As they travel, Lauren wants to be hopeful and trust in other people but fights against the urge, stating, “we need our paranoia to keep us alive” (Butler 180). Lauren, along with the survivors from her neighborhood, Zahra and Henry, wander the freeways North hoping to find a safer place to live however, the group quickly encounters the heinous aspects of dystopia all around them, due to the multitude of other people roaming the roads as well. With Lauren’s mindset of cultivating Earthseed amidst a horrifying external reality, Parable of the Sower challenges the confines of what a utopia can be, despite the encompassment of a grim dystopia. The only chance of enduring through these circumstances rests on her strong will to survive and vision for Earthseed, as she wishes to acquire followers and establish a community in its name. She is abruptly immersed into the complete dystopia of the world around her. When her gated neighborhood is destroyed by street poor from the outside and her family, along with most of the people she grew up with, are killed in the event, Lauren is forced to flee her home along with a few survivors. Throughout the novel, based on inherent truths of the world evident to her, Lauren develops her own religion that is rather utopian in sentiment, which she calls Earthseed. She possesses hyperempathy syndrome which allows her to feel the pain and sensations of others as she witnesses them. The story itself centers on a young woman named Lauren Olamina who lives in a small gated community near Los Angeles.

The country has become ravaged by the crippling effects of climate change, enormous wealth inequality, and rampant capitalistic greed. In the novel Parable of the Sower, author Octavia Butler sets up a menacing dystopia in a future, collapsing United States, set in the 2020s.

Issue 6: Brave New Worlds: Utopias and Dystopias.

Issue 1: Historical Hauntings & Modern-Day Manifestations.👻 Find us on Twitter! 👻 Tweets by Categories

Octavia butler sower