Set in a post-apocalyptic society in which society is forced to rebuild around life following the domination of corporations and ineffective governmental systems, the Parable of the Sower is doubtlessly a representation of anxieties present at its publication time. However, it is also a reflection of the very real reality that people of color are experiencing. Throughout the novel, there are constant themes of destruction and persecution that affect society disproportionately. These themes become most apparent when Lauren and a few comrades from her predominantly black community take to the road, where they finally get the opportunity to connect with the world around them and finally have a sense of safety. This has the most profound effect …show more content…
Our destinies can only be realized once we exit our bubbles and open ourselves up to the world the way Lauren was forced to. Much of the problems with the post-apocalyptic United States that are displayed throughout Parable of the Sower seem to be primarily related to poor infrastructure and a resounding lack of intervention from any governmental body. This eerily mirrors the way predominantly black communities today feel abandoned by the government and have no intervention to stop any of their easily preventable problems. The national scale of governmental abandonment seems to be connected to the negative outcomes of political polarization. Behavioral scientists Murat Somer and Jennifer McCoy define political polarization as a small number of marginalized (real or imagined) groups forming together and subsequently adopting an us vs. them mentality. They then begin consciously promoting ideologies and subscribing to politicians to weaken political adversaries that they feel are a threat to their continued survival. They argue that “even when not a conscious strategy of polarization, the mobilization of one …show more content…
Instead, it is now reminiscent of the pseudo-democracies we have set up in Latin American countries, in which voting merely gives the allusion of choice to civilians. Instead, corrupt politicians are placed as heads of the country, where they enact a sort of dictatorship under the allusion of democracy at best, or do nothing and allow criminal organizations to monopolize the country in others. The United States, in the context of the novel, seems to fall into the former category, and on a much smaller scale, even Earthseed’s early days are influenced by this idea of total control for the sake of survival. This is because Lauren’s early days as a leader were heavily influenced by her father, Reverend Olamina. While of incredibly strong character, much of Reverend Olamina’s values seem to be influenced by his life before the dissolution of the country. He even continues to hold onto voting, despite most viewing it as a lost cause. “He’s [Reverend Olamina] going to vote for Donner. He’s the only person I know who’s going to vote at all. Most people have given up on politicians.” (Butler 20). This is important because if voting does not matter, he is simply falling into the trap of the allusion of choice and basing his own community on outdated values. This indicates that Reverend Olamina is incredibly stuck
Smith introduces the concept of ascriptive inegalitarianism, which effectively brings to light the conditions in which the reality of political ideologies exist due to social preconceptions that are passed from one generation to the next about the “natural” superiority of one race, gender, religion, etc. Liberalism and republicanism exist and function within this realm, not allowing for their respective ideological potentials to be fully realized. Hereditary burdens are placed on minorities because of clashing of democratic liberalism and republicanism along with these systematic and cyclical discriminatory practices. When seen through the eyes of society and government, these systems are completely inescapable. Americans, through these ascriptive systems of multiple political traditions, struggle with the contradictions each idea presents against the other and as a society attempt to embrace the best qualities of each. These outlooks help explain why liberalizing efforts have failed when countered with supporting a new racial or gender order. The ascriptive tradition allows for intellectual and psychological validation for Americans to believe their personal and hereditary characteristics express an identity that has inherent importance in regards to the government, religion, and nature. This provides those who are a part of the white elite to dictate which features are the most desirable and holy, giving head to social conceptions like “white wages”, which make them inherently superior to all other races and cultures. These ideologies are institutionalized within all facets of American life such as causing evils like mass incarceration, wage gaps, and rising suicide
The novel Parable of the Sower written by Octavia E. Butler is a powerful book. She looks at current issues in her society that were not being dealt with. She puts a magnifying glass on these problems and explains every aspect of the world that she knew. To show the parallel, she shows us a world where scarce water, climate change, and gender roles overshadow people’s future.
Melissa Ames and Chris Hedges address the similar theme of political apathy in America, but deviate starkly in their respective audiences, tones, subjects, and methods of delivery. Because the authors possess differing viewpoints about the future of the country, are shaped by distinctive backgrounds and experiences, and have explored various unique concepts, one can detect a great degree of dissimilarity between the works in question. Even so, a thoughtful reader can also grasp quite a few similarities between their articles, “American Psychosis” and “Engaging ‘Apolitical’ Adolescents.”
Bishop asserts that the American people are, consciously and unconsciously, segregating themselves into like-minded communities and losing any variety of thought, along with healthy debates or challenged beliefs; by doing so, these homogenously-forming groups are driving majorly divisive wedges in between one another. The amount of polarization that we are witnessing today in both the American government and public alike can be largely attributed to this communal and lifestyle segregation and it has been for a long time, though unknown to the mass public. Bishop notes that this pattern of cultural and population sorting mostly began in the 1960s, during that volatile period of riots, unrest, and revolution. Many people were dissatisfied from the conformity of the 1950s and wanted something different ...
This is primarily why Americans elect representatives. Still, the American voting system is not without its imperfections. For example, in America, voting is not treated as a skill, it is treated as a moral obligation. Because of this, ill informed, uneducated, irrational or otherwise uninterested people are encouraged to involve themselves politically. 2.
At one point in Parable of the Sower Lauren's father had to kill a ... ... middle of paper ... ... If the Parable of the Sower's reality was ours, we couldn't look into the past for answers because our world has never seen anything like that. The Parable of the Sower was a very entertaining novel. I found myself getting attached to Lauren Olamina.
She mentions to the crowd about her recurring nightmares where she is levitating and flies toward the door of her room. She ends up teaching herself how to levitate, just as, later on, she will teach herself new surviving skills. But before she can fly through the door, the wall begins to burn. Lauren is unable to get through having the fear that the dream will happen in reality, killing, injuring, and burning her and her community. Lauren sent a message to her people where some agreed and impressed that she is so much like her father. She is doing this for her father because her father built the bunch of houses that are within the community. In the novel Emergent strategy it states, ”Humans, especially humans who persist in trying to transform the conditions of life, are remarkably resilient. We experience so much loss, pain, hardship, attack—and we persist! Resilience is in our nature, and we recover from things that we would be justified in giving up over, again and again" (86-7). This helps explain Lauren’s speech to continue with life, stay strong, and to stick together despite the horrible events that occur. She takes her survival skills to use and tries to let the community be involved with
Dystopias are full of dissatisfying issues and often unsettling worlds. Parable of the Sower, being a classic dystopian novel, is no different. Throughout the book, readers are engaged into a world where death is normalized and atrocity is average. The main character, Lauren’s connection to this world allows her to develop personally and spiritually. Lauren uses both connections to other people as well as connections between other people to express her feelings about the world around her. In Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, Lauren’s interest and connection to the female astronaut influences her religion, Earthseed, and uses the astronaut to mimic and express her dissatisfaction with the world she lives in.
Political Polarization is one of the most widely accepted causes of political gridlock, as the two sides continue to drift further and further apart. But why does the chasm keep growing? A few different theories call out the masses and the elites as being the principal actors in driving polarization. Fiorina says that the masses, or just average people, are not the ones that are polarizing. In fact she thinks that it is the elites who are driving polarization as they attempt to stay as far away
“Parable of the Sower is a novel that explores concepts of social Darwinism, dystopia, corruption, greed, corporatism, faith, and survival. It is a novel that presents a chilling look at what happens when the society that we have come to rely upon turns against us. The story lets us look at what happens when society and faith fail, but also how they can be reborn again. This is a novel that actively resists being easily categorized, and Lauren can be analyzed in a variety of ways.”
The theoretical concept of individual resilience has been long explored. Charles Darwin a famous theorist proclaimed “It is not the biggest, brightest or the best that will survive, but those who adapt the quickest.” Essentially, individuals are able to survive, if they adapt to the world around them. Octavia E. Butler creates this notion in her dystopian novel. In the year of 1993, Octavia E. Butler wrote the novel Parable of the Sower. The story is told through the eyes of the main character, Lauren Olamina. Lauren describes the horrendous and corrupt world around her and notes of the populations response to the violent acts. The year is 2025, when the world is overrun by corruption, greed, criminals, violence, famine, thirst, slavery and division. Through all this, Lauren is able to hold optimism in the world largely due to her background, hyperempathy condition and values. Lauren creates a set of fundamental values, that she wishes she can use to shape the world and create a symbolic home.
Parable of the sower is a book that wants to show the power of women, how they can be leaders in hard time. It wants to show how a young woman could be right and others should listen to her. People of Lauren’s community didn’t listen to her, when she suggest to her father to tell everyone to make a emergency pack he didn’t take her seriously. Maybe if they did listen to her a lot more of them would stay
For example, Rick from the Walking Dead has his whole life set his job as a cop and his family. A wife who he was happily married to, a son and a nice house. But that had come to end when the walkers came. That dream life was destroyed and now he had to fight his way to his wife and child. On the page where Rick is coming out of Dale’s camper and his wife and friend are chatting. Shows how even though this is not the life they want but they are making the most out of it. Since they know they can die at any moment of time. Same goes for Gwendolyn Brooks the author of Kitchenette Building, she lives her life in a constant unchangeable circle. She makes the most of it since she only have one life and if she doesn't cherish it who would. For example: ““Dream" makes a giddy sound, not strong Like "rent", "feeding a wife", "satisfying a man". “ She states in her poem which shows that this wasn't her dream but this is real life. Dreams are for kids to make them dream of their future and to try harder, but real life is way worse and harder. then we believe it to be so we dream to keep us happy and the kids for worry about the future. Which shows many people situations today how they thought their life will be one way but ended
...lso speaks of the instances where the system had failed to accurately represent the national popular will’s vote and goes into depth about each instance. Obviously this article is against the Electoral College and it gives many points in support of the anti-electoral college supporters. In conclusion of his article he does mention that this voting system has worked well throughout the years, but believes that it is not necessary because of the reasons that the Electoral College was established is no longer an issue in today’s world. So therefore the voting system is outdated. My use for this article in my research regarding the Electoral College debate will strengthen my argument against the Electoral College. It will be useful because of the in-depth explanations of each instance in which the current voting system failed to represent the national popular will.
, attempts to convince the reader that there is polarization (a culture war) in the United States. Wilson does not define polarization by partisan disagreements solely, rather as “an intense commitment to a candidate, a culture, or an ideology that sets people in one group definitively apart from people in another, rival group” (Canon 205). This polarization stretches to the extent that one group’s set of beliefs is totally correct, and the rival is wholly wrong (Canon 206). Wilson provides three chief factors for the growth of polarization.