#45: Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

A minister’s daughter, Lauren Olamina lives in an enclosed community in a dystopian future. The police are thieves, the government may as well not exist, and outside the cities, most people wouldn’t as soon shoot you as look at you, they’d rather look at you, shoot you, and steal everything you own.

Lauren rejects her father’s version of God, who she doesn’t believe could exist in her world, and develops her own theories of God based around the concept of change. When her community is attacked, Lauren is forced into the outside world, and takes her theories, which she calls “Earthseed” with her.

Butler’s world is bleak and some of her themes create a bit of a disconnect with me, but they fit her world. It’s unclear as to whether the world is post-apocalyptic or simply suffered a slow decay, but I think its post-apocalyptic (or not) status is ultimately irrelevant. Lauren is set up to create a new religion, and possibly even to eventually be viewed as a god herself, instead of simply as a religious leader, but here, I think she functions more as an Eve figure, in that, by rejecting the rules of her father’s God (though I think they actually have different interpretations of the same God) she creates a new path and destiny for humanity.