Does Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler teach us to not see color?

Sources:

1. Grecca, G. B. (2021). ‘A racist challenge might force us apart’: divergence, reliance and empathy in Parable of the Sower, by Octavia Butler.     

https://www.scielo.br/j/ides/a/nkJhynXMphkzvy6c5xmSsKR/?lang=en

Gabriela Bruschini Grecce focuses on where Butler went wrong in her representation of minorities and race. Greccas main point is that Butler establishes the difference between offenders and the offended but not within the bond that the offended create with each other. Grecca summarizes and introduces her article to us by saying “ As I am to demonstrate, the experiences the characters go through create situations and reactions that are not always obvious to the reader who is accustomed to binaries like villains (bad)/victims (good)

  2. Blazan, S. (2022). “Something Beyond Pain”: Race, Gender, and Hyperempathy in Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower. Gender Forum, 82, 34–34

http://genderforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/04_Issue-82_Blazan_Race-Gender-and-Hyperempathy_Proof.pdf

Blazan brings up different examples of how racism, homophobia and misogyny are demonstrated  and how they could make people feel seen and secure within their communities but not with official forces or true systematic change. “Instead of naming those responsible for the miserable living conditions, the narrative is invested in constructing structures that expose the porosity of closed spaces, demonstrating that change can only be initiated within as there is no outside to state control”

3. Johnson, Ikea  (2020). “On Compassion and the Sublime Black Body: Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower

https://philarchive.org/rec/JOHOCA-3

This pieces brings a more sympathetic way of how Parable of the Sower talks about the issues we face today specifically with Laurens hyper empathy. It gets evidence from the book and adds a much deeper meaning to it that I plan on using in my essay to give it more personality. “Butler’s novel also offers opportunities to evaluate the ways laws, policies, historical memory, and science are transcendent notions to consider regarding society in literature. The eyes are crucial to Butler’s work because it is the most useful organ through Lauren’s character in transmitting the sublime ideas. “Sound doesn’t trigger [Lauren’s] sharing. [She must] see another person in pain” (Butler 132). “

4. Prudence L. Carter (2016). You Can’t Fix What You Don’t Look At: Acknowledging Race in Addressing Racial Discipline Disparities

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0042085916660350

This is just an outside source that overall brings real-world info on how it is when race is and isn’t acknowledged. It brings studies and statistics to my paper.

5. Romano, R. C. (2021). The Dangers of “Race Mixing.” In Race Mixing (pp. 44–81). Harvard University Press.

https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/huntercollege-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3300401&pq-origsite=primo

Here Romano is focusing on what it’s like to mix races in dating and the effects that it can bring to the table. This carries info starting from the 40s and issues that they faced, I plan on connecting this to Inspo Butler could have used for the novel.

(Sorry for not adding links last time!)

“Does Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler teach us to not see color?”

Sources:

Grecca, G. B. (2021). ‘A racist challenge might force us apart’: divergence, reliance and empathy in Parable of the Sower, by Octavia Butler. 

Blazan, S. (2022). “Something Beyond Pain”: Race, Gender, and Hyperempathy in Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower. Gender Forum, 82, 34–34

Johnson, Ikea  (2020). “On Compassion and the Sublime Black Body: Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower

Prudence L. Carter (2016). You Can’t Fix What You Don’t Look At: Acknowledging Race in Addressing Racial Discipline Disparities

Romano, R. C. (2021). The Dangers of “Race Mixing.” In Race Mixing (pp. 44–81). Harvard University Press.

In Ben Lerner’s novel 10:04, we deal with a certain disconnect from the narrator. ben Lerner does this on purpose to kind of keep us on the edge of our seats. We learn so much about this man who is not a fan of wealthy people has a serious health condition and is a very talented writer. we get many snippets into his personality but throughout the entire novel, we never learn his name.

I believe that this could be done for many reasons. It is intentionally vague so that we can choose how to interpret our narrator. We are able to imagine him as somebody that we know, or maybe even ourselves if we were in his situation. The book overall is a bit hard to understand due to the setup and format that Lerner follows. So many parts are left unsaid, and a bit confusing that it is as if it is intentional for us to feel a little confused and out of place. Almost as if we were feeling as confused and lost as the narrator is throughout the novel.

All throughout, it feels as though the book can only get its points across by having the readers completely indulge in the book, such as imagining ourselves, walking alongside the nameless narrator in the streets of New York. Or feeling the eerieness of things starting to change. Since our main character remains nameless, we are able to interpret his feelings and actions, as if they were our own, and not just a character that was made up to represent something else.

Little details like this are so important and give a completely new aspect to a novel. Simply naming a character can cause a complete different interpretation of a novel, giving a name that is from a specific culture, or that can have a special meaning, or a name that could be completely uncommon can make the reader disconnect or completely connect to the book. Which again goes back to the point of the nameless character being able to fulfill everybody’s needs and make the experience of the situation feel that much stronger.

Currently for my research question im going with “How does Parable of the Sower teach youth it may be better to be pessimistic about difficult situations?” I am still a bit unsure if it fits all the criteria or if i will be able to 100% find sources on something so specific. I believe that it is arguable  and can be long enough to have 15 pages as well as about the book and not just about pessimism. (hopefully)

When I began reading 10:04 by Ben Lerner I found it incredibly hard to concentrate or to take in what I was actually reading but as I continued to read further, I realized that is the point. The most important part of the book is for it to feel real which is why we get hit with small interactions, such as buying groceries, feeling high, wanting to have kids, or being attracted to somebody. There are certain moments where I am able to really notice that this book is about climate change. For example, on page 19 the main character feels incredibly uncomfortable with where he is so much so that this is where the idea of feeling high comes from. “What I meant was that the approaching storm was estranging, the routine of shopping, just enough to make me viscerally aware of both the miracle and insanity of the mundane economy.” Here we are able to experience the very start of a new change. It is something that we all felt back during Covid, everybody felt so weird going to supermarkets or being in the street. It’s as if the body knows that there is something strange in the world.

This feeling of fear and uncomfortability is simply weird and a sensation that our bodies and minds are not really used to period if we look at parable of the sewer, we are thrown into the life of a girl who has already been feeling all of these emotions and is past the strange stage and deals with it in her daily life. I believe that this could be a reason, as to why parable of the sower was not taken as seriously as 10:04 could be taken. 10:04 is based on a very recent time in New York City, and we are able to connect with the places and experiences that the characters go through. The only difference is that something is starting to happen within the book slowly. This allows the reader to feel the same fears from the very beginning to the very end, not only do we experience this in the book, but it makes us fear what can happen tomorrow in our world.

There is a level of importance to how realistic you make a book. All of that allows you to get your message across to the readers and inflict the emotions you want to produce. Parable of the Sower lacks this, since it throws us into a regular day and a completely different “world”.