Parable of the Sower is a coming of age story that questions religion, morals and how morals can be compromised do to survival. Lauren ages tremendously throughout the story and has far more wisdom than an average 18 year old you would meet today. She often has to be careful who she can trust for she is living in a dangerous world, filled with desperate and dangerous people.
Earthseed is often questioned and challenged by the people Lauren is traveling with. Her ideas seem too simple to Bankole and possibly complex to another. To me i see Earthseed as a safe haven, all over the world people pray to their God to make them feel better about a situation or give them forgiveness. I know for me as a child I would often ask myself, how can God let terrible things happen in the world? How can he just sit back and watch people suffer and die? Earthseed on the other hand does not see God as a person but more as a force. I like this idea and because to Lauren God is change and there is so much inevitable change going on in her world, this idea is easier to swallow.
Morals are challenged throughout the entire story, is it okay to steal from the dead? Is it okay to kill? These are questions us readers are asking ourselves while hearing the story of Lauren and her fellow travelers, and also questions they are asking themselves. This is where survival comes into play, is it okay to throw away your morals as long as it helps you survive? The group refuses to kill humans for food or any other reason besides self defense. Their main goal is to survive, though they will only go as far and killing to save one another and stripping the dead. As a reader you hear about scavengers killing people and stealing, Lauren and the rest see this as wrong. As readers living in 2013 we see killing at all as a sin. So the questions is, when does it become okay to kill, or to take what is not yours? How desperate do you have to be?
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