Octavia Butler - Parable of the Sower Flashcards
Blazan (2022) - Human variety
Butler does justice to her self-assigned role to “portray human variety” in her literature.
Shahnavaz (2016) - Ecofeminism
“a window into what might await us…” due to “our apathy for nature, coupled by a capitalistic greed”
“Butler depicts a world in which the possibility of peace and prosperity is found in the unification of the populace under the tutelage of a woman and the new world she represents.”
“Thus Parable of the Sower becomes a story of a world rebuilt, reimagined, and ultimately healed by an ecofeminist hand.”
Phillips (2002) - Foretelling the future
“The true prophet does not foretell an inevitable future but warns of likely consequences should a present course of action continue.”
Potts(1996) Dubey (1999) - The view of the future
Butler writes such “a close extrapolation from current trends” (Potts,1996) that her dystopias produce “a shock of familiarity rather than estrangement” (Dubey, 1999)
Johnson (2020) - The story of Job
The story of Job (Book of Job) `“a staple of justification for unwarranted suffering… Lauren questions this tenet and devises her religion in opposition to such Christian ideas”
Coleman (2020) - Slave Narrative
“its a slave narrative, its heading north to get free” evoking Harriet Tubman and the underground railroad
Octavia Butler - If-this-goes-on-story
“It definitely an if-this-goes-on story and if its true, if its anywhere near true, we’re all in trouble”
Green (2017) - Not a uptopian ending
” The hope is less that Lauren’s followers will create a utopia…” instead “that they’ll learn new and better forms of relating to each other and to the world around them”
Atwood - Female POV
Atwood in writing her own dystopian novel, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ notes “The majority of dystopias” such as 1984 by George Orwell or Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. “have been written by men and the point of view has been male”
James (2019) - Drug use
The drug use in ‘Parable of the Sower’ is not glorified, but presented in all its ugliness and desperation. Butler’s exploration of addiction and its impact on society is both insightful and devastating
Maraj (2020) - Violence
Butler’s critique of a society that has become numb to violence and its consequences is both powerful and devastating
Cephus (1992) - Poverty
Her exploration of the links between poverty, power, and social inequality is both insightful and deeply moving
