Jessica Andreason, Fall 2009
The idea of “home” is a concept overtly and subtly defined in Octavia E. Butler’s work, Parable of The Sower. Through both physical manifestations and metaphysical representations, sensations of home can be seen throughout the text as present entities, which are more often than not victims of destruction through forces such as fire or social context. One aspect of Butler’s created futuristic “dystopia,” however, is the forward-looking ideology of Earthseed, which manages to survive the length of the text, using the destruction of multiple forms of home to create a new one that can flourish in the environment of the novel.
Home can be defined as the sensation of a physical place of comfort and belonging that imbues a sense of safety. But also, home may be defined as something less physical such as trust and faith, or even hope, which also cause comfort and a sensation of safety in the individuals experiencing it. Home in the text of Sower is a sensation of these things, comfort, safety, etc., brought on, or triggered, by some symbol or experience in the real world, such as a place or idea.
In Butler’s post-climate-apocalyptic world, where anyone and everyone are out to get each other, safety, if only as an illusion is a top priority. The reader meets Lauren Olamina, narrator and main character of the story, in her walled in cul-de-sac of the future. In the year 2024, the walls are the most important part of her neighborhood, Robledo. They represent a distinction between the hostile outside world and the one that is trying to endure inside. In a word, the walls are a sign of safety and it is, “crazy to live without [one] to protect you,” (Butler, 9). Because of this illusion of safety, a certain level of living comfort can be obtained within the neighborhood. Children are taught a makeshift curriculum, food is grown or bred, and Mass is held every Sunday. Family units stay mostly intact within the walls of the cul-de-sac, a feat almost impossible outside of them. Not only do the barriers keep the community whole, but also family units within it, and even further down, individuals and their beliefs. The walls allow for individualism to not be stifled or ignored.
Home is experienced by the characters through their sense of safety within the confines of the cul-de-sac and the belonging they feel within their own families. Though not every family is friendly with every other, a mutual necessity for survival creates an environment, which allows the growth of home through faith in others and comfort through the illusion of safety.
But the problem with building walls is that there are always people trying to tear them down. Outsiders—homeless, desperate, addicted, criminals—are constantly threatening the security of Robledo: “we are coming apart. The community, the families, individual family members…. We’re a rope, breaking, a single strand at a time” (Butler, 103). Thieves were able to climb over the walls but as long as they were still standing, the walls continued to act as a safe barrier, though the tension this threat causes between the members Robledo is also a threat to the community. However, all of this, the safe and comforting foundation of family and community—home—is destroyed when the walls are broken down and the homes of the community are burned. The physical representations of stability are left as only ashes as Lauren describes how, “everything was chaos. People running, screaming, shooting. The gate had been destroyed” (Butler, 137). At this point, Lauren is confronted with the idea of home as having to be something more than physical because there are no more physical barriers for protection.
The concept of home as being a sensation brought on by metaphysical emotions and experiences is seen in the text after the destruction of Robledo. The lone survivors of the fires and gunshots are Lauren, Harry Balter, and Zahra Moss: virtual strangers within the walls of Robledo. Because there is no physical safety or comfort to be found, the characters revert to themselves as their only form of home—their only form of comfort or safety. They trust no one; have faith in only themselves and their abilities. By having the mentality of survival as being their utmost priority, they in effect shatter the metaphysical concept of home before they are even done creating it. By looking inwards they neglect the others, and the safety, which comes in numbers and familiarity. In the time period between the destruction of Robledo and the characters’ decision to head north together, a metaphysical aspect of the concept of home is broken. The characters are neither comforted nor safe in their current positions and ignore the obvious foundation of home in each other.
When the three survivors decide on moving northward with each other, a new form of home is then created. Safety begins in their numbers and both trust and comfort follow suit. This is especially the case when Lauren reveals her hyperempathy syndrome, a paralyzing ability to feel the physical pain of others, to Harry and Zahra. She says that, “no one is who we think they are. That’s what we get for not being telepathic. But you’ve trusted me so far—and I’ve trusted you. I’ve just put my life in your hands. What are you going to do” (Butler, 173). She offered a great deal of trust to them, forcing them to either trust her in return or destroy the possible emotional home they are creating on the road. When they accept her condition and her trust in them, they take the first steps in reshaping a home within each other. Over the course of their journey this happens many times as the group accepts more members. Each new member brings with them a broken form of home, which the group reshapes into their own walking community, creating both safety in numbers and comfort and trust with each other.
The final destination of the group is an expanse of wild land owned by one of the traveling group members. It is a physical place that will now serve to physically represent the community that has been forming along the way to it. There are no artificial walls present, but the emotional barriers created by the group, as well as the natural barriers of trees, serve to isolate the community into a location much like the one Lauren began in at the start of the novel. However, there is one key difference between the two places that sits above all others: Earthseed.
Earthseed is a new religion “discovered” by Lauren herself, beginning years ago at the start of the text. Earthseed is a form of home that has transcended the cycle of creation and destruction of home specifically because it thrives on this cycle. The mantra of the ideology is that, “God is change,” and what is the cycle of creation and destruction of anything, except change?
Earthseed, like other objects or experiences in the novel, strives to create a sensation of home within the group. It does so, however, in a completely different way than other forms present in the text up to this point. One of Earthseed’s teachings is that change should be embraced, a concept wholly different than those based in endurance represented by the walls of Robledo or the distrust of the travelers. When a circumstantial change such as fire or another threat to survival would have destroyed physical and metaphysical forms of home, Earthseed stands tall. A concept that embraces change cannot be destroyed but only strengthened by it. Everywhere that Earthseed is allowed to flourish is thus a representation and a catalyst of the sensation of home.
In his article, “Dystopian Critiques, Utopian Possibilities, and Human Purposes in Octavia Butler’s Parables,” Peter G. Stillman explains the ways in which Butler warns of a possible future dystopia, much like the one depicted in the text of Sower, if people remain ignorant of each other and their environment. He shows how utopia is possible within the dystopia of Sower through a collective mind. In the last section of his article he promotes Earthseed as being the logical and insightful solution for the characters in the text as well as an effective way of rationalizing the world for Lauren on a personal level.
The beginnings of a community called Acorn show potential as a home because it is not simply a recreation of complexes like Robledo. Stillman notes that communities like these are only, “…defensive alliances of independent families each with its own private property, each distrustful of others who are different […] and all held together by fear of outsiders such as thieves, gangs, and corrupt police” (Stillman, 19). Earthseed rather, strives to unite people under a specific cultural blanket, one that embraces all walks of life for the purpose of living rather than merely surviving. Earthseed explains that people should,
“Embrace diversity.
Unite—
Or be divided,
Robbed,
Ruled,
Killed
By those who see you as prey.
Embrace diversity
Or be destroyed” (Butler, 176).
Earthseed is not a town or a location and is not an emotion or experience: Earthseed is a manner of existing that cannot be changed because it is made up of change. Earthseed lives within the individuals who recognize it and Lauren attempts to not only aid people in recognizing it but also to unite those who do. This form of home cannot be destroyed because everyone is living it without being aware of it. Only after awareness comes the physical and metaphysical representations of it; Acorn, trust in each other, hope. Stillman notes that Lauren’s endeavor is rooted in the basis of communal acceptance and unification:
“Olamina does not look to individualism[…]because individuals on their own are too weak and too vulnerable to survive and prosper for long. She wishes to form a small community, but that community cannot be a collection of disconnected peoples unified primarily by place or property, like her Robledo neighborhood; rather, the community must be a collective project based on the conscious interdependence and agreement of its members, who must know, trust, and be able to work with each other for shared purposes” (Stillman, 22).
The process of creating home begins in Earthseed. When the ideology is realized and experienced it can be identified and named, after which time a community will develop that uses change to persist, rather than be destroyed by it. Because Earthseed endures by way of adaptation, nothing is a threat to the community as a home for the characters.
In Octavia E. Butler’s work Parable of The Sower, home is explored through a multitude of avenues. Home is created in physical symbolism and metaphysical experience. Along with this creation, however, comes the destruction of these things and the necessity to reshape and rebuild. Earthseed, a change-embracing ideology, disrupts this cycle of creation and destruction to form an everlasting sense of home within the characters of the text, creating along with it a surviving community.
Works Cited
Butler, Octavia E. Parable of The Sower. New York: Warner Books Inc., 1993.
Stillman, Peter G. “Dystopian Critiques, Utopian Possibilities, and Human Purposes in Octavia Butler’s Parables.” Utopian Studies: Journal of the Society for Utopian Studies 14 (2003): 15-35.