When I first started reading Parable of the Sower, I was very interested in how Butler presented the future. I brought this point up in class as well, but thought it would be interesting to talk about it on the blog. Usually, we see futuristic novels or movies as highly advanced in technology. There are flying cars, cool looking structures, robots doing things humans used to do, etc. It was very odd therefore, to encounter a plot where everything goes very wrong in the future. Instead of getting better, problems are worse. Society has gone backwards in some senses, with slavery and such things. Then problems like lack of water and lack of oil arise, lack of oil being an old problem.
Its also interesting that Butler made the protagonist of the novel female. It is significant that this novel is from a female’s perspective, since in the society that has been constructed, females are inferior to males. This adds to the significance of Lauren’s being literate, constructing her own religion, and setting off to find a safe place for herself, while influencing other people on the way. I was shocked to see that even after Lauren had lived in a sheltered wall community all her life, she was able to be brutal and tough outside. Despite her hyperempathy syndrome, she killed people for defense. I thought originally, it would have taken Lauren a while to get this way, that she would transform into a tough person as the novel progressed, but she seemed to know the danger that was lurking outside, especially after Keith’s exposure and death.
I understood while reading the novel, perhaps the reason for Butler’s giving Lauren the hyperempathy syndrome. To me this referred back to the whole “treat others the way you want to be treated.” I think the point was that if people could feel other people’s pain, they wouldn’t hurt others. Since they can’t, and there really is no authority or law, people are killed mercilessly. The drug that makes people light fires because they like to watch them was an interesting way of showing the dangers of substance abuse, as was Lauren’s hyperempathy, since it resulted from her mother’s drug abuse. Overall, I think this was a very interesting take on a future gone wrong.