Summary Of Bloodchild By Octavia Butler

Alien Male Pregnancy: Is it Slavery?
Octavia Butler takes readers through a mesmerizing, out of this world experience in her work “Bloodchild” between the Tlic, an “eight feet or more tall, with multiple legs and body segments and a stinger” (Wallace) alien race and their human counterparts the Terrans, “otherwise known as humans” (Wallace). This work was completely based off a dystopian society, on another universe. In order for Butler to take her readers on this journey she incorporates key literary devices and includes major elements of dystopian literature. In “Bloodchild” the author alludes heavily to slavery which is a major factor of this work. While Butler herself says “that some people have seen “Bloodchild” as a story of slavery,

The terrans become completely deprived of their freedoms and are stripped to only one function, which is being a host for the Tlic. Without the terrans, the Tlic wouldn’t be able to reproduce. Since they were needed to further the race they became “necessities, [and a] status symbol” (Butler 5). Butler feeds into this element hugely through a minor character introduced under the name Bram Lomas. Lomas was a host for an alien named T’Khotgif Teh. Butler also incorporates the literary device of imagery in order to show how dehumanizing being a host for the Tlic is. Lomas’ pants were used to “tie his hands, then pushed above his head so that I [Gan] could kneel between them in pin them in place” (Butler 9) and then he was given a rolled up shirt “to bite down on” (Butler 9). With no pain medication, T’Gatoi [Gans alien] simply “opened him” (Butler 9) and then extracted the worms from his unconscious body. This whole scene was important to the story because through Butler vividly showing the audience how barbaric the Tlic treated the terrans when it came to the end of their hosting for their young, it shows how little the Terran really mattered. It is also important because it plays into Butlers coming of age

In fact that she doesn’t reveal the setting of this work until page 16 of 20. When T’Gatoi refers to Gans “ancestors, fleeing from their homeworld, for their own kind who would have killed or enslaved them” (Butler 16). When we read that it is confirmed that this takes place on another world. This is critical because it helps the readers connect this story to the present. When the reader is able to make the story more modern, it becomes easier to