The book, Parable of the Sower, by the award-winning author, Octavia Butler, is a first-person narrative, in the form of a diary, that follows a young, African-American woman named Lauren Olamina. Lauren is a young girl who struggles with a condition called hyper-empathy, which allows her to share others’ pains and pleasures. Lauren also struggles with her religion, which is surprising considering her father is a preacher. She says she has grown farther apart from her “father’s God”. Lauren’s reasoning behind not trusting her father’s God is that she believes that God is an “impersonal being” and the way her father describes God is false.
Lauren relieves her confusion by composing her own religion called “Earthseed: The Books of the Living”. She names it Earthseed because the idea is that people are like seeds, and just like seeds, people can grow and adapt in any situation, whether it be good or bad; the difference is that Earthseed promotes positive change. The main doctrine of Earthseed is “God is change”, and that God only exists to be shaped. Lauren states that Earthseed does not follow a higher deity nor does it have strict rules, but Earthseed is a religion that grows with the believer. The central verse of Earthseed is:
All that you touch
You Change.
All that you Change
Changes you.
The only lasting truth
Is Change.
God
Is Change.
The book is set in Los Angeles in 2027 and at this time the world is an absolute dystopia. The world has been stricken by a series of major crises, ranging from droughts to horrible storms that cause water, jobs, food, and even personal safety to be scarce. Due to these hard conditions, the people of the U.S. have been forced to adjust.
Lauren lives inside a heavily gated community protected from the chaos of the outside world; when a tragedy forces her to leave her neighborhood, she quickly realizes to survive, she must ultimately fight for her life. At first, Lauren struggles with her hyper-empathy because all she sees around her is suffering. Regardless, she must continue. Her fight helps her to be reborn into a new faith.
So why the title Parable of the Sower? Well, The Parable of the Sower in the Bible that Jesus taught is about a farmer who spreads his seeds; some fall on rocky soil and start to grow but die because they did not root. Those seeds represent people who respond to God’s word but do not allow it to root in their hearts. Other seeds fall on thorny ground, signifying those who accept the Lord’s word but are overcome by worries and problems. Many people are like the path, the word is given to them and they hear it, but they fail to listen. Finally, there is the good dirt, the seed has been sowed and grows strong and bears fruit; the good soil is those who accept God’s word and grow in their faith. In Parable of the Sower, Lauren represents the farmer, and she spreads her beliefs to others allowing it to take root, so they can begin to shape God on their own.
