![]() ![]() Octavia Estelle Butler was the first Black woman to receive both the Nebula and Hugo awards, the highest honors in the science fiction and fantasy genres. It misses the invitation to embrace the essential message of Butler's work, that the only constant life has ever offered us is change. But, in truth, such a narrow interpretation is a mistake. The novel offers a dystopian warning that if we, the human race, continue along our current path, then unimaginable horrors await us. And in 2016, a year of significant change in the world and my life, as I entered fatherhood and embarked on an entirely new career, I reached with more urgency for Parable of the Sower. I have found myself returning to Parable of the Sower and Butler's other writings many times over the years to help make sense of things, to find in her stories lessons to guide my own life. And I felt connected to the author who created her. As a sensitive teen myself, I felt I understood Lauren. Lauren was born with a disorder that makes her feel extreme empathy. ![]() Resources are scarce, and violence has forced people to isolate. In Butler's dystopian world, a strongman has risen to power in the United States, and climate change is decimating the environment. We were introduced by an adventurous middle school English teacher who assigned the book to my class. The girl, Lauren Oya Olamina, is, of course, the main character in Octavia Butler's classic science fiction novel Parable of the Sower. Butler created a stunning piece that reflects modern realities, and it shows women who are in a constant fight for ordinary rights and fair life. The scariest part is that it does not seem to be the highest possible price for freedom. Dana loses her arm to escape from her ancestor. For them, the most ordinary life is an unattainable dream, for which they have to pay both physically and spiritually. In the following chapters, Butler writes more about these strong women facing challenges but retaining their humanity, faith, loyalty, and love. It was such a painful and colorful illustration when Dana persuades Alice to sleep with Rufus because submitting is the only way to avoid further torment. This phrase also refers readers to the understanding of the behavior of other slaves, who, knowing the consequences, do not dare to speak out against injustice and oppression. The author rightly denounces society’s hypocrisy with the phrase, “It was so easy to advise other people to live with their pain” (Butler, 2004). Today, millions of women worldwide are forced to live with men they do not love because they have no protection, education, and social elevators are not available to them. Alice is subjected to such outrageous abuse that her death from her perspective seems to be the only favorable outcome. It is excruciating to retell and analyze this part’s events. In the chapter “The Fight,” the author further reveals the horrors of slavery on the part of women. The author shows how under society’s pressure, some of its members, even without having a natural tendency to violence, turn into monsters. Dana was beaten up just for reading a book because it was not allowed for anyone, but white slaveowners. The reader can see that Dana and Kevin were forced to keep their relationship a secret and act strictly following the roles imposed on them by society. However, society does not care about these people’s spiritual closeness society’s primary concern is the color of their skin. It was mentioned earlier that Dana and her husband Kevin’s relationship is built on mutual sympathy, which grew out of common interests and similar life experiences. Such abuse of power and privilege is still taking place all over the world at present. The author shows people who use their position to satisfy their base desires at the expense of unprotected individuals. By depriving a woman of her human rights, reducing her to the state of an object, the slaveholders themselves lose the human image. One can see that any black woman of that time could have been sexually assaulted, and if she tried to defend herself, she would be severely beaten. In the next chapter, Butler takes readers even further into a world where some people behave with impunity and others are subjected to unfair violence. Her desire to save his life was heartfelt, as was her love for Kevin, but she faces undeserved insults from the men’s relatives in both cases. On this day, Dana feels dizzy and finds herself traveling in the past for the first time, where she saves her ancestor Rufus’s life. The story begins on June 9, 1976, the day of Dana’s twenty-sixth birthday, when she and her husband Kevin move into a new house. ![]() Dana is the novel’s main character she is a strong woman who fights for her dream, love, and profession. ![]()
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