believe that Piya could ever choose Koshir over him. He also tends to belittle people when he disagrees with their lifestyle or work choices, which doesn’t exclude Piya, and he makes that extremely clear when he calls her job boring. He likes Piya but he is very self involved which really writes her off him. Meanwhile, Piya gets to know Koshir. She is intrigued by the way he loves the water and connects with it.She plans to continue working with him, which of course Kenai is confused by because he is so involved with what he has and why she should like him.