In Parable of the Sower, readers follow Lauren and her day-to-day life in this run-down environment. As she is biking to her makeshift baptism, death and violence is all that surrounds her. Headless corpses, naked and unaware wandering people, people riddled with disease, families beat and raped. But they turn a blind eye to avoid trouble, they turn a blind eye because it is normal to them. Living in this poor community, climate change and lack of resources combined worsen their living situations daily. Lauren seems to feel very insignificant in the midst of it all, “Maybe God is a kind of big kid, playing with his toys. If he is, what difference does it make if 700 people get killed in a hurricane—or if seven kids go to church and get dipped in a big tank of expensive water” (p17). The drastic comparison is necessary to emphasize how unimportant it might all feel to her even with her hyperempathy. It also draws a thin line between life and death as baptism is essentially being reborn as child of God. They lack the resources they need to live and are constantly scraping for something to survive on. God is not helping them and her reasoning is that they are just another one of God’s toys. Lauren’s life is constantly concerned and connectwed with death because death and life are at the center of nature. Haraway emphasizes this in her use of the term ‘Cthlulucene’ to name the era we are currently living through as a result of climate change. Cthlulucene is concerned with death and this idea that we are tangled in something that will eventually end in death, but not just ours as a human species, and that it welcomes all species’ into this inescapable nature’s web. That is the imagery that comes to mind with Haraways listing of mythological female creatures “Naga, Gaia, Tangaroa, Medusa, Spider Woman”. Cthlulucene is nurturing yet deadly.

Lauren keeps making this shift between an astronaut who died in March and how ignorant the reporting of that feels to her when the concerns she has to live with affect the survival of her and the people in her community. Why does the death of an astronaut matter when their peddlers (who provided water to the poor) are being killed and their water prices are rising? Their “water now costs several times as much as gasoline. But, except for arsonists and the rich, mostpeople have given up buying gasoline… It’s a lot harder to give up water” (p20). One of the reasons Haraway is so against using the term Anthropocene for this era is that is centers Humans which seems very arrogant of our species. Our species is not superior to any other species and is just as much a victim to climate change and slow violence. We are just as dependent on the same resources which we can see in Lauren’s situation. Water is so vital to any species – necessary for life – yet while her community is toiling over what solution they must find to get water the media is reporting on an astronaut’s death in Mars. Why does she get to be important than an entire dying community? But Lauren still holds an admiration for her because of what could be.

Lauren holds hope that space can serve as a refuge and chance to rebuild. It is why she holds an admiration for this astronaut, “She spent her life heading for Mars—preparing herself, becoming an astronaut, getting on a Mars crew, going to Mars, beginning to figure out how to terraform Mars, beginning to create sheltered places where people can live and work now” (p22). Although her father may not agree, Lauren has an anticipation and excitement for how far space exploration and colonization could go. If it works, it might just be their way out. Haraway holds a similar perspective on the importance of refuge. “I think our job is to make the Anthropocene as short/thin as possible and to cultivate with each other in every way imaginable epochs to come that can replenish refuge. Right now, the earth is full of refugees, human and not, without refuge”. Refuge is needed for all species on this dying earth for a chance to rebuild and replenish what we once had. There is no refuge on Earth to protect ourselves from climate change. Especially since we keep ignoring it.

“Cli-Fi” Convergence

Octavia Butler places the reader into a dystopian world that was caused by economic and environmental crises, unlike our world. Butler builds this world around the reader as a hopeless yet strangely possible future using vivid descriptions of the people and the society that the main character Lauren Olamina inhabits. Lauren in this story experiences the worst parts of society to a much greater extent as her condition of hyperempathy causes her to feel the emotional and physical pain of the people around her. Octavia Butler explores themes of religion through the early chapters of the book Lauren someone experiences all the emotions of the people around her to such an extent that she can not go through a ride to church without feeling a great deal of pain and suffering. Lauren fed up with Christianity decides to forsake her old religion of christianity in favor of her belief system “Earthseed”.

To take a step back from the plot of the novel many of the themes experienced by the reader and the main protagonist of Lauren are issues that many people today are dealing with and having to manage. The world of Parable of the Sower is mainly about a world that was created by humans to be on its last legs with the main glimmer of hope being the new religion of “Earthseed”. However, the ideas of slow violence presented by Rob Nixion are finally fully realized in this world. The violence of climate change and the economic problems lead to a world of suffering for all that inhabit it. This can be seen through when our main character Lauren states “A lot of the houses were trashed-burned, vandalized, infested with drunks or druggies or squatted in by homeless families with their filthy, gaunt, half-naked children.” With the world that the people in this world once knew completely devoured by the earth itself, people are left with no other option but to succumb to their circumstances. The inhabitants of this planet no longer have the will or the means to fight for their existence in the world in which they live. Another point that affects readers is the period that the story takes place, between 2024-2025. While this book was written during the 1990s readers today are taken back a little but by the period, the world is slowly looking more and more like the one described in the novel. Personally, one line that sticks out to me is seen on page 62 where Lauren states “ignoring fire in the living room because we’re all in the kitchen, and besides, house fires are too scary to talk about” This line people to the current state that the world is in today. Many of the global leaders for years have avoided talking about the effects of climate change and the possibilities for damage to the planet that humans are having. This is because “House fires are too scary to talk about”

In the novel, “Parable of the Sower” by Olivia Butler, it tells a story of how a teenage girl who just turned fifteen comes to a realization about how the environment is slowly deteriorating. Nature itself is very important because our forests, rivers, oceans, and soils give us the food we eat, the air we breathe, and the water we need to irrigate our crops. Nixon’s “slow death,” Haraway’s “Chthulucene,” or Lemenager’s “everyday Anthropocene,” all explained the severity of Climate change and accurately described the damages it causes, giving readers a sense of empathy. Since Climate change is the main focus of this Novel, Lauren lives through its effects in her day to day life. In the Novel it states that “ Things are changing now too. Our adults haven’t been wiped out by a plague so they’re still anchored in the past, waiting for the good ol days to come back. But things have changed a lot, and they’ll change more. Things are always changing. This is just one of the big jumps instead of the little step by step changes that are easier to take. People have changed the climate of the world. Now they’re waiting for the old days to come back” (Butler, 20) .Why is the planet slowly dying?  Why are humans the main cause? It makes people think about what has led to this unfortunate event? In the year 2024, Laura’s life has changed because she constantly has to worry about her future and how worse it could possibly get if people do not take the action to make that one change. She also noticed how people suffered and it affected their livelihood which caused emotional damages to her which made her very vulnerable but resilient. “ I can’t do a thing about my hyperempathy, no matter what dad thinks or wants or wishes. I feel what I see others feeling or what I believe they feel” (Butler, 5). Cli-fi draws empathy towards people which is important in writing novels. You want to raise awareness and make people emotional even though pictures are not involved, they will have an imagination of the terrors of catastrophes like storms, meltings of polar ice, rising sea levels which can all cause death in the animal kingdom. 

On the other hand, Nixon made a very good example of Climate change and articulated himself very well. Nixon’s “ Slow violence” was explained as slow torture, something where the pain would last longer. He stated in his book, “The long dyings—the staggered and staggeringly discounted casualties, both human and ecological that result from war’s toxic aftermaths or climate change—are underrepresented in strategic planning as well as in human memory” ( Nixon, 4). This was an issue that is present in Butler’s Novel. The deterioration of the planet. Lauren’s hometown hasn’t been the same as before, and throughout the years of climate change its decline will only get worse. It made me as a reader have an emotional connection to both Novels because this is something that is very timely and relevant to the present. The goal is to use our emotions to make a change and understand every crisis that is happening in the world. Tragedies happen, people die, drugs, animal abuse, murder, corrupt politics, financial crisis, but what can we do to make a change. Fortunately, with the help of authors like Butler, Lemenager, and Nixon they make us relate to each other in a way that we would want to step forward and make a change.

In the opening chapters of ‘Parable of the Sower,” Octavia Butler establishes the dystopian setting of the world and atmosphere by illustrating the community that Lauren Olamina lives in as one in extremely dire conditions. The world is greatly impacted by climate change and as well as several years along into a full societal collapse. Through world-building Butler gradually reveals this world’s backstory, explaining how society reached this state of collapse. Butler’s world is rife with climate change, political instability, and economic disparity. Basic needs like gas and water have become incredibly expensive and hard to access. It’s stated that. “Dad says water now costs several times as much as gasoline. But, except for arsonists and the rich, most people have given up buying gasoline. No one I know uses a gas-powered car, truck, or cycle. Vehicles like that are rusting is driveways…It’s a lot harder to give up water.” (13).  While Butler’s world is intended to feel extreme, it’s impossible to ignore the many parallels it has to our own, as these deteriorating social and economic conditions have profound impacts on Lauren’s family and their neighborhood, Butler seems to make a commentary on the contemporary issues of her and our time. Hyperinflation has rendered the currency almost worthless, leading to extreme poverty and scarcity. Lauren’s family struggles to make ends meet, and the desperation for basic necessities is palpable. All of these problems mirror contemporary concerns about income inequality, economic instability, and the vulnerability of marginalized communities in times of crisis.

The world that Butler has made as a form of contemporary criticism leaves the reader with a rather bleak view of reality. There are so many different cruelties, with people outside of the community walls living and dying in abject poverty, the police become something no one can afford to employ or rely on, and there is intense brutality throughout. It is no surprise that Lauren’s idea of God is one that is moralless and without feeling, “My God doesn’t love me or hate me or watch over me or know me at all, and I feel no love for or loyalty to my God. My God just is.” (16) Earthseed is Lauren’s spiritual belief system that she begins to develop in response to the harsh conditions of her world. It’s interesting how in the collapse of traditional societal structures, through Lauren, Butler gives us not an example of someone collapsing under these struggles but instead takes up a powerful form of creation. Personally, I find Earthseed very moving, as I am not religious myself and I feel like her stanzas are empowering. There is something very powerful about a faith system that doesn’t ask you to obey or follow planned-out ways of being but instead asks you to cultivate one of your own. 

I felt throughout the opening chapters of Parable that Bulter was asking the reader, what do we have left when/if the societal framework collapses? What is the culture that we have cultivated to fall back on?  The world that she shows us, that which illustrates the culture we have cultivated already is one that is very worrying. The political parties are legalizing a form of slavery for poor workers, wherein they have no right to clean or safe working conditions in exchange for room and board. People are murdered and raped with no government or police that works to stop these crimes or protect its citizens. After a member of the community puts together his own form of religion, one that allows him to become a ruler and protector of women, and target beautiful homeless women so he can keep them in polyamorous relationships, Lauren states, “Is that the way it’s going to be, I wonder? Is that the future? Large numbers of people stuck in either President-elect Donner’s version of slavery or Richard Moss’s.” (21) 

By creating a world that highlights these weaknesses of contemporary society, such as a lack of community and an excessive focus on individualism and greed, Butler highlights the importance of community. Lauren’s father is a wonderful example of this as he spends his life as a leader in their cul-de-sac, encouraging the people to take care of and protect one another despite any personal disputes they may have. Through this tightly-knit community, we witness these people thrive in a certain way. They’re able to educate their children through homeschooling, they band together to continue their religious beliefs and sacraments, they trade goods amongst themselves, and when under threat of robbers they even institute a kind of community watch. 

Lauren’s father’s response to adversity in all these forms has been to band together with his people, and through it we witness them gain strength and protection. With Lauren’s own hyper-empathy, she feels that being around others and working with them is just another kind of weakness. As she shares their pain, she fears that this trait will weaken her and does what she can to keep it hidden. Through such a brilliant and strong character, combined with her stunning ability for empathy, I wonder the kind of statement Butler is going to work to make throughout Parable about community and its complexities.