Octavia Butler's Parable Of The Sower

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. The imagery and comparisons

From the beginning of the book, Lauren references the dead astronaut many times and it becomes clear that Lauren both feels a connection and a shared sense of discontent for the Earth. She in many ways compares Mars and Earth. Lauren explains, “Mars is a rock-cold, empty, almost airless, dead.” (21). The empty description of the planet mimics the way Lauren feels for Earth, with it's hopeless future for all inhabitants. The biggest connection between the two female characters is their hope to remain among the stars once they die. Butler describes how the “astronaut is going to be brought back to Earth. She wanted to be buried on Mars. She said that when she realized she was dying. She said Mars was the one thing she had wanted all her life, and now she would be part of it forever.” (20). While Lauren clearly states that within her religion, people would travel to the stars after their death. Lauren explains her religion and the after death ideas, “‘The Density of Earthseed is to take root among the stars,’ I said. ‘That’s the ultimate Earthseed aim, and the ultimate human change sort of death.’” (222). It can be thought that Lauren got the idea of wanting to be among the stars in death from the astronaut. These similar ideas show a connection between Lauren and the astronaut, as well as a development in

In Parable of the Sower, many issues are addressed and discussed in a new and creative way. One issue addressed is how women are treated in society. Although Parable of the Sower is considered a dystopian world and is an exaggerated sense of reality, the concepts remain true. The shortfalls of the society and larger systemic ideas throughout the book in some sense are an exaggerated sense of the truth. These concepts are lessons to the readers and can often lead to morals or conclusions that can be taken away from the book. This is true of most books, and thus it is important to read the lessons and make connections to find the deeper moral of the