After an arduous journey to happiness, Lauren has finally found a homestead. Everyone who has followed her to this clean slate of earth now has the future in their hands. This ending leaves the reader wondering whether they will succeed in the future. Knowing Lauren though it is hard to think that she won't succeed. Her tenacity will ensure that the land will bear the fruits of earthseed. The community that she will build will also make sure that they will all be free. Emery and Mora paint an even bleaker picture of the future as they were literally enslaved. The system they describe mimics sharecropping after the civil war. Ex-slaves would cultivate the land that they were given and would quickly be overcome by debt. The planters would make sure that the debt occurred and would then enslave them once more. The interesting part of the way Butler wrote the book is that it takes place before things have hit rock bottom. Bankole makes this point by saying the government exists and the currency is still worth something. This shows that things can get much worse and that Lauren really has found a paradise. The land she lives on is miles from anyone and could easily be turned into an impenetrable fortress.
The book as a whole was very though provoking and enjoyable. She put everything from racism to the depletion of resources into view. The text personally opened up my eyes to how great we live today. Most people can barely afford food in Butler's future but even the poorest people today could get food from the government. This makes me look at the way we are now a little more positively. Our current society has tons of problems, but at least the majority of people can walk somewhere without having to worry about pyromaniacs and cannibals. If the leaders of today could look farther into the future then a dystopian society could be avoided.
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