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In Octavia Butler's novel, Parabole of the Sower a young adult, Lauren, travels in hopes to spread religious truth throughout the northeastern parts of the United States. Butler sets the novel 30 years in the future but uses techniques to highlight how issues in the world remain the same even as time passes. Rather than change the issues to make the novel a utopian society, the author emphasizes how poverty, race, and religion are controversial topics that continue to remain subject to discussion.
In order to do this, Butler makes these issues the focal points of the novel.
Poverty is a common social issue that has troubled nations for millenniums. Even in a prosperous country like the United States, there will always be homeless, jobless, and hungry people. The novel emphasizes that no individual or country is immune to poverty. Curtis Talcott is Laurens ‘boyfriend’ from her hometown, Robledo. As she contemplates her relationship with him, Lauren writes in her journal “if all I had to look forward to was marriage to him and babies and poverty that just keeps getting worse, I think I’d kill myself” (87).
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Much like people in the world today, Lauren does not seem to realize how relative to the street poor she is rich. Rather than following her heart and what is right, she thinks of his strategic value. Butler is emphasizing how important it is to step back and gain perspective before you judge. Although the world seems scary to Lauren, the reader can see the importance of appreciating people for who they are not what they have.
As the novel continues and the group makes the trek north, Lauren mentions how “most of the dead are the street poor who have nowhere to go and who don’t hear the warnings until its too late for their feet to take them to safety.
Where’s safety for them anyway? Is it a sin against God to be poor? We are almost poor ourselves… One way or another, we’ll all be poor someday” (15). Lauren observes people scavenging for food, supplies, and/or money, but is not in a position to judge because she too is poor and will do the same in order to survive. Crossing economic class divides is perspective-altering and Lauren witnesses this first hand as she went from being a part of a well off family to a poor young adult in search of safety. This is a lesson to the reader about how Lauren was so quick to judge Curtis Talcott but is now has an economically lower status than him. Not only is poverty is getting worse, but people are view being poor as a sin. Money is required to participate in the world, and this is especially true in today's society. Butler is shedding light upon the issue of poverty by making it a reoccurring aspect of the novel. Butler uses empathy as a way to get readers to be impressionable in order to influence their thoughts. Depicting the street poor as dying savages Bulter uses this image of death and destruction as a way to further indicate the issue of poverty in the United States.
Many people fail to believe that race is a biological factor, rather they choose to believe it is classification or caste. Racism has remained one of societies most horrifying social issues. The novel depicts how even people decades after the book was published would still face racial injustices. Prejudice affects how people are perceived which allows individuals to make distinctions solely based on race. On the street, people are based on skin color, but the two group leaders are different races which is unusual because people usually ally based on skin color. This gives the ability to associate with whoever they want but also forces the group to face other challenges like interracial relationships. On their journey, Zahra mentions how “mixed [race] couples catch hell whether people think they’re gay or straight. Harry’ll piss off all the blacks and you’ll piss off all the whites. Good luck.” Harry and Zahra’s relationship along with Bankole and Lauren’s put the group in danger. Discrimination is so bad they fear for their lives. In 2025 people still fighting over and struggling with interracial relationships which suggest there is a deep problem within society that needs to be addressed.
When the group is almost at their final destination, Bankole mentions to Harry how his “brother-in-law had a hard time before people began to get used to him, and he moved up here before things got so bad. He knew plumbing, carpentry, electrical work, and motor vehicle mechanics. Of course, it didn’t help that he was black. Being white might help you win people over faster than he did” (320). Still to this day minorities suffer. They are judged on factors they cannot control and are not given the same opportunities as others. However, Lauren sees this a strength. People not of the dominant race usually have to work harder to survive. Lauren begins to empathize when she sees parts of herself in the strangers they see on their journey. Lauren sees strength in diversity. Societal pressure has forced them to work with other skin colors because it ensured their safety. In today’s world, society pressures businesses, colleges, and other large corporations to have a variety of ethnicities. Although this is a positive thing for minority races, one can see how race is still affecting the world today.
In most cases, religion refers to the belief in a higher power. The belief something or someone has shaped the world into what it is now. The belief that something exists beyond ourselves roots back centuries. When Lauren first introduces her religion, Earthseed to the reader, she talks about how “Some people say God is a spirit, a force, an ultimate reality. Ask seven people what all of that means and you’ll get seven different answers. So what is God? Just another name for whatever makes you feel special and protected?” (15). Lauren can see how ambiguous religion is to many individuals. People want to be told what to believe in times where there seems to be no logical explanation.
This is when she mentions how “a few believe God is another word for nature. And nature turns out to mean just about anything they happen not to understand or feel in control of”(15). Here Laurens repetition of the words believe and nature suggests how God is found among many different groups and one must pick which path they connect with. Everything is the result of some kind of religious or higher being belief and individuals have the opportunity to decide how they wish to interpret life. As Lauren goes more into Earthseed she realizes people will not believe her because of her age and race. However, Robledo collapses which then forces Lauren to spread Earthseed regardless of her age. Lauren works to tell the truth in plain language while discovering the truth for herself and what that means to her. Lauren notices how society is falling apart and sees a lack of safety. Earthseed is something she can hold onto in a time of crisis. Bankole suggests people will try to change Earthseed in ways Lauren does not approve. However, Lauren goes on to say that is the basis of her religion, everything changes.
The idea of having a leader makes the reader look up to that person and believe what they say to be true. By doing this, Butler uses Earthseed poems which are meant to be analyzed and thought about as a way to get readers to interpret poems in ways that mean something to them. The reader can see how these poems connect ideas from the past, present, and future. Society changed and it still changing, and it will change again. Butler uses imagery and language to indicate the importance of poverty, race, and religion in the changing society. Times will change and people will change along with it, but the core of the worlds issues remain the same.
“Parable of the Sower” by Octavia E. Butler. (2022, Apr 02). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/parable-of-the-sower-by-octavia-e-butler-essay
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