How does Octavia Butler use the character Lauren Olamina to explore and address social issues in the novel “Parable of the Sower?” 

Agustí, Clara Escoda. “The relationship between community and subjectivity in Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower.” Extrapolation (pre-2012) 46.3 (2005): 351.

In this article the author discusses the odds that the main character has to beat as a black woman. In the novel we know that the main character chooses to dress as a man in an attempt to prevent herself from getting sexually assaulted. This identity change for the sake of surviving challenges a lot of gender and racial stereotypes that men are typically stronger than women and are seen as better leaders. The article goes on about how Lauren is able to redefine womanhood.  

Butler, Octavia E. Parable of the Sower. Headline Book Publishing, 2019.

This novel is set in a post-apocalyptic time period where climate change and social inequality is prevalent. The novel follows the main character Lauren Olamina who possesses a condition called hyperempathy that enables her to feel the pain and emotion of others. She is a black female trying to navigate this new world. She ends up losing her home and ends up having to survive on the “outside” world. Along the way she meets people and introduces them to her ideology called earthseed. As a group they are stronger and more vigilant together and therefore have a better chance at survival. 

Frazier, C. M. (2016). Troubling Ecology: Wangechi Mutu, Octavia Butler, and Black Feminist Interventions in Environmentalism. Critical Ethnic Studies, 2(1), 40–72. https://doi.org/10.5749/jcritethnstud.2.1.0040

Frazier dives into the essay discussing and understanding work where the protagonists are female characters. She compares an artist named Wangechi Mutu and Octavia Butler’s geographical location and race and how their work is able to depict a strong black female character. Although the main focus for my argument is on Butler, Frazier notes that although they come from this same “diaspora”,  they do have different nationalities and cultures. She discusses having a black female as the protagonist and the author is able to deconstruct typical western standards. 

Govan, S. (2003). THE PARABLE OF THE SOwER AS REnDERED BY OCTAVIA BUTLER: LESSOnS FOR OUR CHAnGInG TImES. Femspec, 4(2), 239. Retrieved from http://proxy.wexler.hunter.cuny.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/parable-sower-as-rendered-octavia-butler-lessons/docview/200166258/se-2

This article mentions a very interesting point in the Abstract about Lauren’s name and the meaning which relates to the depiction that Butler wants the audience to understand about the main character. The author states that her last name means “this is my wealth.” Not only that but he mentions her hyperempathy that is seen as a weakness considering at times in the novel she often passes out. We see that despite this condition we see a strong black female that is able to lead an entire group of men, women, and children to survival. 

Kouhestani, Maryam. “Environmental and Social Crises: New Perspective on Social and Environmental Injustice in Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower.” International Journal of Social Science and Humanity 5.10 (2015): 898

In this journal the author discusses certain social injustice such as race, women, and the poor. When we hear these things, one tends to think that this person is at a disadvantage in which they are on a social scale.  The author notes for one Butler stating that we live in this new form of neo-slavery, that it never vanished but took on a new form. She believes this is something we as humans are not aware of, but she does make the main character Lauren aware of it. In the novel Lauren notes that these people are imprisoned. These companies that are supposed to help are providing room and board but in return the people living there still have to owe these companies money for shelter in the utopian world. Lauren explains this as debt-slavery as noted in this journal. This also adds onto the type of depiction Octavia Butler wanted for the main character. She is very smart and aware of the social issues and how her race and gender can set her up for failure in this new world. 

Research question: What is Butler’s conceptualization of social issues in Parable of the Sower, how does she envision the potential catastrophic outcomes, and what alternative social orders does she propose as potential solutions to reduce the social issues?

Agustí, Clara Escoda. “The relationship between community and subjectivity in Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower.” Extrapolation (pre-2012) 46.3 (2005): 351.

Butler, Octavia E. Parable of the Sower. Headline Book Publishing, 2019.

In 10:04 the construct of time seems all over the pace which is ironic considering the title of the book is time. With picking up the novel and reading the sections I was very confused. I understood the first section of the novel in regard to his medical problem and the fact that his best friend Alex wants kids and would like for him to donate his sperm. The novel does a switch though in the second section of this novel. He writes a story where his life is different, he is with Hannah and  his medical problem is in a different area of his body. The author takes an interesting approach in creating a story within a story. 

To me time is almost seen as an illusion.The narrator jumps to a future time period in this novel where events of his life could potentially just be an illusion. Although I have not completed the novel this future period he imagines could be a potential foreshadowing moment later on in the novel. It’s interesting to see how in the beginning he states he wants a child badly but right after states he wants none at all. (Lerner 47). Then we see this switch in the narrator’s novel where he has a family and seems to love being an uncle. He tells his nephews a bedtime story that quickly puts them to sleep (Lerner 76). This role that he takes on is things a father usually does for their sons. This is ironic considering in the section right after he is rushing to get to the hospital to donate his sperm for his best friend Alex. I believe these two moments specifically might tap into the idea that the sperm donation will work and the type of father he will be if and when Alex has the baby. He also has this interesting dialogue with himself about questions his future kids will be asking when they reach certain points in their life. They are asking questions that he sometimes doesn’t really have the best answer to. He has a lot of anxiety and fears about being a father and the role that he would play but in his novel from section two it offers an inside of the father-like figure he would be. 

The novel to me requires a lot of critical thinking as well as being very meticulous. If you start to stray away while you’re reading you get very confused about what is happening considering the narrator jumps from the present, past, and future a lot. When I first read it, I had to read a couple times to grasp what was happening and even now I am still a little confused about the storyline. The novel to me is a lot about the thoughts going through his head and his anxieties rather than what is actually happening in the present moment and telling a story based on that. 

The research topic that I have in mind is to further discuss socio-economic inequality from 1990’s until now. Has it gotten worst or better? This is all in regards to Parable of the Sower. This is a big theme to me in the novel that we see. How life was different in this apocalyptic scene for people that had none, had very little, and those that were considered rich. Within the novel we saw a variety of characters that came from each group. I want to know how does the topic of socio-economic inequality in the novel relate to the real world and how Butler was able to make that connection.

In the Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh we see a series of characters with different backgrounds, hobbies, careers, and viewpoints. This helps for a well-developed plot as well as how the characters develop relationships with each other withing the novel.

Kanai is a Delhi translator and interpreter who knows more languages than the average person. He uses language as a tool to navigate his world and deems it very useful. Monya, Fokir’s wife, is a training nurse who is ambitious, thrives for better, and values education. Fokir is more traditional in the sense that he doesn’t have an education, doesn’t know how to read or right, and he makes a living off selling animals he catches in the sea.  Kanai and Moyna have the same attitude towards Fokir in the sense of his job isn’t as practical as what they are striving for. In the novel the narrator states, “Her ambition was so plainly written on her face that Kanai was assailed by the kind of tenderness we sometimes feel when we come across childhood pictures of ourselves-…”(Ghosh 113). Kanai takes such a liking to Moyna because he sees part of him in her when he had that yearning ambition for his career and furthering himself. He thinks her career choice is practical and admires the qualities that he sees in her and believes that she would reach where she wants to go.

Most times one may think your wife is supposed to be supportive in everything what you choose to do but that isn’t the case for Moyna when it comes to Fokir. In the novel when Fokir had caught the stingray and cut piece of the tail for his son, Moyna, annoyed, makes a remark about Tutul needing to be in school and grabs the tail from him” (Ghosh 218). This shows how Moyna values education rather than the sea animals Fokir sells. She even sates before that Mashima said soon there would be nothing more to fish in fifteen years deeming Fokir’s job as impractical long-term. She doesn’t want her son near the sea let alone creating the same life as his father. Kanai sees his job in a more similar manner as well. “What you see as fauna he sees as food. He’s never sat in a chair for heaven;s sake. Can you imagine what he would do if he was taken on a plane…thought of Fokir walking down the aisle of a jet in his lungi and vest” (Ghosh 222). When speaking to Piya Kanai makes fun of the way Fokir dresses and makes remarks that he doesn’t have any notable skills let alone sitting in a chair.

Moyna and Kanai’s have very different views compared to Piya and the practicality of what he does. In the novel Piya states, “Fokir’s abilities as an observer are extraordinary. I wish I could tell you what it was like to be with him these last few days – it was one of the most exciting experiences of my life” (Ghosh 221). Piya admires how attentive Fokir is with tthe sea. He is very knowledgeable about places to find the dolphins as well as has really good survival instincts when it comes to the sea in which he was able to save Piya twice from dear death experiences. This goes to show what one person may see as impractical is practical to the next person. For someone like Fokir coming across a foreigner, he can easily make good money from serving as tour guide considering Piya offers him money. He is knowledge of the sea and has really good survival instincts compared to Kanai which can be seen later in the novel.