Voice And Power In Octavia Butler's Parable Of The Sower

Stories Expressed Through the Authors Voice and Power

In Octavia Butler book Parable of the Sower, she leads us through many amazing stories and adventures that Lauren goes through. Along the way she introduces us to Laurens ideas and mindset and her willingness to spread what she believes. Although Octavia’s book is fiction, she still expresses her deepest ideas in a unique way. While reading her book I felt like I was able to connect not only to Lauren but connect more with the author. In the text, she doesn’t say exactly what she thinks but provides us with many stories to fuel our imagination. The stories in the text are actually a way the author expresses her voice and power.

A way the author expresses her voice is

through Laurens reasoning regarding religion. Laurens father is a Baptist minister and believes in God through the bible. However, Lauren has chosen not to follow her fathers path and make her own religion called Earthseed. She came up with the name of Earthseed due to the idea that seeds grow to make plants and food. Therefore, the religion will grow and, in many people, and places around the world. Throughout the novel she tells us more information about the religion she developed and how it is best fit for us all. Through Laurens explanation of her religion, I can see how it connects to the authors ideas and how the author relates this religion to real life rather then a fictional world Lauren lives in.
Lauren introduces us to her religion by saying, “WE ARE EARTHSEED, WE are flesh-self aware, questing, problem solving flesh” and “We are that aspect of Earthlife best able to shape God knowingly” (Butler 152). She continues to remind us of the importance and need of the religion by saying, “Earthseed is a good and necessary thing. It vents emotion, then quiets the mind. It focuses attention, strengthens purpose, and unifies people” (214). Considering her living condition, she can only have hope that one day her religion will spread and unit people.
Crtic Hoda Zaki builds on this idea and says Lauren hold on to her religion because she “witnesses the decay of California and the rest of the United States” and this experience is “a gut-wrenching experience” (Zaki 37). Similarly, I believe that the author also uses this religion as a way to share the positivity of this religion. Although we are not to the point of Laurens living condition, but through the authors writing we realize that “in many ways, our own society is not far removed from the one Butler imagines” (Zaki 37). Her strong powerful voice and her “urgent message mixed with hopeful signs that make the idea of a future for the human race a tentative possibility” (Zaki 37). Octavia’s hopeful messages within her religion can be helpful not only characters in her book but to readers in real life. Considering all the violence and injustice that is taking place today Octavia’s words are quiet calming.
Furthermore, in the text the author highlights the significance of prayer.

She explains that prayer should be done with good intention and in a way that brings people comfort and ease of mind. She says, “Earthseed deals with ongoing reality, not with supernatural authority figures. Worship is no good without action. With action, it’s only useful if it steadies you focuses your efforts, eases your mind” (219). This kind of attitude and voice that the author brings to the story is very empowering and is a reliable philosophy to live upon. She stresses the importance of prayer because she does believe in a higher

power.
Her moto in life is “God is change”, “everyone and everything yields to God”, and God can be “shaped by anyone at all” (219).

In this quote the author not only expresses her thoughts on God but gives readers a chance to relate to her idea of God. Although she doesn’t say her religion is Christianity, but she may be expressing versions from the bible in her own way. It has been known that “Octavia Butler's participation in this biblical re -writing has a sound base in her childhood experience with religion. As a child she intimately knowledgeable about the Bible and Christian religious life: her grandfather was a Baptist minister” (Ruffin 89). She grew up with a strict religious background however, she has chosen to explore religion and write about her own intellectual reasoning. In the novel, she urges readers to yield to God and accept that we can shape God with our

minds.
In addition, Lauren wants to spread her religion to other characters and make it the new religion people follow. She says, “Earthseed is all that spreads Earthlife to new Earths. The universe is Godseed” (177). Along the way she tells many people about her religions and lets them read her verses. Similarly, with this book the author “urges her readers to consider the possibility that religion can be compatible with scientific ad- vancements that may help secure the continuation of the human species” (Ruffin 89). Like Lauren the author does push upon readers that if people follow her religion the world would be a better place and humans species would continue. However, if people don’t unite there will be total destruction, and everyone will be killing each other as we can see in the book.
Furthermore, Butler speaks her mind when she provides us with many stories of women having strength. She tries to break the stereotype that men are strong, and women are weak and uncapable of handlining weapons. First, she tells us the story of when her brother Keith wanted to prove that he is strong independent man by going out of their community. However, days after going out they were informed that “Keith died” and in “a horrible way” (113). This comes to show that men can be weak and end up being killed and tortured.
While in the other hand, she tells us about Laurens group that consisted of many strong women. Many women like Lauren, Natividad, and Zahra are able to survive on their own outside and are able to handle dangerous guns for their protection. Lauren herself as a child was taught how to operate a gun and shoot. Therefore, when she had to fight her life she was able to buy a gun and use in to defend herself. For example, she tells us a story of when “someone screamed near [her], then tackled [her], pulled [her] down” then she “fired the gun in reflexive terror” then she “shot him again, terrified that his pain would immobilize [her] when he did feel it” (154). This comes to show that women can be powerful and strong and defend them selves just like men or even more. Through many stories like these Butler is able to speak up for gender rights. She shows us that women in the story and in real life able capable of so much more then they are given credit for.
As you can see, Octavia Butler book Parable of the Sower, is not an ordinary book. It is a sequence of stories that open our eyes to the future and the possibility of chaos, destruction, and violence in the world. Due to Laurens horrible environment she comes up with a new way of life that she believes will bring ease to people and let human race continue. Her religion Earthseed is not just a made of religion, but I think that it has a link to the authors biblical studies and it is her way of expressing her ways of thinking to readers. The author not only focuses on religion but has many stories that fight for women rights and women power. The amazing stories within the book are a great strategy for the author to express her voice and power to her readers.