PARABLE OF THE SOWER: BOOK REVIEW
When I first picked up Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower (1993) I could hardly put it down; I was entranced. I felt a mix of adrenaline and excitement akin to rubbernecking a car accident as I drove, white-knuckled on the highway. How did Butler manage to paint a world set in the future that is so eerily similar to the world we are living in today while maintaining that element of science fiction that keeps me turning the pages? And, once I started noticing these chilling similarities, I couldn’t stop. So much of the world that Butler has created holds a clear parallel to the past, present, and potential future. This is truly a cautionary tale that may come true if we are not careful.
Butler’s speculative fiction book opens with its protagonist Lauren Olamina at the age of fifteen. Parable of the Sower is meant to be a collection of Lauren’s journal entries, which document what life is like in her community in this apocalyptic version of the United States. She talks about theft, poverty, natural and unnatural disasters, drugs, and other topics that would normally be difficult for fifteen-year-olds to stomach, yet she does so with immense care and reflection. Laren’s thoughts feel instinctive. I never once doubted that I was in the mind of a fifteen-year-old girl, which speaks to Butler’s effortless ability to transport the reader into a character’s mind. The way that Lauren talks about what is going on around her is both insightful and somewhat simplistic, as her perspectives are clearly shaped by the influences she grew up with. As she grows older and begins to break from these early life influences, her decision-making processes shift from one that is black and white to one that is more accomodating of a grey area. This feels like an authentic aspect of coming of age, and but Lauren’s hyper-empathy still forces her to grow up quickly.
Lauren’s hyper-empathy, which she claims derives from her mother’s drug abuse while she was pregnant, enables her to share the physical feelings of those around her. The use of the fictionalized hyper-empathy syndrome in Parable of the Sower helps the reader draw connections between reality and fantasy, past and future, and the many characters of the book. Lauren mostly shares in others’ pain, because that is all there is in this world. The choice on Butler’s part to give Lauren the ability to feel what others feel not only helps enrich the world and the characters, but it also encourages the reader to think critically about what it means to empathize with others. Lauren’s hyper-empathy is debilitating at times, but it also enables her to be a great and respected leader who thinks deeply and understands those around her. Butler uses this character to encourage us to empathize with others in the face of crisis because, despite the pain that may follow, this deep and embodied empathy can lead to lasting change.
Another central value critical to Lauren’s character is her religion: Earthseed. This is another avenue through which we see Lauren grow up and interpret the world around her. Her goal to spread this religion and start a community is the motivating force behind her migration north. Along the way, she picks up other travelers by showing them kindness and teaching them about Earthseed. I found this transformation in Lauren key to understanding just what it was about Butler’s narrative that held me captivated throughout. At the start of the book, Lauren talks about how fearful she is of others and how that is the key to survival. Much of her inner monologue is devoted to decisions about people and how she will treat them in the future. This changes as she moves north and adds members to her group. She makes decisions that surprise the people who knew her before and takes chances she wouldn’t have taken otherwise. Balancing trust with caution is entirely different in this book than in many other speculative fiction works and provides an element of both realism and optimism. Butler shows us that if we can figure out how to trust and respect one another, there is hope. There is hope in community and strength in numbers.
Octavia Butler herself has said her work is meant to serve as a warning. She never intended for Parable of the Sower or any of her other books to be prophetic. She does admit, however, that if we are not careful and do not make an effort to change, her works could serve to predict the future of our world. Now more than ever before, the world contained within the pages of Parable of the Sower feels almost within reach. That terrifies me. But, if we heed Butler’s warning, we may be able to band together, just as the members of Earthseed did, and enact powerful, positive, and lasting change.