Parable of the Sower- 1st Analysis

"It doesn't make any difference," she said. "We can't make the climate change back, no matter why it changed in the first place.  You and I can't. The neighborhood can't. We can't do anything." 

Feeling hopeless is a terrible thing, yet many people can't escape it. This is the case for the characters in Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower. As I was reading, I found myself wondering how they came to this hopeless state as Butler's ambiguous style of writing does not make it clear from the beginning. As a reader I was immediately captivated and I can only hope that she will reveal more about what happened to this civilization as the book goes on. It is terrifying to think that this is a possible reality for our society today. However, at the rate we are using our fossil fuels this future may already be inevitable. How would we cope with a future like this? Would we try to learn to survive like the main character, Lauren? Or would we be too scared of what could happen and just live in the now like Joanne? 

The world is always progressing and as humans we don't want to think of a day when this progress will stop. We have become so accustomed to things like cars and televisions and things of the sort that a world without them seems preposterous. Lauren couldn't imagine the possibility that any family used to have one car let alone three because the cost of gasoline is so high. The cost of gasoline is constantly on the rise now in 2013 which just makes the possibility of this society even more real to me. What will happen if one day  we run out of resources and it is impossible for us to keep up this lifestyle. Will we all just live in fear and chaos? Butler's future seems to suggest that we will. I believe that we should treat this book more as a warning and less like a piece of pure science fiction.