Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler Philosophy and Buddhism

Philosophy: Buddhism- Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

“Parable of the Sower” is an interesting science fiction novel by Octavia Butler in 1993. The novel’s setting is in 2024 in the United States, which is highly relevant today[footnoteRef:1]. Global warming is deteriorating the Earth’s resources along with human actions. Poverty has struck the region hard, where even the safest protectors of the society are only looting people as much as possible, including police, firefighters, and other public service personnel. Water shortage, diseases, looting, drugs, etc., have become norms of society[footnoteRef:2]. The protagonist, Lauren, an African American teenage girl, decides to travel North aiming for a well-paid job. On her journey, she meets new people and learns about a self-shaped religion called ‘Earthseed.’ The first community she formulates with people with the same mission as hers is settled in northern Carolina, the Acorn community. [1: Goodreads, 2022, Parable of the Sower (Eathseed #1) by Octavia Butler, Accessed December 7, 2020, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52397.Parable_of_the_Sower.] [2: Ibid]

The relevance of the book in recent times makes it a learning for modern people as well. The greatest learning one can get from this novel is change. Change itself could be attributed to growth which could be inferred as ‘evolution’ or ‘transformation.’ The reason for saying so is that the evident change in the novel begins from the climatic change, and people’s less faith in their religion turns them evil. Although this is not the actual transformation the author suggests, it led Lauren to become closer to the new people she met on her journey and build a new community based on the values of ‘hope.’ It could be deduced that evolution was observed in terms of having a purpose in life that created ongoing adaptability and a new religion formation.

Lauren had an idea of the future based on her created notion of change. The ideal future she imagined was inherited partially from religion and partially from change. When taking a lesson from her past, she wanted her future to be altered, absent from the vices that were undesirable for her. As the book states, “God is change.” The religion Earthseed is rooted in change, the change from their evil past and alteration into a new world free of poverty, diseases, loot, wars, etc.

Also, Lauren believed in outing power into that change since making Earthseed a reality; her philosophy was to transform. As the author narrated, the circumstances and Lauren’s beliefs emphasized that the desire to change things was embedded in spiritual power. The narration could be best understood with these lines, “Earthseed is all that spreads Earthlife to new earths…and the destiny of Earthseed is to take root among the stars”[footnoteRef:3]. This reveals that Lauren’s ideology of the future resided in ‘stars’ that symbolize a change in terms of Earth beings and a destiny envisioned in stars. [3: Ibid, 53.]

The destruction on Earth and a path to change for rebuilding a new community could also be attributed to the same idea. For example, the Earth’s destruction due to global warming, drug abuse, crime, fires, plagues, etc., prevents people from thriving and making a bright future[footnoteRef:4]. The change comes from Lauren’s efforts to make a new religion and the community people who are its believers. The cleansing from those crimes and bad breeding habits is the regeneration of life; one could assume, mainly associated with God’s way of cleansing human nature. As mentioned earlier, a reboot could be nurtured with such spiritual power, which is the essence of a change and transformation for a future full of hope. [4: Ibid, p. 5 and 38.]

Determination and willingness to change play an important role in the entire process of transformation and evolution. One should know that change is inevitable, even if it is from Stone Age to today’s technological gadget world. It has been human nature, an innate characteristic, that he cannot settle on old traditions and customs. He wants to break free from the chains of a fragile world and become submissive to a better tomorrow. The transition, however, should be graceful, not what the author has cited as the world of 2024, where people have become more sinful just for pursuing their personal, particularly monetary and selfish desires. The author stresses the strong will of humans for a change; however, there is a contrast in how they envision it and take action for that. There is a world where people pursue every possible and every bad way to get what they want; on the other hand, Lauren shuns the idea of becoming evil while getting a better future. A better evolution is only possible if peace and harmony are implanted in the change and transformation she idealized in her ‘starry’ future world of change.

It is agreed that the transformation that change brought in “Parable of the Sower” is rebirth. It could also be regarded as one of the novel’s themes; however, coming back stronger as a new human being to break free from the chains of evil is the actual rebirth that the author wants to accentuate. For example, the rebirth is seen in Lauren’s formation of the new community coming from a few people only, just as was in the case of Noah’s incident, whose incident Lauren’s father mentioned in the Church’s sermon by saying, “God decides to destroy everything except Noah, his family, and some animals.” The author is correct in that it was the seed that God wanted to sow in a new world after the previous one was destroyed. In the same way, Lauren wanted to bring change with the new community and religion with spiritual power in the new world, forming the basis of a new transformation.

The change also comes from the willingness of people to accept change. For example, the characters in Parable of the Sower depict the change mechanisms they accept to create a better future. The author says that “Donner has a plan for putting people back to work. He hopes to get laws changed, suspend “overly restrictive” minimum wage, environmental and worker protection laws…”[footnoteRef:5]. It is not easy to make changes as all people would not be willing to accept them; however, if it is for maximum good and a better future and hope arises from that change, it is never harmful. Since Donner was the first person who supported Lauren in this process, he was hopeful that the change would raise higher standards of living compared to those witnessed in the already existing world of 2024. [5: Ibid, 17. ]

Apart from willingness, adaptation is mandatory to make change successful. For instance, the writer clarified that Lauren was not only the one who wanted a change in living environment for her new community and the newly formed religion where it should be practiced, she knew that since Earthseed is meant to be for people, and “God is change,” she wanted to “adapt where I must, take what opportunities I can find or make, hang on, gather students and teach.” The author portrayed her as a true believer in adaptability, which Lauren knew was the guarantee of true change.

Another interesting aspect that draws the reader to another facet of change is that change could be taught. It is highly noticeable in the fact that Lauren said that she could teach and attract people to Earthseed. The book cites, “Teaching is what I would choose to do…If I do it well, it will draw people to me- to Earthseed”[footnoteRef:6]. It stands true with the perception whenever you want to change someone’s behavior towards something; the change is taught through learning. A baby learns the same behaviors from his parents as he sees them doping in his childhood; in the same way, developing and teaching clear rules to carry out a certain procedure is what Lauren thinks she can do for Earthseed’s new believers. The expectations and ground rules she might set for them to foresee the religion a true change for them, which would assure them not only a hope for a better future but also a successful adaptation for a new transformation towards peace; it is this where the teaching starts for learning appropriate behaviors. Certainly, it seems a necessary part of the process for making a smooth acceptance for new believers coming to Earthseed and the behavioral change a convenient shift. [6: Ibid, 85. ]