Our Fierce Protagonist
She is the protagonist of Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower.
Who is Lauren Oya Olamina?
Octavia Butler wrote her novel, Parable of the Sower, in this year.
What is 1993?
This is the Biblical story that Octavia Butler's novel borrows its title from.
What is "The Parable of the Sower"?
This Olamina is a Baptist preacher.
Who is Lauren's father?
or Who is Reverend Olamina?
This is the title of the alternative religious text that Lauren is writing.
What is Earthseed: The Books of the Living?
This is the fictional syndrome that makes those who are afflicted with it acutely aware of the pain and pleasure of other living things.
What is hyperempathy?
This year is when the novel begins.
What is 2024?
This is where the popular allegory, "The Parable of the Sower," can be found.
What is Matthew 13
or Matthew 13:1-23
This Olamina tells Lauren: "When I was your age, my mother told me that the stars--the few stars we could see--were windows into heaven. Windows for God to look through to keep an eye on us. I believed her for almost a year" (Butler 5).
Who is Corazon "Cory" Olamina?
or Who is Lauren's stepmother?
This is the refrain that Lauren repeats and believes about God.
What is "God is change"?
This is what Lauren is learning to do in her reoccurring dream.
What is flying?
If Octavia Butler's novel were true, we would be voting for this candidate in the 2024 election.
Who is Christopher Morpeth Donner?
This is what a farmer goes out to sow in the biblical version of "The Parable of the Sower."
What is seed?
These are the names of Lauren's brothers.
Who are Keith, Marcus, and Gregory Olamina?
This is Lauren's favorite book of the Bible.
What is Job?
This is the number of years that Lauren's "father's God stopped being [her] God" (Butler 7).
What is three?
This is the format that Octavia Butler's novel, Parable of the Sower, is written in.
What is an epistolary novel?
These are the different types of ground that the farmer's seed falls on in the biblical version of "The Parable of the Sower."
What is:
1) along the path,
2) rocky places,
3) among thorns, and
4) good soil?
This Olamina abused Paracetco, which is described as "the small pill, the Einstein powder" (Butler 12).
Who is Lauren's mother?
This biblical text informs Lauren's belief that "change is part of life, of existence, of the common wisdom" (Butler 26).
What is the third chapter of Ecclesiastes?
Lauren believes that this diety is:
...Power--
Infinite,
Irresistible,
Inexorable,
Indifferent,
[...] Pliable--
Trickster,
Teacher,
Chaos,
Clay (Butler 25).
Who is God?
This is the date of Lauren's last journal entry of Chapter 6.
What is Saturday, March 29, 2025?
This is what "The Parable of the Sower" personifies.
What is:
a) the seed equates to a message
b) the ground equates to the hearer's preparation to receive the message
c) some hearers will not understand, so they will forget what they heard; some hearers will hear the message, but will not want to feel the persecution that comes along with following its instructions; some hearers would prefer to follow their own path; and some hearers will accept the message and share it with others.?
This is the town where the Olamina's gated community can be found.
What is Robledo, California?
This is the scripture that Lauren's father focuses on for his sermon on March 9, 2025.
What is Genesis 6?