User:ShanelleSmith/Parable of the Sower (novel)

Parable of the Sower is written by Octavia E. Butler and released in 1993. It is an apocalypse science fiction novel that provides commentary on climate change and social inequality. It is the first of a series of two books. The novel follows Lauren Olamina in her quest for freedom. Several characters from various walks of life join her on her journey north and learn of a religion she has crafted titled Earthseed. In this religion, the destiny for believers is to inhabit other planets. Parable of the Sower contains several characters that provide major or minor influence towards the plot of the novel. Themes and motifs, such as history repeating itself and the presence and absence of a father figure are apparent in the book. Parable of the sower was planned to be the beginning of several books, but only two were published before Butler's passing. Parable of the Sower was the winner of two awards and adapted into a concert and a graphic novel. Parable of the Sower has influenced music and essays on social justice.

Plot Summary
Parable of the Sower takes place in the year 2024. Both climate change and class inequality have changed the fabric of society. The story is set up in various diary entries written by the protagonist, Lauren Olamina, an African American teenage with a minister as her father and an unknown mother. The only thing her mother left her was an illness from drug abuse during pregnancy. It is called hyperempathy and makes Lauren much more sensitive to sensations outside of her body.

At the beginning of the novel, Lauren is fifteen and lives within the walls of a gated community. On the other side are numerous homeless and mutilated individuals. They pose a threat to the safety of their home in Robledo, just twenty miles from Los Angeles. Lauren lives with her father, her stepmother, Cory, and her four half brothers. Cory is Mexican so their family is a mixed one. On Lauren's fifteenth birthday, with members of their community, she leaves the walls and is baptized in a church.

Lauren puts little faith in the wall's protection and reads books on survival. News of a space program give her hope for a better future. But Christopher Donner, the new presidential elect, is a threat to that future. Lauren starts her own religion where hope lies in the stars.

Lauren's father had found out she was preparing for life outside. They argue but come to an agreement and her father creates emergency packs for the family. Lauren's younger brother, Keith, begins to hang out, outside of the walls. He learns about a drug titled Pyro, that makes people want to commit arson. Keith beings to show up with new clothes and money. He spends more time outside of the walls then in. And then he is dead, mutilated by gang members. Lauren's father leaves to work and never shows up. Lauren titles her book of scripture, Earthseed.

Months pass and Lauren wakes up to the community on fire. Lauren grabs supplies and prepares to leave. She finds out that Cory and her brothers died. She pairs up with Zahra Moss and Harry Balter. To keep herself safe, Lauren dresses up like a boy.

Together they head north through the 101 freeway. Lauren talks about her hyperempathy to her companions and writes more Earthseed scripture. They meet an interracial family, Travis, Natividad, and their son Dominic who join as allies and learn about Earthseed scripture. The purpose of Earthseed is for humans to explore other planets and colonize.

Lauren meets Bankole, a 57 year old man she finds attractive. As the group grows, Bankole who has been intimate with Lauren, tells her about a farm his sister, Alexander, currently lives on. He wants her to join him, but Lauren's priority is Earthseed.

Other members of the group also suffer from hyperempathy, this is learned once Lauren gets shot. The group continues North after the incident and end up on Bankole'd family property. The home is burned down and their are five skulls. Bankole does not believe his sister is among the dead. The group decides to stay here in Northern California and name the community Acorn.

Lauren Olamina
The main protagonist of the novel, Lauren is a teenager throughout the story. She suffers from hyperempathy and keep it a secret from most of her loved one at the beginning of the story. She is the one behind the religion, Earthseed, believers trust that humankind's future is in space on other planets besides Earth. She falls in love with a man around her father's age named Bankole and she starts the first Earthseed colony at his farmhouse in Northern California.

Reverend Olamina
Reverend Olamina is the father of Lauren. He is a minister and teaches at a college outside of Robledo, California. He married a second time to Cory and had four boys. He leaves for work and never comes back. The community assumes he died.

Cory Olamina
Cory is Mexican and Lauren's stepmom. She loves her children especially Keith and mourns his death. Some of their neighbors moved to Olivar, a city owned by a company and she believes they should leave to. They never do and she dies with her sons during the invasion by pyro drug addicts.

Minor Characters
Alexander is Bankole sister who may or may not be dead.

Alicia Leal is an astronaut in the government's space program.

Allie and Jill Gilchrist are sisters that were sold into prostitution by their father. They join the group to go North and learn about Earthseed.

Christopher Donner was the winner of the presidential election. He believed in saving money by getting rid of the space program used to search for habitable planets.

Emery Solis and Tori

Grayson Mora and Doe

Keith Olamina is one of Lauren's younger brothers. He sneaks out of their gated community and engages in illegal acts for money. He dies at fourteen by an attack from gang members.

Mrs. Sims is a religious woman who lived within the gated community and killed herself long before the outside attack.

History repeating itself
Parable of the Sower an Afrocentric themed novel, like many of Butler's other works, comments on the cycle of racism and sexism throughout history. Various forms of slavery are presented in the novel and the slaves tend to be Black and Brown people. Besides labor based slavery and sex slavery, debt slavery is also presented within the book. Despite the horror of a world never changing, Lauren's religion, Earthseed, is place in the story to give hope. The point of Earthseed is to live through history's traumas and adapt, so that history may finally stop repeating itself.

The Father Figure
In Parable of the Sower, the father figure represents the physical father, the religious father, and protection. These versions of the father figure are all lost for Lauren within months, as her father the minister is lost to the outside world, which breaks her ties to both physical and religious father, and the community she lived in, Robledo, is destroyed by drug addicts, thus her losing the protective version of father.