Parable of the Sower response

            When I started reading Parable of the Sower, my expectation was to view it as a sort of science fiction.  Not to the definition of aliens and such, but rather as a sort of impossibility.  My expectation was to view it so far out of the realm of possibility that it would be ridiculous to me.  I thought that there would be no way I could relate to a book of such a topic, especially one that is so morbid, because none of my thoughts of what could happen would be echoed within the novel.  Yet, after I read the full 85 pages, it didn’t seem all that far-fetched to me.  In a way it reminded me of the film The Book of Eli. 

            The similarities of the film and novel are simply their content, both about a world of near Armageddon.  Both consist of rape, destruction, cannibalism, and desperate people searching for something that no longer seems to exist-peace. 

            Yet, the content is the only comparison between the two.  Parable of the Sower, holds within its pages multiple extremely truth-holding themes and questions.  Why do so many seem to simply accept their peer’s and family’s beliefs as their own; and why are the few that challenge those beliefs usually ridiculed and outcasted?  Why are those with different and unusual beliefs and ideas frowned upon, and seen as a sort of evil, only hoping to take the rest of us “down with them?”

            This novel was one of the few assigned books I’ve actually enjoyed reading, I found Lauren’s new, different, rejected, perspective on life extremely interesting.  Just the fact that she would challenge the thoughts of those around her, and ignore what she knew the others thought about her and her ideas.  Her bravery and intelligence to be able to think ahead, and create her own sort of Bible, was inspiring. 

             Lauren views the world in her own perspective, which some call negative.  What she is, is rational; she accepts the world for how it is and tries to think of ways to make the best out of what she knows it will turn into.  She is a practical person in a world full of chaos and people denying the end of the true meaning of civilization.  What I like the most about her personality is her need to fight, her version of the future only involves living until she truly cannot, instead of giving up.  Some around her accept their world coming to an inevitable, soon, end.  Yet she stays strong and her urge to build strength and fight only grows as she grows older.