The novel Parable of the Sower 1993 is a story that exists or occurs after catastrophic destructions that makes political and social criticism of climate change. Lauren Olamina’s fight for escape is chronicled in the novel. Several people of all ethnicities follow her on her journey north, where they learn about the Earthseed religion she founded. Lauren has adapted to life in a world affected by catastrophic climate change after a drug-trafficking gang destroyed her town. (Butler, 1993). The fundamental issue in the story is the clash between people that want to live within the code of morality and others for whom good and evil have no meaning.
Parable of the Sower emphasizes the main themes of growth and change. Lauren Olamina’s heroine struggles with how to build an acceptable future, especially when history and current life aren’t ideal. Lauren’s made-up religion, Earthseed, embodies the message’s ideas of growth and change. Lauren’s discovery of Earthseed, a series of critical principles, underlines one thing over and over: God is transformation. But so long as Lauren is involved, development is the only consistent and inexorable phenomenon (Butler, 1993). Her world is constructed more by the strength of imagination and trusts in the ambition of giving a paradise. Both forces join to demonstrate their ability to release a person from an old way of life and give birth to something new and previously unfathomable. Instead of rejecting change, individuals should learn to embrace it and adapt to it to move with others. This is seen in existence: flexibility is more potent than conservatism.
The author believed, “Everything you touch changes you/Everything you change changes you” (Butler, 1993, p. 3). “Change is the one constant truth; and God is Change” (Butler, 1993 p. 3). As a result, transformation is elevated to the status of God. Change takes on a life of its own and transforms into a force. The religion of Earthseed is based on change; Lauren and her father’s connection in their faiths, on the other hand, is based on transformation. According to Butler (1993), change encompasses a wide range of occurrences regarding religion. Change is the theme of Earthseed, its purpose, and a requirement for Earthseed, as said before. She created it with one goal: to persuade as many people as possible to change their lifestyles from old to new.
Lauren imagines the potential that her faith may achieve despite the unknown. Her emerging religion is a religious and theological shift that the modern iteration of society sorely requires but lacks the means to get. Nevertheless, “my name is Earth seed; anyone has the potential to be. I believe there will be a large number of us one day. And I believe we’ll have to plant ourselves further away from this fading location” (Butler, 1993 p. 78). The ambiguity that this moment conveys is the focal point.
The book Parable of the Sower, published in 1993, perceives what human existence may become if humans do not take prompt and adequate action to address environmental impact. Octavia Butler was born in Pasadena, California, as Octavia Estelle Butler. She was a single daughter who was brought up in poverty. The novel is an excellent example of world-building since it tells a narrative in which faith and imagination are used to bring a previously unknown universe to life. The government and public officials are untrustworthy, cities are overcrowded with the poor, and the ecology has degraded, and people are fighting over water. She wanted to show how change can contribute to environmental growth and transformation and that anybody, regardless of ethnicity or socioeconomic class, may help others do so.
Climate changes, clean water scarcity, marine exploitation, forestry, and air and water contamination are all severe environmental resources and environmental concerns that humanity and nature as entities experience. Our day’s social and environmental challenges are shown and critiqued by Octavia E. Butler in Parable of the Sower (1993). She claims that humans are killing their own lives by damaging the environment and increasing social inequality. The nexus between environmental disaster and social injustice in Butler’s work demonstrates how our society today unjustly punishes ethnic minorities, women, and the poor when it comes to environmental degradation.
In contrast, writer Jeffrey Kripal shows how thoughts may be used to influence tangible reality. Butler and Lauren are examples of the imagined opportunity to communicate with the real world. Kripal wonders how fictitious the fictitious is; he explains what the idea is capable of creating far outside the mind’s confines. As per Kripal (2019), the reality is a mash-up of people’s ideas. The thoughts may interact with the environment through a process known as “materialization,” according to Kripal. This materialization is represented by Earthseed and the Parable of the Sower. The Earthseed religion’s perspective seeks to change Lauren’s existence for the best.
Daniel Quinn’s novel Ishmael tells the narrative of nature pleading with humans to stop destroying the planet. Ishmael, a Philosophical debate between a speaking gorilla called Ishmael and an unknown speaker, questions the premise that humans are somewhat different or beyond any other life in this world. And it presents some suggestions for constructing a viable humanity foundation (Quinn, 1995). This book is similar to Laurens’ statement that “as we evolve, we alter change”(Butler, 1993, p. 3). Taking action is the best answer to a massive shift like climate change. Every decision we make has an impact on the future.
References
Butler, O. E. (1993). Parable of the Sower (Vol. 1). Open Road Media.
Kripal, J. J. (2019). The flip: Epiphanies of mind and the future of knowledge. Bellevue Literary Press.
Quinn, D. (1995). Ishmael (Vol. 1). Bantam. Web.