Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler - Book Report/Review Example

The protagonist of the novel, Lauren Olamina is an African - American young girl aged fifteen years at the time of the commencement of the novel. She stays in Robledo, situated twenty miles away from Los Angeles. The fictitious Los Angeles in the novel is enslaved by a wall and is partially protected from uncontrolled lawlessness and frantic poverty. Such a situation existed beyond the walls of Lauren’s neighborhood. At the time of the destruction of the enclave by the gangs of arsonists and thieves, Lauren survives along with a few of her neighbors and they tread towards the north in the pursuit of the valuable search for a better life.

She leaves behind the environmental and economic chaos and flies away from the urban hell and there amidst the stillness of the country life, she starts her healing process and christens a fresh faith which is called ‘Earth Seed’ and that is the single salvation left for the entire civilization. Butler presents the novel in a ‘dystopian future’. Lauren appears to be the spokesperson of Butler in the novel and she possesses the quality which Butler dubbed as ‘hyper empathy’, meaning the ability to sense the apparent pain and feelings of others.

Butler’s disturbing dystopia is recorded in the form of Lauren’s diary entries. Parable of the Sower is an adventure story. It superbly blends a coming-of-age story and certain social evils of contemporary American society. This thought-provoking literary piece encompasses huge social and philosophical issues and benignly cures it with a newly evolved spiritual faith that always serves as food for thought to any reader.