Parable of the Sower Syllabus September 2020
Transcript of Parable of the Sower Syllabus September 2020
Parable of the Sower Syllabus
September 2020
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Parable of the Sower
Author: Chloe Jones
Editor: Morgan Holloman Bryant
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Author History06
Book History07
Reading Tips08
Objective & Themes09
The Discussion10
Further Reading/Resources 17
Final Thoughts16
Table of Contents
Author HistoryOctavia E. Butler, born in Pasadena California in 1947, was an award-winning science fiction author, the first African-American woman to receive high praise and acclaim
for writing in the genre. In 1995, Butler became the first science-fiction writerawarded a MacArthur Fellowship. At the time of Parable of the Sower’s publication in 1993, Butler had already published several popular works such as Kindred (1979) and Hugo Award-winning Bloodchild (1985). Many of Butler’s works emphasize questions of power, morality and the human condition, and the role of religion. Butler’s literary
archive is maintained at the Huntington Library, Museum, and Botanical Gardens.Octavia Butler passed in February 2006.
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Parable of the Sower (1993) is the first book in a two-book series (with an intended third book, Parable of the Trickster, that was unfinished at the time of her death). Most recently, fans have
revisited Parable of the Sower and other works in Butler’s oeuvre as incredibly insightful and prescient texts to our present dystopic reality.
Book History
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READING TIPSTips for Fresh Readers
1. You do not have to have profound thoughts right away: Everyone reads and digests at a different pace. Take your time in understanding the text but you do not need to dissect it immediately. Make a note of any points that are significant to you and move on.
2. Set aside 15-20 mins a day to read: Much like power nap — a power read — can energize your reading and help you focus. You do not need large chunks of time. Set aside 15-20 mins to read a day and make sure you have no distractions during this time.
3. Reflect on what you read: a) What were the themes and/or major events that had taken place in your selected readings?
4. Take notes: a) Highlight terms, phrases, quotes etc that may immediately grab your attention
5. Build a personal glossary: If you don’t know a word, circle it, get the definition and reread the section in context. This may help you come to a new understanding of the text or discover concepts you didn’t notice before.
6. Discuss the book: Healthy discussion on what you already know can entice you to read more and that’s what the #SmartBrownGirl Book Club is here for. Join in on our discussions. Post your questions to the Facebook Group.
7. Author Background: When approaching a text that you’re unfamiliar with, it may be beneficial to do some quick background research on the author, as it can help provide insight on what the text may be discussing.
TIPS FOR RETURNING
READERS
1. Put the book in context: Times have changed and so have you. Before rereading think about who you were, and where you were in life the first time you read the book. Think about who was influencing you/your thoughts. (School, friends, family, news etc.)
2. Be Critical: First reads are a time to be open-minded and give the author lead way to understand their thoughts. Second reads you can be much more critical of the work and its intentions. So get on your soapbox boo we got some boxes on reserve too.
3. Focus on Few Chapters at a Time: For non-fiction (and some fiction) it’s not totally necessary to reread the book chronologically from start to finish. Try focusing on themes that you may have grazed over the first time around andchoose a few chapters to lean into at a time.
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Discussion Objective:
For this syllabus, we’ll be exploring the literary elements that guide the story. Beyond theprescience of Octavia Butler’s story to the realities of our present day, we will consider the power in how she builds this story. What are some recurring images or motifs? How do they contribute to plot and character development?
Themes:
• belief - faith - religion
• survival
• uncertainty
• transformation
• change
• empathy
• life and death
• dystopia
• slavery
• weather - nature - storms - climate change
• fire - flames - arson - burning
• garden - planting - farm - seed
• world-building, world-ending
• reading - writing - literacy
• Los Angeles, California
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Notes on Epigraphs
An epigraph is a quotation or inscription at the start of a book or chapter that relates to the
central content that follows. I really love looking at epigraphs because they offer clues to not just
the content (perhaps the who, what, when, where), but often relay the heart of the story’s drive
or purpose without us fully realizing. When reading a story with an epigraph, I encourage
pausing where I am in the story (and especially at the end) to return to the epigraph and
consider its relevance or meaning again.
Many times an epigraph is a quote from an existing text and author. Other times, particularly in
fictional stories, the author cites a fictional work nested within the universe of the story. This is
the case here.
We don’t yet know who Lauren Oya Olamina is or what Earthseed is. We are provided a quote
without elaboration or context. We likely won’t get much from reading the epigraphs at the
start of each section. However, we can take a close look at the words to anticipate the tone of
the story to come.
For instance, the opening epigraph identifies the year the story begins. Considering the novel’s
publication in 1993, what might it mean for Butler to create a dystopian world just 30 years later?
What might the closeness in time suggest about Butler’s anticipation of this country/world’s
future?
The Discussion
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The Discussion
CHAPTERS 1-5
• What is the narrator’s relationship to dreams? What does she learn from her dreams?
• How does the narrator characterize dreaming from the “ordinary and real”?
• Considering the first chapter, what does the stepmother’s description of the sky and the city
suggest about this world’s recent changes?
• What is the nature of Lauren’s sickness?
• What is the role of religion and belief in their present society? In Lauren’s family?
• Why might folks insist on the survival of religion in this dystopian society?
• How does Lauren’s father relate faith and belief to the environmental calamities?
• How do Lauren and her peers characterize the adults in their lives and in society at large?
• What are the characters’ overall impression of or reaction to the death they witness?
• How does Lauren define survival? What does she offer Joanne to better prepare herself for
survival? Why might she derive inspiration from “California Indians” specifically?
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CHAPTER 6 - 9
• The quote excerpted from Earthseed at the start of Chapter 6 reads:
“Drowning people
Sometimes die
Fighting their rescuers.”
• From Lauren’s perspective, who is drowning? Who is rescuing? Do you think the roles of
drowner and rescuer are clearly defined?
• Lauren’s world-ending preparations and concern for a world that is soon to come
(if not already present) distresses the people around her. Why might Lauren’s father and peers
refute the reality of their world “coming to an end” (63)? Why might Lauren’s father caution
against frightening others and inciting panic?
• “God is Change, and in the end, God prevails. But God exists to be shaped” (76). Lauren’s
thoughts at the end of chapter 6 give rise to Earthseed. How does an amorphous God and
faith, imbued with the individual will to change, feature in Lauren’s determination of
Earthseed?
• What are some other tenets of the belief system Earthseed?
• Lauren considers the potential for life outside of the Earth, but derides the possibility of an
umbilical cord keeping new living worlds tethered to the old and dead.
• “No one is expanding the kind of exploration that doesn’t earn an immediate profit, or at
least promise big future profits...There’s always a lot to do before you get to go to heaven” (85).
‣ What is Lauren’s opinion of exploration and destiny?
‣ How might Lauren distinguish between New World exploration and exploration for a
new, habitable world among the stars?
• Lauren appears incredulous that Bianca and others would be consumed by the possibility of
marriage and children during this time (87).
‣ Why might folks continue to pursue traditional families and motivations despite the
obvious hurdles outlined by Lauren?
‣ How might Lauren’s hyperempathy influence her disinterest in this life?
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CHAPTER 10 - 13
• “Civilization is to groups what intelligence is to individuals. It is a means of combining the
intelligence of many to achieve ongoing group adaptation” (101).
• What does Keith reveal about his time outside the city?
• What happens to Keith after his 13th birthday?
• What sort of pathways are available to young people like Keith and Lauren?
• How does Keith’s retellings of his experience outside inform Lauren’s desires and plans to
leave?
• How does Lauren decide upon the name for her Earthseed text?
• How does the disappearance of Lauren’s father relate to the events of Keith’s death?
• How does Lauren honor her father?
• What are Lauren’s reservations about sharing Earthseed with Curtis?
• What does Wardell exclaim following the death of his family? Who does “everyone” refer to?
CHAPTER 14 - 19
• How do the gaps between journal entries (between chapters 13 and 14) contribute to the
dystopic nature of the novel? Why might it be important that Lauren continue writing,
even in her most distressing times?
• What does Lauren see upon returning home? What family articles does she see along her
way?
• How does Lauren navigate safely through the neighborhood?
• Despite Lauren’s frequent stoicism and rationality, she is hopeful that her family is alive.
Is her hopefulness desperate or irrational? Is it unreasonable?
• Lauren is reminded of Keith’s remark about the burn-the-rich movement upon seeing a
scavenger woman with Cory’s shoes. How has Lauren’s scorn for the “addicts” and the
desperate compare to her earlier sentiments about survival in the neighborhood?
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• What remains of Cory’s garden?
• How do Harry, Zahra, and Lauren’s reactions to death compare?
• How do Harry, Zahra, and Lauren’s respective upbringings and beliefs inform their
relationships to the outside world? To survival? To trust? To morality?
• What does their time together reveal about the persistent class and cultural distinctions of
their old neighborhood?
• How does Lauren’s hyperempathy influence her ability to navigate the suffering of the
outside world? Was Keith’s assumption correct?
• What might it mean if/that Lauren’s hyperempathy is a consequence of her mother’s drug
addiction?
• After sharing the first page of Earthseed, Lauren says, “Imagine him asking me for it.
I must be careful” (195). Why might Lauren be suspicious or distrusting of Harry’s interest
in Earthseed?
• How does Lauren’s family history inform her sense of distrust and secrecy (194-5)?
• What is the group’s relationship to privacy? How does Lauren violate it?
• How do Zahra and Lauren evaluate risk differently?
• In a novel overcome by images of fire and scorched earth, what does the presence of the
ocean and water offer to the story?
• How does Lauren’s sense of loneliness and isolation change as the group grows into a
community?
• How do Travis’ questions emphasize a distinction between Earthseed and commonly
practiced religions, such as the one Lauren grew up in? How does Lauren distinguish
Earthseed from traditional worship of God?
• How does Lauren react to Zahara and Travis’s differing attractions to Earthseed?
• How does Lauren’s sense of trust evolve with her new community?
• How does the group evolve from a random assembly to an organized and functional
community?
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CHAPTER 20 - 25
• What is Lauren’s initial impression of Bankole? How does this impression change, if at all?
• How do care and trust appear as dangerous vulnerabilities within the group?
• How is Lauren’s relationship to Bankole connected to her past?
• How are images of death and destruction in close proximity to promise and new life?
How does this closeness resonate with the tenets of Earthseed?
• How do the histories of slavery persist in the social relationships and upbringings of the
group? (consider literacy, chattel, rape and reproduction)
• What does Lauren learn about hyperempathy from her new community members?
• What does the group find when they arrive at Bankole’s property?
• Compare Lauren’s final visit to Cory’s garden and her arrival at Bankole’s farm?
• How are the characters’ sense of hope and despair colored by their pasts?
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What does the style of journal entries add to the overall narrative?
How do change, stability, and adaptability appear and evolve throughout the story?
How does political suppression compare to individual, emotional suppression?
Why the “parable of the sower” (see Mark 4:3-41)?
How does Lauren’s turn from her family’s faith to a belief system of her own making
complicate the title of the novel?
Final Thoughts
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Notes
FURTHER READINGS/RESOURCES
Additional content & videos that relate to the reading.
Books
Octavia Butler, Parable of The Talents
You Should Have Been Listening to Octavia Butler This Whole Time by Alicia A Wallace
NK Jemisin, The Inheritance Trilogy
The Grand Central Publishing edition contains a Q & A with Octavia Butler.
“Octavia Butler: Science Future, Science Fiction” (YouTube)
“Octavia Butler’s Prescient Vision of a Zealot Elected to “Make America Great Again”
(The New Yorker)
Syllabi Author Bio
Chloe ‘CJ’ Jones is a doctoral student in the Department of African American Studies at Nor-
thwestern University. Her interests include baking, puzzles, and The Golden Girls.
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