Science Fiction and Society Research Paper

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Octavia Butler's novel Parable of the Sower depicts an America that has crumbled into complete chaos and disarray. Within the dystopia of 2024, Lauren Olamina reflects on her family background and her past in order to help create a more ideal future for humanity. The key to the future is liberation, both personal and political. Therefore, the message of Parable of the Sower is revolutionary. Lauren does not just need to be a true leader; she needs to change what it means to be human. Butler reportedly said about the potential for female heroines to create a utopian society out of the ashes of the patriarchal dystopia: "I don't believe that imperfect humans can form a perfect society," (Zaki 239). Butler does not expect Lauren and the Earthseed community to become a Utopia because no matter how revolutionary and idealistic she might be, Lauren remains constrained by her past and her upbringing and ultimately, her biology. On the other hand, Lauren is a classic hero because she embarks on a journey that takes her as far from possible from the patriarchal context in which she was raised. Butler also understood "a tree cannot grow in its parents' shadows," which is why Lauren must brave the trip north (Miller 205). Lauren establishes the groundwork for a new human family out of the dregs of the old by conscientiously eliminating patriarchal techniques of social construction including exploitation, manipulation, and abuses of power. Parable of the Sower shows the potential for a new human community is rooted in feminist values of egalitarianism, liberation, and empowerment.

One of the ways Butler demonstrates that the vision of a new human community cannot take with it the remnants of patriarchy is through the lack of interplanetary enemy alien monsters. The only monsters in Butler's world are human beings. As Barr points out, Butler's aliens are "alienated women, not interplanetary monsters," (98). Just as Butler refrains from the science fiction monster trope, the author also refrains from the typical male response to alien threats. In particular, Butler does not "write about zap guns," using familiar patriarchal tropes of domination, subordination, and violence to subdue aliens who are categorically depicted, perceived, and received as invading species (Barr 98). By resisting the temptation to fall pray to violence, Lauren must break with her family -- not just her blood relatives but the entire human race that is not willing to get on board with her Earthseed concept. To break the cycle of violence, Lauren must resist her own genetic programming as a human being who still possesses instincts to fight or flee from a scene of potential danger. As a feminist, Lauren opts to flee in order to find freedom beyond the walls of subjugation. Resistance through violence is futile. On the other hand, resistance through escape and self-empowerment do lead to genuine political transformation.

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Another way Butler demonstrates that a new human society must be feminist in scope is through Lauren's empathic superpower. It is somewhat problematic that empathy is feminized through the use of Lauren's superpower, given the stereotype of women as being more empathic than men. Yet hyperempathy is only the extreme version of compassion and compassion is still the key to overcoming patriarchy. Because it has been classified as a disease, hyperempathy is also not necessarily gendered. In Parable of the Sower, readers encounter hyperempathy through the eyes of Lauren, but this does not necessarily mean that hyperempathy is limited to female figures. What is critical is that progressive humans like Lauren must resist using hyperempathy as a weapon, as just another zap gun. Lauren, for example, must capitalize on her "extraordinary mental facilities" but without manipulating others or abusing the power that hyperempathy implies (Salvaggio 78). Through the motif of hyperempathy, Butler also show how patriarchy destroys the essence of human potential -- the potential to become a more compassionate person who creates a better world. As Lauren points out in her memoir, hyperempathy is pathologized in a patriarchal world. It is called "organic delusional syndrome," (Butler 12). Butler here makes clear social commentary on the patriarchal nature of the social sciences and medical industries, which demean special abilities and uniqueness by labeling them and turning them into diseases.

The motifs of superior mental, emotional, and empathic powers run throughout the corpus of Butler's books, which are "built around a society of telepaths," (Salvaggio 78). Rather than assume other people are violent, hyperempaths like her must assume the best of others and refrain from preemptive strikes, the likes of which are commonplace in a patriarchal world. The patriarchal model has failed, as Butler clearly shows. Reverting to it through violence and proverbial "zap guns" would undermine the intelligence of the human species. In fact, Butler thematically and symbolically links Lauren's hyperempathy with hyperintelligence because of the fact that Lauren attributes her own condition to her mother's abuse of an intelligence-enhancing drug. Lauren also transforms her mother's addiction into something that ultimately becomes an opportunity for salvation. Feeling too much, as Lauren does, is preferable to psychic numbness. Numbness precludes political action; hyperempathy motivates Lauren to take a stand. Her experience mirrors that of the society around her, in which the potential for change is embedded in pain and social problems. The failed US state depicted in Parable of the Sower is "not so much a catastrophe as an opportunity for the rebirth of the human species," (Miller 202). Crises are catalysts for positive change, if a strong leader can guide humanity through the crisis in a meaningful way. Lauren's personal psychological journey parallels the public, political journey of social change in America. The personal becomes political and vice-versa: the basis of feminism.

Lauren is conscious.....

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