Octavia
Butler’s Parable of the Sower is written in a way unlike any book I’ve ever
read. That’s not really saying much I don’t read too often, none the less her
journal/ diary format makes me as a reader feel like we are in the future
looking back on her writing. The theme I got as I read was out with the old and
in with the new. The people need to stop relying on their old way of life and
realize it won’t get any better unless they do something about it.
The setting of Parable of the Sower is a time so corrupt
with an economy so inflated that to purchase food you need hundreds of dollars
and,” have to go armed everywhere, adults never miss a chance to say how much
better the good old days were” (Butler 5).
After reading a brief biography on
Octavia I see how she used some of her own personal experience to write the novel.
Octavia grew up in a rough neighborhood and lost a father who instilled a Baptist
faith to her at a young age, although she called herself a free spirit in the
interview I read. In the book the main
character obviously lives in a very religious home having a Baptist preacher as
a father. As well as being a preacher he seems to be the head of their community
everyone is pretty loyal to him and listens to what he has to say. I related
that to being “the old” the community relied on; a religious figure in charge.
Not a woman. Women didn’t seem to be on the same level as men. The main
character is a woman and has great ideas about the future but when she tells
her friend the community freaks out about it. As I read more hopefully the people
of the community have an epiphany and come “in with the new”. This made sense
in my head hopefully it transferred over to the paper well.
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