Ciolorito 1

David Ciolorito

The Contemporary African-American Novel

Professor Harrell

4/12/2021

Survival in Community

The Parable of the Sower, written by Octavia Butler, follows Lauren Olamina through

the years 2024-2027. We start in her home community of Robledo in southern California. We

quickly show how horrible the world is with groups of murders, addicts, and others constantly

trying to get into these communities or take from these communities. Now obviously, things

cannot remain the same, and so the tiny and safe town of Robledo is very quickly deteriorating.

People are dying, going missing, and all around, everything is going to hell. So our protagonist

decides to start preparing for the inevitable fall of their small community, but people don't like

that, and so they say stop, that's not going to happen. Unsurprisingly, it happens earlier than

expected, and now we are on the run trying to figure out what to do next. Very slowly, over the

course of a year, our protagonist builds up followers of her religion and eventually can form a

town. Now, what is one of the things that are nearly constantly brought up in this book?

Community. From the start of the story to the end, society or the desire for one is the driving

force between the actions of our main characters. It is through this that the survival chances of

each group we encounter increase.

A community is only as strong as the connections between the people within it. In the

second chapter, we see the first interaction where the weak ties start to show with the topic of

religion. Lauren writes, "At least three years ago, my Father's God stopped being my God. His

church stopped being my church." (Butler 11) Quite literally, the religious connection that this
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family once shared has deteriorated, and therefore the bonds that are within the community are

ultimately weaker. Additionally, One of the verses Lauren made for her new religion is,

"Civilization is to groups what intelligence is to individuals. It is a means of combining the

intelligence of many to achieve ongoing group adaptation. Civilization, like intelligence, may

serve well, serve adequately, or fail to serve its adaptive function. When civilization fails to

serve, it must disintegrate unless it is acted upon by unifying internal or external forces. (Butler

99)" This verse is basically stating that community is like intelligence for individuals. They are

both essential tools for survival in this post-apocalyptic world. We can also look at how Robledo

did not have a solid community as a basis and therefore based on the philosophy, was doomed to

fail.

Now relating this back to the real world and my own personal experience, I was once part

of a religious community similar to Lauren. While I did not make my own religion, I was quickly

disenfranchised to the idea of the religious group I was a part of due to the actions of those

within the community I had happened to be within. The spiritual leader belittled and bullied

literal children, myself and many others included. In the past week, I went past my former place

of worship, and I found myself happy to see it shut down. Linking this back to the main point,

the religious group I was a part of fell apart because the bonds between us were incredibly weak,

if existent at all.

Communities are the lifeblood of survival in this post-apocalyptic time. Early on in this

book, we see what happens when you are alone. While they rode their bikes to church, they

passed a woman who had nothing, not even close. "I think if there was only one or two of us, or

they couldn't see our guns, they might try and pull us down and steal our bikes, our clothes, our

shoes, whatever. Then what?" (Butler 14) This shows the dangers of being alone. Lauren is
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convinced if they were few in numbers, they would without a doubt be attacked and possibly

killed. The fact that there were many of them there was the reason that they were safe, which

explains where the term strength in numbers comes from. Another point that is mentioned after

they had to leave is when the three of them are talking about whether they should allow others in.

"We're a pack, the three of us, and all those other people out there aren't in it. If we're a good

pack, and we work together, we have a chance. You can be sure we aren't the only pack out

here." (Butler 179) This describes how the people that are hunting and killing others are also

forming communities. However, this one is very different from the one that Lauren and co. were

actively involved in and attempting to make.

Once again, though I would very much rather not have this be the case, I literally relate to

the experience of Lauren in this case. You see, I happen to be Jewish, and with Trump's

presidency, the far right's group known as Nazi's became more active and more vocal. While I

was not in a post-apocalyptic setting, I was unfortunately worried about a group of people also

known as a community coming to kill me or those around me.

In the Parable of the Sower the importance of community is one of the main recurring

themes that explains how and why the main character is able to continue to survive and even

thrive in a very inhospitable environment. Lauren surrounds herself with people who hold similar

beliefs and with the addition of her religion being accepted by those that followed her there

bonds are stronger than ever. They have all been through a lot together and continue to support

each other, when one person has issues the others step up to help cover what they could not. It

was through this strong basis of a community that these people were able to defend themselves

from other groups who looked to take advantage of those who were weaker than them.