Octavia Butler Earthseed Summary

Philip H. Jos. “Fear and the Spiritual Realism of Octavia Butler's Earthseed”. Utopian Studies 23.2 (2012): 408–429. Web. April 20, 2016.

The contribution of Octavia Butler’s fiction to utopian studies is becoming more widely recognized. The Parable of the Sower provides an exploration of issues in political philosophy, cultural studies and psychology. Civil society and cultural norms underlay social and political institutions have crumbled. Environmental degradation and economic collapse have pushed most to roam the country seeking for food and shelter. Butler constructs a narrative that demonstrates courage, resourcefulness and an unconventional religious commitment. The religion in book, Earthseed, is presented as an alternative faith that seeks to respond creatively, productively and humanely to overwhelming fear. In the book, the walls of Robledo, where Lauren lives, are a material expression of the psychology of dogmatic fundamentalism in times of crisis. In a recurring nightmare about the destruction of walls. It took Lauren’s courage to recognize

She read from her chapter, “Write,” in the anthology Women and Work. She grew up in Pasadena, California—a shy, tall, awkward girl who liked to hide in her room. Her first stories, written when she was 10 were about horses. She’s not sure why, she had never seen a horse expect on television. At 11, she wrote romance stories, another subject she knew very little about. Finally, at 12, she settled on science fiction. Butler has always used her writing as a way of facing her fears. Her characters often share her own weaknesses. She uses her stories to push herself into new situation to help construct herself. For her parents, the struggle to survive had been enough of a challenge. Both grew up in poverty. Her father was a shoe shine man who died when she was a baby and her mother worked as a maid. Butler sought new challenges through her