The novel, The Parable of the Sower, by Octavia. E. Butler, is set in California and takes place in the near future, in the period 2024-2027. The science fiction novel brings to life a gruesome vision of the future with a shocking resemblance to reality. A parable is a simple story with a moral or spiritual lesson behind it. This novel is based on a parable from the Bible. Although the novel is fiction, the authors use figurative language to describe the dystopian future, which includes global warming, a collapsing government, slavery, chronic water shortages, poverty, and a world full of violence. There are multiple literal and figurative concepts of slavery, gender identity, and hope for something better that allow readers to better imagine the characters' lifestyles and compare it to patterns in our current and past worlds. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The world portrayed in this novel is terrible. The theme of slavery and racism is addressed more than once in Butler's novel. Both figurative and symbolic language emerge in the novel when Lauren declares “I'm going north.” Lauren is one of many people who have headed north in hopes of finding work and resources. This looks a lot like the journey of freed slaves from the South to the North in search of a better life. The entire journey north told in the novel is symbolic of the journey north of the freed slaves. Butler makes several references to slavery in the novel. After Lauren's community is destroyed, she forms a group that includes two former neighbors, Harry and Zahra, and some other people she has met for a long time who were once held as slaves. Lauren and the group call themselves “the crew of the modern underground railroad.” This is a reference to the Underground Railroad used for "fifty years or more, was secretly engaged in helping fugitive slaves reach places of safety in the free states and Canada." From Lauren's diary entries, it is clear that Butler is trying to bring the topic of slavery to light. There are clear literal and figurative examples of slavery and racism throughout the novel. Butler “begins by evoking the African American experience of slavery and then moves beyond that experience of oppression to illustrate that African American slavery is one of many manifestations of slavery in American history.” Lauren, of course, didn't care about anyone's race. Her group of people were black, white, Asian, Latino, rich or poor, gay or straight, it made no difference to her. Throughout the novel, the use and abuse of women is expressed multiple times. At one point during Lauren's travels, she encounters a naked woman stumbling along the road and can't figure out whether the woman was raped or was on drugs, or both. She goes on to explain that naked, “used” women often wandered the streets alone after being used by men. He describes this situation as if it were a normal occurrence. This correlates with modern domestic abuse which has become accepted as normal for many. This is also similar to the sex trafficking problems that have grown over the past couple of years. Once Lauren returns to her destroyed neighborhood, she observes the corpses on the streets, realizing that most of the women, of all ages, were brutally raped before they died. In this futuristic dystopia, women were used, abused, and viewed as objects rather than human beings. Lauren states, on multiple occasions, that women are not educated and only know how to careof children and cooking. Their sole purpose was believed to be to cook, clean, and have children while relying on the man for labor. This way of seeing women dates back hundreds of years. Lauren has to disguise herself as a man to leave Robeldo. This is similar to the case of the woman, Debroah Sampson, who disguised herself as a man and joined the army to fight in the Revolutionary War, as women were not allowed to join the army in 1782. How stated earlier, people have held this view of women that for many years they are only useful for certain things like cooking and cleaning. Butler obviously sees that our future will be no different or better than the world we live in now. However, they say that history repeats itself. Perhaps this is what readers see in this novel, history repeats itself in more ways than one. Lauren's story and her ideas about Earthseed are used as a parable for readers, providing an example of how people might avoid this repetition of history and its consequences through change and adaptation. The consequences of not accepting change and learning to adapt and overcome are also shown throughout the novel. For example, Lauren's father, Laurence, was born in the twentieth century and remained true to his old-time beliefs. He constantly defends faith over reason, something Lauren disagrees with. Lauren says she believes in a “Big-Dad God or a Big-Cop God” who will take over and make things right in times of need. Laurence is unable to adapt and overcome the situation, and instead continues to hope that his God will change things instead of having the necessary opportunity. Halfway through the novel, Laurence disappears, along with his way of thinking. The death and disappearance of the Lauren family are the motivation for her as the leader of the "modern Underground Railroad" and Earthseed. Butler emphasizes to readers that lessons learned from the past are important in teaching so that history does not continue to repeat itself. Referring to the Bible, Lauren is very similar to Moses, leading the group out of slavery or a bad environment, just as Moses led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. Lauren uses these examples and lessons from the past to her advantage, founding Earthseed and finding a new place for a community, attempting to start a new life without repeating the events of the past. When Lauren learns of little Amy Dunn's death, she is completely devastated. She was shot through the metal gate leading to the neighborhood. Lauren, who feels the pain of others as well as her own, is furious with the ways of the world at this point. He uses a simile to express his feelings towards the neighborhood after the death of little Amy Dunn. He says “It's like an island surrounded by sharks, except the sharks don't bother you unless you get in the water. But our land sharks are coming. It's just a question of how long it takes them to get hungry enough." People kill others for no good reason, and there is violence everywhere around Lauren. This is very similar to our current society, with school shootings, bombings, and more random acts of violence with no good reason behind them. The violence shown in many examples throughout the novel can easily be compared to the violence that currently goes on and has been going on for years. The main metaphor shown in the novel is the seed. It represents the hope of the characters. The title of the novel itself comes directly from a Bible verse (Luke 8:5-8) in the New Testament parable about a sower/farmer who sowed seeds. Some of these seeds never had a chance to germinate, some were eaten by birds, and others.1