A theme I have resonated with so far, is the weight and irritation Lauren feels trying to explain how vulnerable her community is. Pages 52-58 includes a conversation between Lauren and Joanne discussing the reality they live in, and Lauren tries to explain to Joanne the importance of education, curiosity, imagination, and hope. Joanne takes the stance that, “We can’t do anything about it” and questions why Lauren “would even want to talk about these things.” (54) Even after Lauren pleads, the disconnect of individual agency is inexplainable. I resonate with Lauren in the exhaustion of trying to convince. It seems that the conversation always comes back to, “well what can we do”. Well, we can do a lot, and Lauren even suggests, ” This is what I’ve been doing, reading and studying these over the past few months.” (58) But there is only so much someone can do to explain the importance of vulnerability in the climate crisis.
What similarities do you see in the collective action problem within the novel and real life? Butler writes of a hypothetical and still people lack agency even when in the worst case. What does this mean for our reality and how much can people be pushed until they are fed up?
Lauren Olamina is a young African American girl living in a gated community in Southern California in a dystopian society. She shares her observations and fears about the deteriorating world outside her neighborhood walls. Lauren’s realization that “God is Change,” is a theme supports her philosophy of “Earthseed”. Lauren writes, “all that you touch, you change. All that you change, changes you” (p. 3). Lauren believes that adaptability is the key to survival in their current society. Her family and neighbors struggle to hold onto to normalcy while constantly fearing attacks from the outside. Lauren’s father is a Baptist preacher, and he tries to instill faith in traditional religion. Lauren finds herself questioning these beliefs, as her father’s faith falls short in addressing their harsh reality.
Lauren begins to share her Earthseed beliefs with her friend Joanne, hoping to open her eyes to the situation outside their walls. Joanne reacts with fear and skepticism, which makes Lauren feel even more alone and isolated. Joanne’s reaction reveals the widespread denial within the community and how difficult it is for people to admit and come to terms with their problems. Lauren believes the people rely too heavily on a false comfort. She states, “the neighborhood wall is like a mask…a thin, crude disguise” (p. 48). Lauren believes that no matter how many walls you have there is no hiding from the violent world outside. During a rare trip outside, Lauren witnesses the severe poverty, violence, and despair that many people endure daily, realizing that it’s only a matter of time before these same realities make their way inside the protected walls of home. Lauren states, “we’re like Gulliver on the beach, being tied down by people the size of ants” (p. 61). This metaphor highlights her belief that their security is fragile and could change at any time.
How does Lauren’s idea of “God as change” support her in adapting to the challenges she faces?
How does Lauren’s creation of “Earthseed” reflect her need for meaning and purpose in her collapsing world?
While reading The Parable of the Sower, I drew a few similarities between it, Gagudju Man, and Silko’s Ceremony. The first similarity I noticed were the poems. The poems in these readings told stories more powerfully than writing in a traditional European style could have. They are filled with many meanings and interpretations while also telling their journey.
Another similarity that I want to focus on from these readings is the interpretations of the land. In the beginning of the Parable of the Sower, Lauren struggles with the views of nature and God.
“A few believe God is another word for nature. And nature turns out to mean just about anything they happen not to understand or feel in control of… There are over 700 known dead so far. One hurricane. And how many people has it hurt? How many are going to starve later because of destroyed crops? That’s nature. Is it God?” (Parable of the Sower p. 21-22)
In Gagudju Man, we see that a connection with nature is akin to identity and life.
“The identity of an Aboriginal person, however, is much more than legal title to land. He must fulfil the responsibilities with which his people were charged by ancestral beings in the creative epoch. For Gagudju Man, Big Bill Neidjie, land is life.” (Gagudju Man p.13)
We similar themes in Ceremony. Tayo is being led through this journey of religious and identity discovery as he’s taught the importance of a connection to the land.
“The position of the sun and sky was delicate, transitional; and the season was unmistakable. The sky was the early morning color of autumn: Jemez turquoise, edged with thin quartz clouds. He breathed deeply, trying to inhale the immensity of it, trying to take it all inside himself, the way the arroyo sand swallowed time. She was looking at Pa’to’ch, and the hair was blowing around her face. He could feel where she had come from and he understood where she would always be.” (Ceremony p. 213)
Throughout the ending of Ceremony, the description of the land and animals seem to become more and more prominent. Not only his interactions with Ts’eh but also Tayo’s descriptions and observations of cattle.
The beginning of the Parable of the Sower touches a lot on the religious aspects of this distopian future and navigating a society that is set on a singular ideology.
This is my question: Have you found other connections between Parable of the Sower, Gagudju Man, and Ceremony? What else did you notice about the religious journeys that take place that help us understand the connection to the land? What is the significance to you?
Parable of The Sower follows Lauren Olamina as she forms her own spiritual philosophy that she calls “Earthseed.” She has a condition known as hyperempathy which causes her to experience any and all emotions she witnesses from another person or animal. She describes her world as broken and dystopian, with most neighborhoods and institutions being surrounded by protective walls; those that aren’t are overrun with famine, disease, and death. People are robbed and murdered in broad daylight everyday.
Lauren is having a hard time conforming to her family’s religion, as her father is a Baptist preacher. He insists that her hyperempathy is something that she can work to expel from her life. Living in this world of violence and death, she finds it hard to believe in an all powerful “super-god” or “king-god” as she says. “…why can’t I do what others have done – ignore the obvious. Live a normal life. (p 26)
How do you think a dystopian society in our current time could shift people’s perspectives of organized religion? How might it affect people’s faith? Would there be false prophets that would try to take advantage of the mass panic and chaos? Lastly, could a new, more grounded religion/spirituality/philosophy succeed in bringing people together in this time, better than Christianity for example?
Despite Lauren Olamina’s hyperempathy, she seems to be just as susceptible as everyone else in her insular community to ignoring the plight of those outside their walls. Yes, she averts her eyes when traveling to church or for shooting practice so as to not feel the pain of anyone’s physical injuries, but when it comes to the daily struggle of the street poor, she seems largely apathetic. It isn’t until she starts her journey North that she starts to take risks with helping others.
Is this simply because she is no longer under her father’s watchful eye and doesn’t need to worry about her perception in the community? Or is it the physical and metaphorical othering forced upon those outside the wall of her home that enforces the barriers between her and the street poor?
Lauren appears to be more selfless when she has fewer resources and is herself a member of the larger precariat. Can we, as relatively privileged individuals, take this as a lesson for us in the here and now? Should we be cultivating our own Earthseed now, before wildfires are commonplace and firefighters charge a fee to douse them?
How do we remove the walls that separate us from the street poor now?
The Parable of the Sower recounts the life of a young, black woman living in a gated community after the climate has affected the world. The dystopian world is filled with murder, thievery and countless other crimes that are driven by money and power. Throughout the first one hundred pages, Lauren desperately seeks to understand a world outside of the gates of her community. Seeking to prepare herself and the rest of her neighborhood for the inevitable ruin of their lives. Her fellow community members reject that notion and cling to their concept of normal. This is shown in the film, Pumzi, where the organization and community reject any evidence of their being life beyond their world. They would rather cling to their lives without having to fear for the unknown. In Parable of the Sower, Lauren’s dad responds his wife’s pleads to not use his gun against trespassers by stating a bible verse, “and I looked and rose up and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, be not afraid of them: remember the Lord which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives and your houses,” where protecting is the most important action (Butler, 72). The story continues to suggest the importance of protecting your normal, and with a dystopian society such as in the Parable of the Sower, is there a limit to how far the characters will go to protect that normal? As the characters resort to violence against trespassers will their “safe haven” change into the world outside of the gate?
Within Parable of the Sower, a theme that has stuck out to me is that of pretending normalcy and the extreme distance between different communities. This dystopian world overtaken by climate change focuses heavily on religion, at least inside the wall. Lauren’s dad is a Baptist preacher and it feels like the members of this community try to use religion to project a life or normality. It is simply a cover for the destruction happening right under their noses. However, things are anything but normal. Life is falling apart, it has not rained in seven years, and people are starving and poor. There is such a clear contrast between those who still have money and the majority that are poor. Somehow, people are still being sent to Mars instead of that money being used to feed the population. Water costs several times more than gasoline, but “except for arsonists and the rich, most people have given up buying gasoline” (Butler 18). Society has entered a survivalist state where even the most basic necessities for life have become a luxury. “The miserable will be made even more miserable” (Butler 51). The exclusion created by the wall only fuels this separation and destruction, creating a stereotype of filth for those outside the wall, created by those inside the wall. How is this extreme type of exclusion and stereotyping already prevalent within the world now? What metaphorical walls have people already built around themselves that isolate them from the destruction and climate disaster happening right next to them?
After reading the beginning of parable of the Sower by Octavie Butler. We can gather some main points that reoccur in the beginning of the texts. The symbolic representation of a dystopian society shows the reader how important the community and the members inside the wall are. The text focuses on Lauren who is the main character that lives within the walls of a society that is guarded from the societal collapse that is occurring in the outside world surrounding the Southern California community.
Lauren introduces many of her own thoughts about life and the world around her as she emphasis her condition of hyper empathy. This condition makes her feel the pain and more remorse for those around her and outside of the community then many other residents who are trying to purely survive. We see her struggle with the concept of faith, climate change, and spiritual influences as she evaluates the looming situation. The wall surrounding the community serves as a symbolic representation of a man-made object that is successfully keeping the chaos at bay. With this realization Lauren wrestles with the idea of a new life and different societies that could be out there.
She complies many of these thoughts in “The Book of the Living” which introduces the main concepts of “Earthseed.” In many aspects earth seed tackles the religious aspects of life and the natural world. In Laurens poems on page 62 she poses questions about God and whether the universe is to shape God or rather God is to shape the universe. These questions seem to be a reoccurring theme so far in the text as a following of the “Earthseed” movement creates a sense of community as members seem to come together to pose questions concerning morality and the state of the world that characters are experiencing.
In our lives today what are examples of an “earthseed” ideology that is prevalent in our lives?
Though fictional, many of these aspects mentioned in the text are applicable to real life. In what ways are we seeing the impacts of climate change that could potentially lead to communities being formed such as in the text?
After reading Parable of the Sower I have observed the harsh realuty that we may be facing withing the next 100 years. The book is set in an era that has been decimated by the effects of climate change. Fresh water and food have become scarce and there has been an increase in violence. While I would have expected there to be a resource shortage I never considered the consequences of climate change would lead to violence in many communites. While reading I noticed the impact of climate change on vulnerable communities. In Lauren’s world, as in our own, marginalized communities experience the harshest impacts of environmental degradation. The book also emphasizes the separation of different classes in society and how they are being effected by climate change. The rich are able to go on in life without being negativly effected but the lower classes are stuggeling with even the most simplest of necessities
As someone who wants to continue my sustainable development career fighting the effects of cliamte change thourgh conservation and the preservation of land, I think this book is a good example of what reality could look like in the future if we do not change now. While reading however I have began to look at the effects of climate change and who/how will it effect people of different social classes. As somone who looks at climate change through a conservation lense rather than a social justice lense this book brings to light a whole different conflict.
How can communities today prepare for and respond to the uneven impacts of climate change to ensure that marginalized groups are protected and supported, rather than left to struggle alone as seen in Parable of the Sower?
One topic I became curious about in our reading of the parable of the sewer covering Lauren and her post-apocalyptic community is the fact that since knowledge is localized, companion animals are no longer an entity . Some children haven’t ever seen dogs before; even Lauren stated a dog ,
“looked like pictures I had seen of wolves.”
Showing they’d never seen the actual thing as this was just a dog. the other kids chiming in Showing more fear towards the unknown in general even her father’s concerned of the good and bad basic ideas exhibit. So in the case that they are shielded in the sense of knowledge being contained geographically as to what they can glean from their community or locally. such as their rabbits, martial arts, and other skills to be taught within How has zoomorphic rhetoric survived time?
As animalizing language is used multitudes of times within the book to display the degradation of humanity. However, the time that interested me the most was on pg when the kids are nearly attacked by a pack of wild dogs during target practice. Pointing her gun toward some rocks and babbling.
“It was over there, she said, her words tumbling over one another. “It was some kind of animal—dirty yellow with big teeth. It had its mouth open. It was huge!” “You stupid bitch, you almost shot me! Michael Talcott shouted
As what intrigued me about this interaction is the insult bitch is still used when angry at someone else, there’s also other animal person comparisons in the book made by Lauren.when she’s talking about the state of the community and the people outside of it exhibiting danger. “I mean, I love it. It’s home. These are my people. But I hate it. It’s like an island surrounded by sharks—except that sharks don’t bother you unless you go in the water. But our land sharks are onway ín, It’s just a matter of how long it takes for them to get ”
So I’m curious on how the knowledge of zoomporphism survived when other survival knowledge is deemed dangerous yet there’s still language, so I’d assume word of mouth, but do they know what it actually means aside from our main character Lauren, who still embraces all sorts of knowledge through books?
In Chapter 3 of the book our main character experiences one of her neighbors, Mrs. Sims, committing suicide. This came as a result of her son and their family burning alive in a house that was located outside the walled community that Mrs. Sims lived in. The main character said that her dad had went to check on her when he and his wife found her already dead.
I found this part of the book to be interesting because it brings up a topic of sustainability in an interesting way. We have talked a lot in class about how community is an essential need of humans, even though science may suggest otherwise. And so, it is the job of political and community leaders to provide the public with means of voluntarily achieving community, especially for people who are in most need of it, such as people who recently lost a family member, people who live alone, or people who are struggling with mental illnesses such as depression, addiction, etc..
My question(s) therefore is/are: What are some public initiatives that you can think of, whether they have had an effect on your own life or not, that work to create a sense of community in Boone, AppState, or your hometown? Are these initiatives effective? How do public servicemen make the masses aware of these services? Do you think they could be doing more?
Lauren is an unusual but special person as she has the ability to be hyper empathetic which sets her apart from other characters in the novel. She is skeptical and constantly questioning the state of her dystopian world. Lauren develops a new system of thought called Earthseed which helps her to make sense of the chaos and destruction around her. Earthseed represents hope in a world that is amid social collapse. Although Earthseed is a glimmer of optimism, Lauren struggles to make peace with loss and uncertainty. Outside the wall, criminals high on drugs set fires to homes where several residents are killed and other homes, including Lauren’s are robbed. The instability of the state of the world creates a breeding ground for more chaos. Despite having Earthseed as faith how can one find rootedness or groundedness in a world like this? Does Lauren succeed in be rooted but also open to change?
Lauren’s has hyper empathy, the ability to feel what others feel, including their pain. Despite the variety of her ability it is seen as a bad thing. She does not tell people about her ability because she fears what they may say or do to her. Even her brother uses the ability against her, drawing on himself in red pen, tricking her into bleeding. In this world where there is so much pain and anger it makes sense that feeling what others feel would be seen as a negative attribute. However Lauren points out if everyone had hyper empathy the world would be a safer, better place. “If hyperempathy syndrome were a more common complaint, people couldn’t do such things. They could kill if they had to, and bear the pain of it or be destroyed by it. But if everyone could feel everyone else’s pain, who would torture? Who would cause anyone unnecessary pain? I’ve never thought of my problem as something that might do some good before, but the way things are, I think it would help. I wish I could give it to people. Failing that, I wish I could find other people who have it, and live among them. A biological conscience is better than no conscience at all.” This especially stuck out to me because she can even feel the pain of animals, though duller than that of humans. It made me wonder if all humans understood the plight of other, both humans and nonhuman, would the world be different? Would the world operate closer to how some indigenous communities operate, with a higher regard for other’s life? The scene where the dog is shot and she feels it pain made me wonder if she had a better relationship with the nonhuman world would she feel their feelings more deeply? “I walked, then rode in a daze, still not quite free of the dog I had killed. I had felt it die, and yet I had not died. I had felt its pain as though it were a human being. I had felt its life flare and go out, and I was still alive.” She does not have a great understanding of others life because of the society she was raised in. However, I feel if she continues on the path she is on, caring for those around her, she will eventually have the same care for nonhumans, not just for her own benefit but because she sees them as subjects rather than objects as her and her society seem to now.
In the reading Parable of the Sower, Lauren is a special person. Lauren is someone who feels more than sympathy but more empathy. She’s such an empathetic person that she even feels other peoples pain. I noticed in the reading that she is much different than the other characters in the book as she seems to be the most empathetic of the characters so far. She even makes a new way of thinking in her dystopian world that she calls Earthseed. Earthseed is an optimistic way of thinking, like having a glass half full. She embodies the optimism while outside of the wall are people burning housing, doing more harm to neighborhoods even to her own home. The psychotic chaos that has erupted outside of the wall as earthseed helps Lauren see the other side of this social collapse. My question is will her new way of faith (earthseed) allow her to breed deep and strong connections while all is going on around her just outside the wall? While she as a hyper empathetic person with earthseed be able to overcome what is about to change?
The quote from the first chapter in Parable of the Sower, “All that you touch, You Change. All that you Change, Changes you. The only lasting truth Is Change. God Is Change,” serves as the foundation of Lauren Olamina’s emerging philosophy, Earthseed. It encapsulates her view of the universe as a dynamic, ever-evolving system where change is the only constant. The first part of the quote reflects on the idea that every action we take and everything we touch alters the world around us- we have a physical impact on the world whether we realize this or not. Following the idea that all you change, changes you, reflects that we transform our own ideals/principles about the world through change itself. We create new ideologies and beliefs about life by being forced to change. Her idea that God is change- suggests that it is a force beyond our control as humans. It underlines her conviction that in a “collapsing world”, the key to survival is not in resisting or wishing for the world to return to its previous state, but learning to navigate, adapt, and thrive amidst the ever-evolving chaos.
The interconnectedness of “touch” and “change” highlights that every individual, regardless of their background or status, has the power to impact the world around them, which, in turn, leads to their own transformation.
For my question, I’d like to dig deeper into the idea of “God is Change.”
How does this ideology provide a more empowering way to understand our own role in this ever-changing world today? How might it help individuals or communities navigate uncertainty and difficult circumstances? Do you agree with the idea that change is beyond our human control?
In our reading “Parable of the Sower” we are shown what our world may look like in the next 100 years due to climate change, where food and water are not as easily accessible and pretty much everything has become scare and hard to obtain leading to violence being a very common occurrence in the fight for resources. We are also introduced to the character Lauren who lives in a marginalized community that has been severely affected by the impacts of climate change. And we can see that much like in our world today the different social classes were being affected differently where the rich were hardly affected while the poor were severely affected. After reading about how this could very well be the future of our world I began thinking if stories such as this are impactful enough to persuade people to make changes in their lives so we can avoid such a harsh future or if the idea of seeing is believing is so strong that the only way people will change their ways is when they start being affected by the consequences of their actions.
In Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, Lauren Olamina is a young African American woman living in a gated community in dystopian Southern California, where society is plagued by violence, poverty, and environmental collapse. Lauren’s hyperempathy—a condition causing her to feel others’ pain—deepens her awareness of the suffering around her. Despite her father’s efforts to uphold traditional religious beliefs as a Baptist preacher, Lauren questions these doctrines and instead develops her own spiritual philosophy, Earthseed, centered on the idea that “God is Change.” Lauren’s attempts to share her Earthseed beliefs often isolate her, as others try to be normal. Through experiences outside the gates, including witnessing extreme violence and despair, Lauren recognizes the vulnerability of their so-called sanctuary. Her metaphor of “Gulliver on the beach” reflects her understanding that their safety is precarious and temporary.
My question is basically just do you think that this is a potential look into the future. Is this world possible, I believe it may be with the trajectory of violence and division in our country and world.
Throughout the book we see Lauren struggle with and then open up when describing Earthseed and the ways in which she wants to explore the world. At the beginning/first half of the book, she keeps very quiet until she decides to bring it up to someone very close to her- Joanne. This leads her to get in trouble with her father, who ultimately understands her but asks her to go about it in different ways as to not shock everyone so hard whenever she speaks about it. She ends up being correct- that people would one day just break down their walls and destroy and take from them, that the wall was not enough to protect themselves from the outside. In the coming months after that, she ends up meeting others with hyper-empathy as well who are hesitant to join them or join Earthseed. Do we think Lauren’s specific upbringing of having hyper-empathy and having a preacher father lead her to believe more in change and that she could help the world? Despite being sheltered within the neighborhood walls, she was still able to gain an understanding with books and her father teaching her how to shoot. What do we think would’ve happened if she ended up traveling without anyone from within her neighborhood?
SD 3800 Voices in Sustainable Development 
Dez
A theme I have resonated with so far, is the weight and irritation Lauren feels trying to explain how vulnerable her community is. Pages 52-58 includes a conversation between Lauren and Joanne discussing the reality they live in, and Lauren tries to explain to Joanne the importance of education, curiosity, imagination, and hope. Joanne takes the stance that, “We can’t do anything about it” and questions why Lauren “would even want to talk about these things.” (54) Even after Lauren pleads, the disconnect of individual agency is inexplainable. I resonate with Lauren in the exhaustion of trying to convince. It seems that the conversation always comes back to, “well what can we do”. Well, we can do a lot, and Lauren even suggests, ” This is what I’ve been doing, reading and studying these over the past few months.” (58) But there is only so much someone can do to explain the importance of vulnerability in the climate crisis.
What similarities do you see in the collective action problem within the novel and real life? Butler writes of a hypothetical and still people lack agency even when in the worst case. What does this mean for our reality and how much can people be pushed until they are fed up?
Lauren Olamina is a young African American girl living in a gated community in Southern California in a dystopian society. She shares her observations and fears about the deteriorating world outside her neighborhood walls. Lauren’s realization that “God is Change,” is a theme supports her philosophy of “Earthseed”. Lauren writes, “all that you touch, you change. All that you change, changes you” (p. 3). Lauren believes that adaptability is the key to survival in their current society. Her family and neighbors struggle to hold onto to normalcy while constantly fearing attacks from the outside. Lauren’s father is a Baptist preacher, and he tries to instill faith in traditional religion. Lauren finds herself questioning these beliefs, as her father’s faith falls short in addressing their harsh reality.
Lauren begins to share her Earthseed beliefs with her friend Joanne, hoping to open her eyes to the situation outside their walls. Joanne reacts with fear and skepticism, which makes Lauren feel even more alone and isolated. Joanne’s reaction reveals the widespread denial within the community and how difficult it is for people to admit and come to terms with their problems. Lauren believes the people rely too heavily on a false comfort. She states, “the neighborhood wall is like a mask…a thin, crude disguise” (p. 48). Lauren believes that no matter how many walls you have there is no hiding from the violent world outside. During a rare trip outside, Lauren witnesses the severe poverty, violence, and despair that many people endure daily, realizing that it’s only a matter of time before these same realities make their way inside the protected walls of home. Lauren states, “we’re like Gulliver on the beach, being tied down by people the size of ants” (p. 61). This metaphor highlights her belief that their security is fragile and could change at any time.
How does Lauren’s idea of “God as change” support her in adapting to the challenges she faces?
How does Lauren’s creation of “Earthseed” reflect her need for meaning and purpose in her collapsing world?
Discussion Question: Anna Gardner
While reading The Parable of the Sower, I drew a few similarities between it, Gagudju Man, and Silko’s Ceremony. The first similarity I noticed were the poems. The poems in these readings told stories more powerfully than writing in a traditional European style could have. They are filled with many meanings and interpretations while also telling their journey.
Another similarity that I want to focus on from these readings is the interpretations of the land. In the beginning of the Parable of the Sower, Lauren struggles with the views of nature and God.
“A few believe God is another word for nature. And nature turns out to mean just about anything they happen not to understand or feel in control of… There are over 700 known dead so far. One hurricane. And how many people has it hurt? How many are going to starve later because of destroyed crops? That’s nature. Is it God?” (Parable of the Sower p. 21-22)
In Gagudju Man, we see that a connection with nature is akin to identity and life.
“The identity of an Aboriginal person, however, is much more than legal title to land. He must fulfil the responsibilities with which his people were charged by ancestral beings in the creative epoch. For Gagudju Man, Big Bill Neidjie, land is life.” (Gagudju Man p.13)
We similar themes in Ceremony. Tayo is being led through this journey of religious and identity discovery as he’s taught the importance of a connection to the land.
“The position of the sun and sky was delicate, transitional; and the season was unmistakable. The sky was the early morning color of autumn: Jemez turquoise, edged with thin quartz clouds. He breathed deeply, trying to inhale the immensity of it, trying to take it all inside himself, the way the arroyo sand swallowed time. She was looking at Pa’to’ch, and the hair was blowing around her face. He could feel where she had come from and he understood where she would always be.” (Ceremony p. 213)
Throughout the ending of Ceremony, the description of the land and animals seem to become more and more prominent. Not only his interactions with Ts’eh but also Tayo’s descriptions and observations of cattle.
The beginning of the Parable of the Sower touches a lot on the religious aspects of this distopian future and navigating a society that is set on a singular ideology.
This is my question: Have you found other connections between Parable of the Sower, Gagudju Man, and Ceremony? What else did you notice about the religious journeys that take place that help us understand the connection to the land? What is the significance to you?
Parable of The Sower follows Lauren Olamina as she forms her own spiritual philosophy that she calls “Earthseed.” She has a condition known as hyperempathy which causes her to experience any and all emotions she witnesses from another person or animal. She describes her world as broken and dystopian, with most neighborhoods and institutions being surrounded by protective walls; those that aren’t are overrun with famine, disease, and death. People are robbed and murdered in broad daylight everyday.
Lauren is having a hard time conforming to her family’s religion, as her father is a Baptist preacher. He insists that her hyperempathy is something that she can work to expel from her life. Living in this world of violence and death, she finds it hard to believe in an all powerful “super-god” or “king-god” as she says. “…why can’t I do what others have done – ignore the obvious. Live a normal life. (p 26)
How do you think a dystopian society in our current time could shift people’s perspectives of organized religion? How might it affect people’s faith? Would there be false prophets that would try to take advantage of the mass panic and chaos? Lastly, could a new, more grounded religion/spirituality/philosophy succeed in bringing people together in this time, better than Christianity for example?
By Evan Morgan
Despite Lauren Olamina’s hyperempathy, she seems to be just as susceptible as everyone else in her insular community to ignoring the plight of those outside their walls. Yes, she averts her eyes when traveling to church or for shooting practice so as to not feel the pain of anyone’s physical injuries, but when it comes to the daily struggle of the street poor, she seems largely apathetic. It isn’t until she starts her journey North that she starts to take risks with helping others.
Is this simply because she is no longer under her father’s watchful eye and doesn’t need to worry about her perception in the community? Or is it the physical and metaphorical othering forced upon those outside the wall of her home that enforces the barriers between her and the street poor?
Lauren appears to be more selfless when she has fewer resources and is herself a member of the larger precariat. Can we, as relatively privileged individuals, take this as a lesson for us in the here and now? Should we be cultivating our own Earthseed now, before wildfires are commonplace and firefighters charge a fee to douse them?
How do we remove the walls that separate us from the street poor now?
Rose Benton
Alaina Case
The Parable of the Sower recounts the life of a young, black woman living in a gated community after the climate has affected the world. The dystopian world is filled with murder, thievery and countless other crimes that are driven by money and power. Throughout the first one hundred pages, Lauren desperately seeks to understand a world outside of the gates of her community. Seeking to prepare herself and the rest of her neighborhood for the inevitable ruin of their lives. Her fellow community members reject that notion and cling to their concept of normal. This is shown in the film, Pumzi, where the organization and community reject any evidence of their being life beyond their world. They would rather cling to their lives without having to fear for the unknown.
In Parable of the Sower, Lauren’s dad responds his wife’s pleads to not use his gun against trespassers by stating a bible verse, “and I looked and rose up and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, be not afraid of them: remember the Lord which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives and your houses,” where protecting is the most important action (Butler, 72).
The story continues to suggest the importance of protecting your normal, and with a dystopian society such as in the Parable of the Sower, is there a limit to how far the characters will go to protect that normal? As the characters resort to violence against trespassers will their “safe haven” change into the world outside of the gate?
Within Parable of the Sower, a theme that has stuck out to me is that of pretending normalcy and the extreme distance between different communities. This dystopian world overtaken by climate change focuses heavily on religion, at least inside the wall. Lauren’s dad is a Baptist preacher and it feels like the members of this community try to use religion to project a life or normality. It is simply a cover for the destruction happening right under their noses. However, things are anything but normal. Life is falling apart, it has not rained in seven years, and people are starving and poor. There is such a clear contrast between those who still have money and the majority that are poor. Somehow, people are still being sent to Mars instead of that money being used to feed the population. Water costs several times more than gasoline, but “except for arsonists and the rich, most people have given up buying gasoline” (Butler 18). Society has entered a survivalist state where even the most basic necessities for life have become a luxury. “The miserable will be made even more miserable” (Butler 51). The exclusion created by the wall only fuels this separation and destruction, creating a stereotype of filth for those outside the wall, created by those inside the wall. How is this extreme type of exclusion and stereotyping already prevalent within the world now? What metaphorical walls have people already built around themselves that isolate them from the destruction and climate disaster happening right next to them?
Hanna Cowles
After reading the beginning of parable of the Sower by Octavie Butler. We can gather some main points that reoccur in the beginning of the texts. The symbolic representation of a dystopian society shows the reader how important the community and the members inside the wall are. The text focuses on Lauren who is the main character that lives within the walls of a society that is guarded from the societal collapse that is occurring in the outside world surrounding the Southern California community.
Lauren introduces many of her own thoughts about life and the world around her as she emphasis her condition of hyper empathy. This condition makes her feel the pain and more remorse for those around her and outside of the community then many other residents who are trying to purely survive. We see her struggle with the concept of faith, climate change, and spiritual influences as she evaluates the looming situation. The wall surrounding the community serves as a symbolic representation of a man-made object that is successfully keeping the chaos at bay. With this realization Lauren wrestles with the idea of a new life and different societies that could be out there.
She complies many of these thoughts in “The Book of the Living” which introduces the main concepts of “Earthseed.” In many aspects earth seed tackles the religious aspects of life and the natural world. In Laurens poems on page 62 she poses questions about God and whether the universe is to shape God or rather God is to shape the universe. These questions seem to be a reoccurring theme so far in the text as a following of the “Earthseed” movement creates a sense of community as members seem to come together to pose questions concerning morality and the state of the world that characters are experiencing.
In our lives today what are examples of an “earthseed” ideology that is prevalent in our lives?
Though fictional, many of these aspects mentioned in the text are applicable to real life. In what ways are we seeing the impacts of climate change that could potentially lead to communities being formed such as in the text?
Cooper White ^^
Cooper White ^^
Liam Evans
After reading Parable of the Sower I have observed the harsh realuty that we may be facing withing the next 100 years. The book is set in an era that has been decimated by the effects of climate change. Fresh water and food have become scarce and there has been an increase in violence. While I would have expected there to be a resource shortage I never considered the consequences of climate change would lead to violence in many communites. While reading I noticed the impact of climate change on vulnerable communities. In Lauren’s world, as in our own, marginalized communities experience the harshest impacts of environmental degradation. The book also emphasizes the separation of different classes in society and how they are being effected by climate change. The rich are able to go on in life without being negativly effected but the lower classes are stuggeling with even the most simplest of necessities
As someone who wants to continue my sustainable development career fighting the effects of cliamte change thourgh conservation and the preservation of land, I think this book is a good example of what reality could look like in the future if we do not change now. While reading however I have began to look at the effects of climate change and who/how will it effect people of different social classes. As somone who looks at climate change through a conservation lense rather than a social justice lense this book brings to light a whole different conflict.
How can communities today prepare for and respond to the uneven impacts of climate change to ensure that marginalized groups are protected and supported, rather than left to struggle alone as seen in Parable of the Sower?
Megan Langlois
One topic I became curious about in our reading of the parable of the sewer covering Lauren and her post-apocalyptic community is the fact that since knowledge is localized, companion animals are no longer an entity . Some children haven’t ever seen dogs before; even Lauren stated a dog ,
“looked like pictures I had seen of wolves.”
Showing they’d never seen the actual thing as this was just a dog. the other kids chiming in Showing more fear towards the unknown in general even her father’s concerned of the good and bad basic ideas exhibit. So in the case that they are shielded in the sense of knowledge being contained geographically as to what they can glean from their community or locally. such as their rabbits, martial arts, and other skills to be taught within How has zoomorphic rhetoric survived time?
As animalizing language is used multitudes of times within the book to display the degradation of humanity. However, the time that interested me the most was on pg when the kids are nearly attacked by a pack of wild dogs during target practice. Pointing her gun toward some rocks and babbling.
“It was over there, she said, her words tumbling over one another. “It was some kind of animal—dirty yellow with big teeth. It had its mouth open. It was huge!” “You stupid bitch, you almost shot me! Michael Talcott shouted
As what intrigued me about this interaction is the insult bitch is still used when angry at someone else, there’s also other animal person comparisons in the book made by Lauren.when she’s talking about the state of the community and the people outside of it exhibiting danger. “I mean, I love it. It’s home. These are my people. But I hate it. It’s like an island surrounded by sharks—except that sharks don’t bother you unless you go in the water. But our land sharks are onway ín, It’s just a matter of how long it takes for them to get ”
So I’m curious on how the knowledge of zoomporphism survived when other survival knowledge is deemed dangerous yet there’s still language, so I’d assume word of mouth, but do they know what it actually means aside from our main character Lauren, who still embraces all sorts of knowledge through books?
In Chapter 3 of the book our main character experiences one of her neighbors, Mrs. Sims, committing suicide. This came as a result of her son and their family burning alive in a house that was located outside the walled community that Mrs. Sims lived in. The main character said that her dad had went to check on her when he and his wife found her already dead.
I found this part of the book to be interesting because it brings up a topic of sustainability in an interesting way. We have talked a lot in class about how community is an essential need of humans, even though science may suggest otherwise. And so, it is the job of political and community leaders to provide the public with means of voluntarily achieving community, especially for people who are in most need of it, such as people who recently lost a family member, people who live alone, or people who are struggling with mental illnesses such as depression, addiction, etc..
My question(s) therefore is/are: What are some public initiatives that you can think of, whether they have had an effect on your own life or not, that work to create a sense of community in Boone, AppState, or your hometown? Are these initiatives effective? How do public servicemen make the masses aware of these services? Do you think they could be doing more?
Cole Tomlin
Maddy Gartland
Lauren is an unusual but special person as she has the ability to be hyper empathetic which sets her apart from other characters in the novel. She is skeptical and constantly questioning the state of her dystopian world. Lauren develops a new system of thought called Earthseed which helps her to make sense of the chaos and destruction around her. Earthseed represents hope in a world that is amid social collapse. Although Earthseed is a glimmer of optimism, Lauren struggles to make peace with loss and uncertainty. Outside the wall, criminals high on drugs set fires to homes where several residents are killed and other homes, including Lauren’s are robbed. The instability of the state of the world creates a breeding ground for more chaos. Despite having Earthseed as faith how can one find rootedness or groundedness in a world like this? Does Lauren succeed in be rooted but also open to change?
Anna Harrison
Lauren’s has hyper empathy, the ability to feel what others feel, including their pain. Despite the variety of her ability it is seen as a bad thing. She does not tell people about her ability because she fears what they may say or do to her. Even her brother uses the ability against her, drawing on himself in red pen, tricking her into bleeding. In this world where there is so much pain and anger it makes sense that feeling what others feel would be seen as a negative attribute. However Lauren points out if everyone had hyper empathy the world would be a safer, better place. “If hyperempathy syndrome were a more common complaint, people couldn’t do such things. They could kill if they had to, and bear the pain of it or be destroyed by it. But if everyone could feel everyone else’s pain, who would torture? Who would cause anyone unnecessary pain? I’ve never thought of my problem as something that might do some good before, but the way things are, I think it would help. I wish I could give it to people. Failing that, I wish I could find other people who have it, and live among them. A biological conscience is better than no conscience at all.” This especially stuck out to me because she can even feel the pain of animals, though duller than that of humans. It made me wonder if all humans understood the plight of other, both humans and nonhuman, would the world be different? Would the world operate closer to how some indigenous communities operate, with a higher regard for other’s life? The scene where the dog is shot and she feels it pain made me wonder if she had a better relationship with the nonhuman world would she feel their feelings more deeply? “I walked, then rode in a daze, still not quite free of the dog I had killed. I had felt it die, and yet I had not died. I had felt its pain as though it were a human being. I had felt its life flare and go out, and I was still alive.” She does not have a great understanding of others life because of the society she was raised in. However, I feel if she continues on the path she is on, caring for those around her, she will eventually have the same care for nonhumans, not just for her own benefit but because she sees them as subjects rather than objects as her and her society seem to now.
Grady Isaacs,
In the reading Parable of the Sower, Lauren is a special person. Lauren is someone who feels more than sympathy but more empathy. She’s such an empathetic person that she even feels other peoples pain. I noticed in the reading that she is much different than the other characters in the book as she seems to be the most empathetic of the characters so far. She even makes a new way of thinking in her dystopian world that she calls Earthseed. Earthseed is an optimistic way of thinking, like having a glass half full. She embodies the optimism while outside of the wall are people burning housing, doing more harm to neighborhoods even to her own home. The psychotic chaos that has erupted outside of the wall as earthseed helps Lauren see the other side of this social collapse. My question is will her new way of faith (earthseed) allow her to breed deep and strong connections while all is going on around her just outside the wall? While she as a hyper empathetic person with earthseed be able to overcome what is about to change?
Michelle Hood
The quote from the first chapter in Parable of the Sower, “All that you touch, You Change. All that you Change, Changes you. The only lasting truth Is Change. God Is Change,” serves as the foundation of Lauren Olamina’s emerging philosophy, Earthseed. It encapsulates her view of the universe as a dynamic, ever-evolving system where change is the only constant. The first part of the quote reflects on the idea that every action we take and everything we touch alters the world around us- we have a physical impact on the world whether we realize this or not. Following the idea that all you change, changes you, reflects that we transform our own ideals/principles about the world through change itself. We create new ideologies and beliefs about life by being forced to change. Her idea that God is change- suggests that it is a force beyond our control as humans. It underlines her conviction that in a “collapsing world”, the key to survival is not in resisting or wishing for the world to return to its previous state, but learning to navigate, adapt, and thrive amidst the ever-evolving chaos.
The interconnectedness of “touch” and “change” highlights that every individual, regardless of their background or status, has the power to impact the world around them, which, in turn, leads to their own transformation.
For my question, I’d like to dig deeper into the idea of “God is Change.”
How does this ideology provide a more empowering way to understand our own role in this ever-changing world today? How might it help individuals or communities navigate uncertainty and difficult circumstances? Do you agree with the idea that change is beyond our human control?
In our reading “Parable of the Sower” we are shown what our world may look like in the next 100 years due to climate change, where food and water are not as easily accessible and pretty much everything has become scare and hard to obtain leading to violence being a very common occurrence in the fight for resources. We are also introduced to the character Lauren who lives in a marginalized community that has been severely affected by the impacts of climate change. And we can see that much like in our world today the different social classes were being affected differently where the rich were hardly affected while the poor were severely affected. After reading about how this could very well be the future of our world I began thinking if stories such as this are impactful enough to persuade people to make changes in their lives so we can avoid such a harsh future or if the idea of seeing is believing is so strong that the only way people will change their ways is when they start being affected by the consequences of their actions.
Perry Daughtry
In Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, Lauren Olamina is a young African American woman living in a gated community in dystopian Southern California, where society is plagued by violence, poverty, and environmental collapse. Lauren’s hyperempathy—a condition causing her to feel others’ pain—deepens her awareness of the suffering around her. Despite her father’s efforts to uphold traditional religious beliefs as a Baptist preacher, Lauren questions these doctrines and instead develops her own spiritual philosophy, Earthseed, centered on the idea that “God is Change.” Lauren’s attempts to share her Earthseed beliefs often isolate her, as others try to be normal. Through experiences outside the gates, including witnessing extreme violence and despair, Lauren recognizes the vulnerability of their so-called sanctuary. Her metaphor of “Gulliver on the beach” reflects her understanding that their safety is precarious and temporary.
My question is basically just do you think that this is a potential look into the future. Is this world possible, I believe it may be with the trajectory of violence and division in our country and world.
Em Morris
Throughout the book we see Lauren struggle with and then open up when describing Earthseed and the ways in which she wants to explore the world. At the beginning/first half of the book, she keeps very quiet until she decides to bring it up to someone very close to her- Joanne. This leads her to get in trouble with her father, who ultimately understands her but asks her to go about it in different ways as to not shock everyone so hard whenever she speaks about it. She ends up being correct- that people would one day just break down their walls and destroy and take from them, that the wall was not enough to protect themselves from the outside. In the coming months after that, she ends up meeting others with hyper-empathy as well who are hesitant to join them or join Earthseed. Do we think Lauren’s specific upbringing of having hyper-empathy and having a preacher father lead her to believe more in change and that she could help the world? Despite being sheltered within the neighborhood walls, she was still able to gain an understanding with books and her father teaching her how to shoot. What do we think would’ve happened if she ended up traveling without anyone from within her neighborhood?