The Plausibility Of The Parable

3 Pages 837 Words

When appreciating a piece of fiction that pertains to the destruction of civilized society, the first criticism the book must face is whether or not the source of civilizations downfall is conceivable. The source of man’s downfall tends to be the general threat to characters existence, more often than not the adaptation to that threat being the driving force of the plot. When this criticism is directed at “The Parable of the Sower” by Octavia E. Butler, one finds a lack of a target. The effects of the destruction of civilization are widespread and rampant, however no true cause is ever revealed.
Society, plagued by global warming and other detriments that Butler keeps unspecified, has collapsed. Los Angeles has devolved into “walled island neighborhoods in a sea of utter chaos,” (Butler, 23). Residents have been forced to themselves to keep from being overrun by hoards of homeless and starving just beyond the walls. Gangs of thug’s rape, pillage and, under the influence of a drug called pyro, burn whole neighborhoods to the ground for the sheer joy of destruction. Everything we take for granted today now comes with a price. No one can be trusted. Violence is a way of life. People hear gunfire so much that [they no longer] hear it, (Butler, 440). The world inhabited by the young narrator, an African-American girl called Lauren Olamina, is in an advanced state of social, economic and environmental decay. The energy crisis means you can see stars in the sky and people go around on bicycles instead of cars. But rarely do they venture out, except as armed groups of families, cycling out into the corpse-ridden hills for essential target practice. School is an anachronism. Lauren, a preacher’s daughter, is one of the few who can read. Her mother’s drug addiction while pregnant has left Lauren with a shameful condition – ‘hyperempathy’. If she sees a creature in pain she feels their pain and becomes temporarily disabl...