"The Parable of the Sower" a Critical Analysis Essay

Introduction

The novel, "The Parable of the Sower" by Octavia Butler describes a dystopian world in the near future where lawlessness reigns. The dystopian world is not far because most of the current happenings were imagined in the previous century when technologies such as Smartphone may have been imagined. However, the dystopian world is characterized by social inequality. There are classes of people with each group confined to their class or equals while the lower classes are segregated. The higher class oppressed the lower class and exploited their position of power to lord over the lower class. The dystopian world is under totalitarian control which means that people of different classes can only be related to their equals. By examining the themes in the novel, the researcher argues that the post-apocalyptic world is a totalitarian society where less desirable members of the society are segregated or eliminated not because they are poor but because the higher class wants to maintain dominance.

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The Opium of the Bourgeoisie

In the post-apocalyptic world, those who hold power use several strategies to pacify the masses. Therefore, they might use religion as a tool for marinating a status quo. Religion is the opium of the bourgeoisie as such it could be used as a tool of control by the high class to control the lower class and sustain the status quo of inequality. Religion is used for the oppressive societal control. The oppressors are the cunning and crafty group to keep the masses in due subjection. The success of religion in such oppressive society can be understood by examining how Lauren Oya Olamina managed to manipulate the other society members into joining the Earthseed. She was moving the masses from one subjective state under the oppressors into another form of oppression where they must act within the confines of the doctrines of Earthseed.

Religion could not come in its pure form as men would introduce several fictions into religion to achieve their interests. For example, religion would be used as a tool to ensure the masses with reverence to make them obsequious (Agusti 351-359). The poor suffer in masses and those that are considered enlightened are beaten into subjectivity or killed for interfering with the balance of nature (Lacey 379-394). The oppressor's bourgeoisie is mainly abetted and aided by the inherent pacification of the religion. The poor take religions as a tool for hope and a symbol of better things to come but the oppressors use the religion for oppression. As such, religions would not change much in the dystopian society as it would be changed by the oppressors to achieve their means.

How the intricate balance between the rich and the poor is sustained

In the post-apocalyptic world, the society is filled with heartless people who can kill for anything. Murder is the murder of the day as other problem ravage the society however, sometimes having hyper empathetic people can help save humanity in the post-apocalyptic world.While the society was already established as a culturally diverse society, it would have been better to have a hyper-empathetic world. However, the main problem is that feeling each other's emotions and pain alone would not make the world a better place as they are a sadist who would use other people's pain to exploit them (Phillips 299). Just as Lauren said that hyper-empathy is a negative trait within the context of her society (115) hyper-empathy is not a good trait. For example, if the oppressors and the oppressed lived in the hyper-empathetic world, the oppressed would be the most is abated as the oppressors would be in a positions know when the oppressed are most pain and user their pains to oppress them. Compassion fatigue would be a good thing only if people cared for each other. Therefore living in a hyper-empathetic world alone would make the world worse and increase the disparity between the poor and the rich as the world as the disparity across social classes.

Just like in the modern society, racial issues within the novel are highly explored. For example, the inequality in the novel can be juxtaposed with the racial inequality in the modern world whereby the oppressors are the white (majority groups) and the oppressed are the minority groups who are oppressed, racially profiled, and extrajudicial killing by the oppressors through their tools of oppression such as the policemen (Rowell and Butler 47-66). In America, for example, the minority groups are being oppressed by the majority groups in America, the income gaps between the majority groups and minority groups in America is also huge so is the health disparity. The unequal distribution and utilization of resources in American are comparable to the inequality distribution f resources and the remnants of a gated community near Los Angele.

The Theme of Slavery and Greed

One of the main themes in the novel is slavery and the impact of slavery on the social framework move the society. Slavery creates and sustains the status quo of the dystopian society where the 1% enjoys at the expenses of the 99%. Drugs abuse, extreme poverty, oppression and purge of the lower classes are evidenced. Additionally, slavery is evidenced by the working lower class and the upper class's excesses. In the novel, there is the caste or class system where the 1% lives in gated communities with walls and they have security and watchmen. The rich in the society has everything good in excess from food to security and technology while the poor have everything bad in extremes from hunger poverty, insecurity, and diseases. The rich maintain their status quo by ensuring that the resources of the government to control the lower class. The walls keep the lower class in their place both literary and hypothetically (Rowell and Butler 47-66).

The Role of the Main Character in Theme Development

The book is not a feminist's novel but Lauren has been used in the novel as a vessel for expressing the capability of women. Even though the societies have gendered roles.

She does not comply with society's standards. Butler reports that Joanne embraced her role because "all she knew how to do is take care of babies and cook" (53). She is a young woman who finds herself in a chaotic world and has to rely on personal philosophy to live. She is used in plot development and this is more open in how she discusses her life, sexual encounter, and all that happens in the post-apocalyptic world.

Change even in a chaotic world must be started by a change champion such as Lauren who stands against the societal practices such as sexism, and classism. She proposes a new belief systems or philosophy of the Earthseed but considers god as the only constant element in the environment. The meaning of the quote God is changing can be understood from the content of the quote. Octavia wrote the tenet of the Earthseed, "All that you touch, you change. All that you change, changes you and the only lasting truth, is change and God is change. The significance of the quote is that every action causes changes or shapes the world we live in and in turn, the world also shapes us. The human being is inherently shaped by what they see, eat, touch, or interact with and in the process, they also affect change on the other thing. The world is complete webs of connected things based on the system theory such that every action triggers an equal reaction. In the novel, Lauren Oya Olamina is shaped by the world in which lives. She is only 12 years of age and is already more enlightened than most people just because she was introduced to the conditions and her philosophy of the earth seed in turn influences change. Her father who was once in a position of power is seen recruiting soldiers to fight the systems he served. Change is inevitable in the social order of things and only God does not change because he just like change stays constant, change happens to the aristocrats, the prelates, and the bourgeoisie and they also have the power to affect change. However, God's nature is not affected by changes in people or the environment. Whether people, charge for the bad or good or their impact on the world is bad or good. God will remain constant and watch from mistakes till people turn to him for direction and that is why God gave man free will.

Conclusion

The novel, "The parable of the sower" presents a unique perspective of the post apocalyptic world . The novel describes a fictitious world in the near future when anarchy reigns and governments have fallen. It is set in a world that has already passed through destruction and only the strong and the rich can survive. The strong use brutality to get the daily bread and the rich use the economic power to buy and own the resources including security. Butler states, "out here, the trick is to avoid confrontation by looking strong". The poor people are dying and there are no social systems in place but the rich live in high walled homes with maximum security to protect them and their interests. Lauren Oya Olaminais the heroine trying to live in a dystopian world and the rich people are the villains. Environmental disasters, the destructive effects of warfare and well as sickness and hunger are some of the key characteristics of the genre.

Works Cited

Agusti, Clara Escoda. "The Relationship between Community and Subjectivity in Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower." Extrapolation 46.3 (2005): 351-359. Web.

Butler, Octavia E. Parable of the Sower. Grand Central Publishing, 1993.

Lacey, Lauren J. "Octavia E. Butler on Coping with Power Inseparable of the Sower, Parable of The Talents, and fledgling." Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction 49.4 (2008): 379-394. Web.

Phillips, Jerry. "The Intuition Of The Future: Utopia And Catastrophe In Octavia Butler's "Parable Of The Sower"." Novel: A Forum on Fiction 35.2/3 (2002): 299. Web.

Rowell, Charles H., and Octavia E. Butler. "An Interview with Octavia E. Butler." Callaloo20.1 (1997): 47-66. Web.