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"The Evening and the Morning and the Night" Summary The story "The Evening and the Morning and the Night" by Octavia Butler is about a young woman Lynn who was born with Dureya Gode Disease, a genetic disease that was often inherited from parents. In order to avoid dangerous consequences of this disease such as: insanity, aggression and violence the main character Lynn follows specific diet and wears DGD emblem. This results that she is discriminated and labeled as another DGD. Lack of empathy and understanding from healthy people results that the main character lives in constant isolation, depression and fear. By visiting the institution where people with Dureya-Gode Disease live the main character questions her disease and discovers her double abilities that could influence lives of people who are diagnosed with this disease. "Speech Sounds" Summary "Speech Sounds is a short story by Octavia Butler in which the author introduces us to fictional situation in which people lose their abilities to communicate with each other. Some of those people are not able to read, write and speak. The only one way that they can communicate with each other is by using a sign or nonverbal body language. Without the ability to talk, people can not express their deepest ideas and feelings. This situation creates chaos, social disorder, as well as feeling of jealousy and anger among people. The main character Rye witnesses a fight in which a woman is being killed by her husband. After both of them die in a brutal fight, the main character discovers their children who after so many years of hiding their abilities of speaking begin to speak clearly. The main character realizes the power of speech and the importance of being heard.
 * "The Duryea-Gode Disease Foundation has spent millions telling the world that people like my father don't exist(Butler37).
 * I didn't like the way people edged away from me when they caught sights of my emblem"(Butler38).
 * All we had in common was our disease, plus a weird combination of stubbornness intensity about whatever we happened be doing and hopeless cynicism about everything else(Butler39).

"Loss of Words: Octavia Butler Speech Sounds" Summary Maria Holmgren Troy in Loss of Words: Octavia Butler "Speech Sounds" emphasizes that science fiction stories help students and the youth to see and imagine many different ideas and issues from different perspective. The author shows how Octavia Butler in a "Speech Sounds" creates the fantasy world where she stresses the importance of speech and communication. Lack of speech and inability to communicate create loss of order leading to social disorder among people who can not either speak, write or read. This ultimately leads to intellectual disability that results in violence, jealousy and anger among people who are affected by this illness. The author emphasizes that lack of speech and inability to communicate is illustrated by the fact that the main character Rye tells her story in the third person. Using objects, symbols, pictures, maps and gestures are important survival strategy. Also many forms of non verbal communication are examples of language and speech impairment that can be compared to symptoms of aphasia an inability to speak or to understand speech. The author compares the importance of the speech to money as a significant factor that brings people together and allows them to function effectively. Lack of communication and ability to communicate with others leads to social misunderstanding and chaos among people because they can not express their ideas and feelings. Octavia Butler in "Speech Sounds" emphasizes the power of communication and speech.
 * "She watched the two carefully, knowing the fight would begin when someone's nerve broke or someone's hand slipped or someone came to the end of his limited ability to communicate"(Butler1).
 * "And in this world where the only likely common language was body, being armed was often enough"(Butler2).
 * "She heard so little coherent human speech for the past three years, she was no longer certain how well she recognized it, no longer certain of the degree of her own impairment"(Butler5).

"Disparate Spirits Yet Kindred Souls: Octavia Butler," Speech Sounds", and Me Summary  In Sandra Y.Govan Disparate Spirits Yet Kindred Souls: Octavia E Butler "Speech Sounds",and Me", the author shows Butler's emotional scaffolding that shed to build the story. Y.Govan argues that Butlers bases her story on a common life experiences, questions and conflicts. Like many other science fiction stories there is a visible havoc, tension and fear. This fear and havoc can be seen at the beginning of the story where there is a visible fear and tension among passengers at the bus. Butler emphasizes human irrational behavior and human nature such as jealousy, envy and violence that are common characteristics of a human behavior during times of crisis. She stresses the issues of hate, violence and destructiveness. In her story Butlers illustrates "the illness" as a common factor that results in language impairment and lose of humanity. She compares this situation to goe-political issues and illustrates possible consequences of such a tragedy. Butler introduces readers to Rye and illustrates her as a compassionate ,loving, nurturing and brave woman who is ready to encounter any danger. Butler emphasizes the importance of power and hierarchy such as: control, civil order, gender equality and authority. Furthermore, Butler in her story stresses the importance of cognitive theory by showing the importance and dominance of the brain hemispheres and shows how significant those hemispheres are when it comes to thinking, behavior, language and speech abilities.
 * "Thus, Butler's story is not only an excellent introduction to the short-story genre; in the language classroom it also offers a starting-point for a vital discussion of the value of verbal communication"(Troy80).
 * "In the Butler's story, the connection between verbal skills, human relationships, and survival is made clear in the increased difficulty to establish relationships and to survive due to the loss of verbal means of communication"(Troy78).
 * "Thus, the absence of money in the story underlines the loss of words, the problem of communication, and social disintegration, or to use Jakobson and Halle's expression, the loss of common code"(2002":72)"(Troy77).


 * "Here Butler invokes the base dimensions of human nature-jealousy, envy, lust, territoriality, violence, the tendency to fear and fight what we do not comprehend"(Govan118).
 * "And yet, in depicting some characters who still to strive to exercise basic human tendency, attempting to remain s force for positive moral action, Butler incorporates another of her trademark themes: the significance of hierarchy"(Govan 120)
 * She gives us a world where mullions suffer some form of aphasia; she paints characters in perilous situations as she can illustrate artistically the dynamics between different modes of thinking and behaving showing (the left brain)or the other (the right brain)"(Govan 123).

Digging Deep. Aliments of difference in Octavia Butler's "The Evening and the Morning and the Night". Summary In Digging Deep the Isiah Lavender argues that Octavia Butler in "The Evening and the Morning and the Night" writes her story to compare the effects of DGD disease in ways that have similar social effects to race and racism. He believes that racial identity is the major point in her story. Butler gives many clues in the story that are related to racial identity and racism. She emphasizes racial issues by creating fictional DGD disease and links biology with race. She shows how society wants to get rid of people who are diagnosed with this disease by sterilization. Thus, sterilization itself has a racial context and meaning. Critics believe that because Octavia's Butler is a black writer her stories are about racism. Furthermore, the fictional disease suggests racial issues as it results isolation, fear and discrimination of its victims. It seems that Octavia Butler refers unhealthy people to(black) and shows how they are they labeled by (white) people or those who are healthy. Thus, the race issue is clearly seen through the oppression of people who are diagnosed with DGD. Furthermore, Butler introduces us to Dr. Beatrice Alcantara who is perceived by critics as a aggressive black mother whose rule is to fight oppression and fight for racial tolerance and acceptance among people.


 * "Thus, the open-ended nature of Butler's story defines simplistic, essentialist, reductionist readings that conclude that because Butler is black writer, her stories are about racism (Lavender 67).
 * Though Butler's intentions for this story are guided by "wondering" about the "board game" of genetics and "disease as one way to explore answers" (Bloodchild 69),critics should also consider the possibility that this story is a race story and those suffering from the fictional genetic illness called DGD are in fact victims of cultural racism, figurative blackness, and racial Othering, which represent the rules of this board game (Lavender 68).
 * "The idea of racism operates in part according to fear of contact with the other(Lavender71).

"The book of Martha" Summary. In the "Book Of Martha" Octavia Butler introduces us to another fictional situation in which the main character Martha has an encounter with God. God appears to Martha and tells her that he choses her to change the world. At first Martha is horrified with this request as she does not believe that she is a perfect candidate for this mission. However, as the story progresses Martha takes this responsibility upon herself and thinks of possible solutions to problems that are faced by society. First, Martha recommends that allowing people to have only two children will reduce violence and life misery. However, God disagrees with this decision and tells Martha that natural disasters would eventually lead to decrease in human population and people won't be able to replace themselves. Martha then asks God to give people dreams by which they could satisfy their needs and desires. Martha knows that this request would cause her to lose her writing career but despite anything she continues with this request. God agrees with Martha's and decides to do as Martha wishes. As the story progresses Martha realizes that God appears to have human-like nature and God appears to be black female.She realizes that the God that she had an encounter with was her. At the end Martha wants to forget about an encounter she had with God.


 * "Dreams", she said. "Powerful ,unavoidable, realistic dreams that come every time people sleep" (Butler 203).
 * "Do you mean," God asked " that they should be taught some lesson through their dreams" (Butler 203).
 * "I want to forget", Martha said, and she stood alone in her living room, looking blankly past the doors drapes of her front window at the surface of Lake Washington and the mist that hung above it. She wondered at the words she had just spoken, wondered what it was she wanted so badly to forget" (Butler 212).

"Amnesty" Summary In "Amnesty" Octavia Butler introduces us to Noah Cannon a woman who has the ability to translate language of unusual aliens called communities who have colonized the Earth. She is able to translate their language by using special codes and system of touches. As the story progresses we learn that Noah has a special connection with those aliens. Since many people want to get rid off those unusual creatures Noah tells them the story about those creatures lives and how they began to occupy the Earth. We learn that those aliens came on a one way ship and their arrival caused many problems such as: depression in the human economy. Aliens decided to abduct humans and keep them as their captives. Noah was also abducted and received a cruel treatment from aliens. She had to learn their language in order to communicate with them. After 12 years she was released by aliens and then she was captured by a human military where she experienced even more harsh treatment. After being released by humans she decided to work for aliens who paid her well for translating their language.


 * "" My human jailers were like Communities in their attitude toward suicide", she said"(Butler 172).
 * " They paid a handsome percentage of their profit to the government in fees and taxes. With all that, they have still plenty of money to pay us"(Butler 177).
 * "Keep in mind that once the contract is signed, the Communities won't let you go because you are angry with them or because you hate them or even because you try to kill them" (Butler 182).

"Octavia Butler Amnesty" Summary Edwards Lisa in " Octavia Butler Amnesty" emphasizes the importance of " encounter with difference". Noah the main character of the story tells us about her connection with aliens. We learn that she was abducted by aliens and spent years of captivity. After her release she was then captured by U.S military where she experienced even more cruel treatment from her own government. Thus, the story shows unethical behavior of species and even more harsh an unethical behavior of government towards its own people. Furthermore we learn that aliens are described as " truly other" who have complex life and live differently then humans. They are different in appearance, use different language and senses, and reproduce differently then humans. The unusual connection that aliens have with humans is shown by the way they communicate with them. The process of enfolding allows aliens to "embrace human other within themselves". Thus, this shows mutual trust and love of aliens towards human. Furthermore, aliens learn behavior of humans in order to get closer to humans and interact with them. This emphasizes the importance of interaction with otherness. The sign of superiority and dominance of aliens is demonstrated by the fact that aliens occupied the Earth and started to experiment on humans, killing human kind during this process. Their presence led to breakdown of world economy and forced human to work for aliens .Despite this cruel treatment aliens learn to live with humans in relative peace taking care of all their needs. On the other hand human show rejection and hate towards otherness which is demonstrated by the fact that they are hateful and despite anything want to get rid of aliens. Furthermore, the author argues that there are cultural aspects in the story. This is illustrated by the fact that Noah is able to accept and understand cultural difference of aliens and voluntarily returns to work for them. By doing so she wants to tell the truth about aliens and change attitude and hateful behavior of people towards otherness. Butler in Amnesty argues that human beings see themselves as the center of the universe and do not want to acknowledge their inferior position to others. Thus, they are selfish, cruel and exhibit unethical behavior toward significant others.


 * "Undoubtedly, Butler's short story deals with " the encounter with difference"(Roberts 28) between aliens, and human beings, including former alien captives, and thus it is a science fiction text."(Edwards 44).
 * "The U.S. Government, in contrast, takes its helplessness and disorientation out on its own people and by its inhuman interrogation methods seems to go even a step further than the aliens by treating its own species unethically(Edwards 46).
 * ""(...)this time my tormentors were my own people. They were human. They spoke my language. They knew all that I knew about pain and humiliation and fear and despair. They knew what they were doing to me, and yet it never occurred to them not to do it.(172)""(Edwards 59)

Octavia Butler

Biography