Parable of the Sower

The character of Keith really threw this story into a loop for me, so far. When he was first mentioned, Lauren spoke of him so shortly that I did not at all expect him to become anywhere near as important a character as he became by chapter 9. The focus up until the moment in which he stole Cory’s key and went into the notorious “outside” was strictly on his young age and his whiny eagerness to handle a gun. He seemed not unlike an average 13-year-old hormonal male, yet suddenly he became this kind of crazy, dangerous rebel. His immaturity was starkly evident in his key-stealing episode, as he stated repeatedly that he “ain’t no baby no more” and “it’s not my fault” that he had gotten stripped and beat and mugged. The transition to the mature, self-assured version of Keith which appears at the end of chapter 9 is sudden and jarring. In the space of a few pages the baby who was crying on the floor with a bloody nose is apparently mugging people outside the wall at gunpoint, providing for his mother and assuring her that he would return from the outside, where people were regularly mistreated and killed.

By nympheline

I think Andy Warhol is possibly the most insightful life-commentator that I know of.

2 comments

  1. I think Keith’s transition is so jarring for the reader because it is jarring for Lauren as well. She does not like her younger brother, he’s always just been a pain to her, so she is just as surprised as we are to see him grow up. She underestimates him because they have such different views of the world and she can’t see his side of things. She says “[Keith’s] ambition, if you could call it that, is to get out of the neighborhood and go to Los Angeles. He’s never too clear about what he’ll do there. He just wants to go to the big city and make big money” (8-9). This is exactly what he ends up doing. Even though he has a plan and he follows through on it, it doesn’t quite work the way he wants because he ends up dead after a few months. I think Lauren always knew that Keith would end up dead, but I don’t think she realized how it would happen. He dies presumably because he made the wrong guy angry but I think Lauren expected that his would be a more random death. She realizes that if you go “outside” without a plan or purpose you will be killed. Sometimes a person can die even if they have a reason to go outside (i.e. Lauren’s dad). On the other hand, Lauren is clearly surprised by the way that Keith makes his money initially. I find this slightly odd because she is so jaded that you would expect she would understand what needs to be done in order to survive.

  2. I think the transition was set up for us. We were just waiting for it to happen. Butler warned us through Lauren’s comments about him based on her instinct. He scared Lauren and the only other people that scare her before him are the the people that live outside the wall. It made sense that he would end up being a part of the people that scare Lauren.
    I thought that the most interesting thing about Keith is how important he becomes to the plot. Without him Lauren wouldn’t have gotten a first hand account of the travesties of the world beyond the wall. He is a necessary sacrifice. Without his accounts and his death, it’s not say that she would have ended up in the kind of lifestyle he lead but we know for a fact that she won’t now. He showed her the positive side of a violent life beyond the wall and the eventual consequences of following through with that lifestyle. She also learned from him that she can perhaps survive because of her reading skills. His character works in many other ways, too. His death is the first time we see one of the main character’s family die. So Keith’s journey beyond the wall and his death become a pivotal point of character development for Lauren. Also, once he provides Lauren with a little knowledge and perspective on surviving out in the world the community begins to fall apart. I sort of saw that coming, but I’m glad we had a Keith to give Lauren the keys she’ll need to survive after the downfall of her known world. How else would Butler been able to prepare Lauren without sacrificing a character for the sake or experience?

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