Multiethnic Literatures in the U.S.

Parable of the Talents
By: Octavia E. Butler
Dave McAndrew

I was really disappointed while reading Parable of the Talents. I thought it was just another Parable of the Sower. As a matter of fact I would say it is just like it. The passage I was assigned is just like the passage everyone else was assigned. It’s the circle the book has been driving down since we started Parable of the Sower. After being interested in the first book and then losing interest by the end, I was not so thrilled in reading Parable of the Talents. Octavia Butler tries hard to keep you interested in the book by putting shooting and rape into a passage after you have already lost interest.
I thought of the passage as a huge circle. Lauren is this girl that speaks of change, yet doesn’t want change. She knows that the building of Acorn could be a positive step to a new life, yet doesn’t allow anything but Earthseed to be taught. Therefore, no change was taking place. I related the passage I read to everyday life. There are some that think everything that is happening now is good, and some that think change is what makes things better. Lauren’s positive change came when she was reunited with Marcus, this would have been a great step to take to rebuild what she had before. Yet she doesn’t think so since Marcus wants to preach Christianity and doesn’t believe in her religion.
Lauren wasn’t taking any steps for a positive change. She was living with what she had, although things are going to change. She had a child named Larkin, no matter what she didn’t want to change, it was going to happen. Bankole was offering Lauren a better life in a new community, but she wouldn’t leave Acorn and Earthseed behind. She didn’t want to teach anyone another points of view or religion. She was “stuck” and she wasn’t going to do anything different. I didn’t like certain parts of the book because there was nothing really going on, nothing was happening.
The thing that caught my eye the most was this “Choose you leaders, with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward, is to be controlled by all that the coward fears. To be led by a fool, is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool.” Lauren didn’t want anyone to choose their own leaders, she was their leader and that was the end. I thought of Lauren as a coward throughout the whole book because she didn’t choose the better life with Bankole in Halstead over Acorn. I would consider her a fool because I thought Jarret was running her in some way or another. She kept people in Acorn just to soon be defeated.
I summed it up into a circle like I said in the beginning. I knew what was happening before I read this passage, while reading it I thought of what was next before it happened. In my opinion it’s not a great way to write a book. I don’t write books so I may not know.

Author: Octavia Butler

Title: Parable of the Talents

Pages 153-218 

Lauren is a foolish little girl that had to grow up to fast in a world that was crumbling around her.  She has forgotten the meaning of family because she has been without one for such a long time Yes she did make a new family but her new family was easily persuaded by her.  She was the protector, provider, preacher, decision maker, creator of Earthseeed, and Acorn.  It was all hers just the way she wanted it to be and could changed it if she decided to.

Lauren has rescued her brother Marcus that she thought was dead over four years ago.  This should have been the greatest moment in her life to be able to reunite with one of her real family members.  Instead she was very territorial when Marcus wanted to preach about the Bible.  She has spent all her time trying to make the community of acorn believe and accept Earthseed and she was afraid that Marcus might ruin this for her.  Lauren let her brother fail at the service on one Sunday morning to teach him a lesson.  She wanted to put him in his place and let him know that if he was going to be living with her it was going to be on her rules.  She was always talking about how god is change but she was just as frightened about change as anyone else was.  If the change was not in favor of her plans than the change was bad but if change favored her plans than the change was good.  Lauren made her brother feel unwelcomed in the community.  After a few days her brother left.  This is crazy of Lauren to let her brother leave since they have not seen each other for so long.  If anyone was in this situation and separated from their brother or sister for over four years it would be hard to let them go a second time.  It was the fear that he would ruin everything.  She has now started another family and community and Marcus was nothing to her but a tree planted out in the field.

Not only was Marcus second best to her Acorn and Earthseed belief but her daughter Larkin was too.  Lauren had the opportunity to move to a safe community that provided protect and a job for Bankole.  She refused this offer because Acorn and Earthseed were just as much an infant as her daughter was and she would never leave her either.  How can Lauren compare her child with a community and a belief system.  The two are nothing alike.  If Acorn was destroyed there is always a possibility of starting over somewhere else.  If her daughter Larkin was to be killed she could never rebuild, she could have another child but it would not be the same.  Laurens true baby, the one she has been nursing since she could write was Earthseed.  How could she leave her dream, her passion for life.  Larkin was intended to be her missionary, the one who would carry one Eathseed if she was to die.  Her plan was falling into place now, Lauren could not leave it even if that meant the possibility of being attacked and held captive.  She would find a way out with her followers and find her daughter and start another Earthseed community.  Lauren had a plan and as impossible as it sounded would try anything in her power to make it happen