The Parable of the Sower

Title: Parable of the Sower

Author: Octavia E. Butler

Publisher: Grand Central

Date of publication: 1993

Number of pages: 368

Genre: science fiction; dystopian

Audience age range: Adult

A quick personal review:

Fifteen year old Lauren Olamina is the daughter of a black Baptist minister and a Latina step-mother.  She has several step-brothers including Keith, who demands to go beyond the safety of the community’s perimeter.  The parents have taught them to shoot well, and Lauren has gone beyond that to study many methods of survival.  

The America they live in is in destruction.  The very rich can afford protection, so they are safe.  The middle class, if one can call it that, is where Lauren’s family exists, and they live in a walled and gated community that should keep them somewhat safe, yet they stay armed and skilled to protect themselves.  The community works together to protect each other.  The remainder of the people are the poor who live on the streets and barely survive by thieving and sleeping in the remains of buildings destroyed at some point in the past. 

Lauren acts as if she believes in what her father preaches, but she has many doubts.  How could the God he speaks of leave his people in these conditions?  She can’t understand why the government will disband research in living in space, when surely a new world untouched by the devastation she sees daily would be viable for a better existence.  And then, her father is gone.  He was traveling home one morning from the university where he worked, and he never returned.  Lauren needs to hold onto something positive and she has been reflecting continually about her beliefs.  She only sees that God is change, and this becomes the premise of the religion she is developing called Earthseed.

Lauren’s brother Keith ventures out of the community after being chastised by his father.  Keith feels as if he is an adult, even though he is not.  He returns often to see his mother Cory, and he brings her money.  He is succeeding in the world outside of the community, but Lauren doesn’t know what illegal things he is doing.  She assumes he is stealing and working with or for dangerous people.  He also can read and write, so he is selling those skills.  Eventually, Keith is killed, burned alive it seems by the tweakers, those rich teens who take a drug that makes them want to burn everything and everyone.

The worst happens.  The tweakers break into the community and destroy it all.  Everyone tries to escape, but few are successful. Lauren finds herself on the streets of the burned out town, but she has the survival pack she had ready, and she will be okay.   Later, she goes back to the community and discovers a few people including Harry Balter and Zahra Moss.  They tell her of Cory’s death and the deaths of her step-brothers.  There is nothing left for them in this place they used to call home.  They will walk north and try to find a better place to live in Northern California or maybe even Oregon or Washington.  They have heard those places may have jobs.

Travelling north is incredibly dangerous. Armed with her grandparents’ old maps of California highways, the trio sets out together since it might be safer to be in a group.  Someone can always be on watch.  Lauren disguises herself as a man also since it would be safer if there were two armed men with just one woman.  The many attacks, the concern for supplies, the worry about thieves, and the violence they witness and experience makes for a large portion of the novel.  Also along the way, newcomers join the travelers, again since it is safer to be in a group.  Trust is difficult.  How can you trust strangers in a world where there is only danger and destruction?

One person who joins the group is Taylor Bankhole, who eventually falls in love with Lauren even though he is older than her father.  He had been a doctor, and those medical skills are valuable to the group. Bakhole also owns land in Northern California, and even though he doesn’t fully believe in Earthseed, he believes in Lauren.  They could build their first community there.  That drives this group to keep going in the face of atrocity.  Lauren’s writings become her teachings, and those provide hope in a land that is hopeless.  Their travels are their story and the building of a new community as well as a new faith.

Unique qualities:

The book is written in journal style, and it does move forward and backward in time so that the reader learns of important details.

Red flags:

Intense language use and violent situations occur throughout the novel.  Situations of cruelty, sexual assault, and violent death are common.  Some people may be offended that the main character creates a religion, and throughout the novel, this religious teaching occurs.

Recommendations:

This book is miserable in its plot actions; however, the resilience of the characters stands out in a world with little hope.  The need for a faith is prevalent, and Lauren’s leadership is admirable.  I do recommend this book.  Read it with the concern of the present day and ask, “Could this happen here?”  A better question then needs to be asked.  “How do we prevent it from happening here?