Parable Of The Sower By Octavia E. Butler

Contemporary novel, is realism, takes the real issues of society to be the themes to compose to give the readers the true picture, familiar society around them. The message that the writer wants to send the readers through realistic fiction is a vision, a way of listening, feeling, emotions, thoughts of social issues in reality. "Parable of the Sower" by Octavia E. Butler is about a fictional society where the issues of race, gender, politics, religion, and sexuality are as bad as they can be. In "Parable of the Sower, Octavia uses the events occur around Lauren Olamina to indirectly present the contemporary issues not only in the novel, but also in the reality; especially, these issues is not a private matter of the United States, but also

the issue of Vietnam.
In Parable of the Sower, Octavia E. Butler points out an important contemporary issue is the domestic violence. This issue is being presented in the story of the sisters, Allie and Jill. They are running away from the life of prostitution. Further, their pimp was their father. Not stopping there, Allie's child, a little boy, was only a few months old when he died. Jill states,"Our father. That's why we left. He killed the baby. It cried. He hit it with his fists until it stopped"(255). This is the domestic violence. The consequences of domestic violence causes particularly serious, it is not only damaging to the life, health of family members, but also violates the social morality; it indirectly increase prostitution, vagrants. This important issue reflects the fear of my country. In Vietnam, the man is always a "pillar" of the family, so they have the right to all other members and it is a cause that domestic violence often occur. The information on family violence cases has often appeared on the mass media at an alarming level. Domestic violence destroys families; it may lead to other vices like prostitution, murder and have a great influence on society. Every year, not only in Vietnam but also in the United States and other countries, the figure of crime is constantly increasing in which largely caused by domestic violence. For about 10 years now, this issue becomes worrisome. This indicates that the domestic violence is no longer the issue of each family, which becomes a serious issue need to be the interest of society.
Using the image of the people live in the walled neighborhood, the wall, and the people live outside the wall, Octavia points out another important issue is the division between rich and poor. In this novel, the people live in the walled neighborhood represent the bourgeoisie. They are not really bourgeoisie, but at least they have something to own. They are richer than the homeless, the people live outside the wall, who do not have anything to own. Homeless represent the proletariat. Then, between the bourgeoisie and proletariat, there is a wall that represents the division between these two class. Octavia doesn't mention this directly, but the readers still can realize the issue from her image. Not only being the issue of the United States, but also being the issue of Vietnam, the division between rich and poor is another fear of Vietnam. In Vietnam, in rural areas, there is the gap between rich and poor despite it doesn't show clearly. But in urban areas, it is shown very clearly. As the country develops, the gap between rich and poor also becomes bigger. Since when the distinction between rich and poor becomes bigger, then the support among people in the community will almost gone, people will live for themselves and that is the source of cold hearted. Moreover, that also cause increased crime rates. The poor are not supported, they will have to do things contrary to existing law. This issue is very worrying.
Being not the main theme in this novel, the image of the homeless are still being used by Octavia to points out one of the contemporary issue is homelessness.

Octavia does not mention this issue directly, but the readers can see it in this novel. Through the beginning to the end of this novel, the appearance of the homeless is not being emphasized, but the readers can see that they are everywhere. From the beginning to the middle of the novel, they are being mentioned as the one who steal the stuff, kill the people, burn the house. And at the end, they are on the freeway. This issue reflects one of the fears of my country. In Vietnam, the homeless are everywhere on all the roads and especially are at the places where have clearly the division between rich and poor. The homeless wanders everywhere. They seem harmless, but because of the rich and poor differentiation can take them to the illegal path such as robbery, murder. The crime rate are increasing; that is not good and extremely dangerous. Octavia partly expresses it through her

novel.
Octavia’s Parable of the Sower bases on the reality of the society presents that illiteracy is one of the important society’s issues.

Octavia points out an issue in another issue that what issue hidden under homelessness is illiteracy. Resolving this issue is extremely important, and why is it so important? At the beginning of this novel, Octavia mentions Keith, Lauren’s brother, is being taught by Cory, his mother. Thus, he knows how to read and write, although he feels bored of learning. But when he leaves his community, he reads the instructions to help his friends learn to use their stolen equipment, he reads for a living. By this minor detail, Octavia shows us how important illiteracy is and how it is an issue. The homeless don’t know how to read and write, and they are majority compared to Olamina’s family. This detail presents that the number of literate people are much less than the number of illiterate people. This reflects the fear of my culture. In fact, not only in the United States, but especially in the countries still suffer the consequences of war such as Vietnam, illiteracy still and increasing. The percentage of illiteracy in Vietnam concentrates mainly in the rural areas, where the media, state difficult to access. Illiteracy, low education level, affects the country, makes the country cannot grow. This issue is critical in

Vietnam.
Pointing out the first issue is about homelessness, the second issue is about illiteracy, Octavia also presents that the second issue leads to another issue, climate change. How homelessness and illiteracy lead to climate change? Wondering about this, the reader can find the answer in this novel. Lauren writes Earthseed, a living book and only her know how to read that book. Let wonder that if Lauren disappears in the process of build a new community, then how the people understand her idea. If they cannot read her book, then how they can aware of what she is doing. Back to the connection between the contemporary issues, homeless is illiteracy; they cannot aware of what they are doing. They almost always burn something in this novel. They steal something, then they burn something; they kill someone, then they burn it. Thus, the burning of the homeless, human activity, caused global warming. According to an article, it writes, "Many scientists believed that global warming was caused by an increase in emissions of gases such as carbon dioxide resulting from the burning"(go.galegroup.com). This reflects a fear in the United States and Viet Nam. In Vietnam, gas from motorcycles cause climate change. In addition, Vietnam's forest is burned every year. This is one fact; it is harmful to the nature and is the source of the greenhouse effect which causing climate change. That is what Octavia points out in her novel.
Finally, creating "Parable of the Sower" rigorously between each issue, Octavia succeed in using the issues in the dystopia, the issue in a fictional world, presents the issues in the real world. Although dystopia is the virtual world, but it still reflects today's reality. "Parable of the Sower" with the details seemed unimportant, but these details show the different issues of life; the issues relate to each and show the social reality of the United States and Vietnam. The illiteracy, homelessness, climate change, etc, the dark side of life is being expressed by Octavia through the details in her novel. The novel with a logical arrangement, not states directly, but readers can find the trends of society, the issues of society are the center of the novel. This novel is the vision about the world.