Multiethnic Literatures in the U.S.

As any mother would say, “I would do anything for my family.” Any good mother/wife would do what was possible to protect their family. That is apparently not the case with Lauren. First, she refused Bankole’s persistent suggestions to move to other towns. Then she refused to convert to Christianity to aid in her search for her only daughter.
Knowing that there is continuous danger with living in Acorn, Lauren still insisted on living there. Rather than move to the many other communities, including Saylorville, Halstead, Coy, that Bankole suggested, she persistently refused. When he first suggested it, Lauren just said that she was content with where they were. She said that if they continued to live there, a good thing will arise, meaning more Earthseed followers. Before the birth of baby Larkin, Bankole again brings it up, saying that the town of Halstead wants him to become their full-time doctor. Bankole said that “he’s an old man” and “he’s got to think of the future, and [Lauren]’s got to think of the baby” (144). She believed that all Bankole saw was “was he called [her] immaturity, [her] irrational, unrealistic faith in Earthseed, [her] selfishness, [her] shortsightedness” (145). A week after the birth of Larkin, Bankole mentioned moving away from Earthseed to Halstead. And just like all the other times, Lauren said that Acorn is her home and that she cannot leave. But this time Bankole wanted to know what her plans were for Acorn. Lauren told him her plans: to continue to grow as a community, to prepare for the Destiny, and to spread Earthseed to other communities. She believed that without her, Acorn would crumble.
Even after the attack on Dovetree by the radical group, Jarret’s Crusaders, she refused to leave. She heard the accounts of what happened by the Dovetree attack survivors, with the men in “belted black tunics” and the “big white crosses on chains around their necks” (19). Even if the Dovetrees weren’t attacked because of their religion, Lauren must have known that the attackers where in connection with the new Christian America movement. She must have been aware that Acorn was a possible target, especially since they did not practice Christianity but Earthseed. When Bankole presents the possible danger of the newly elected President Jarret, she said that “[Acorn is] nothing to him, so small, so insignificant” (194).
When she took back her freedom from Camp Christian, Lauren was determined to find Larkin. She went to Eureka-Arcata, hoping to work and to hear any rumors about adoptions or foster children. During her stay, she sat through a sermon by her brother Marc, who was now a minister of the Christian Church of America. She contacted him after wards, hoping for some help in finding her child. He left her with no advice or helping words. She tried to contact him again but he had already left for Portland, Oregon. One of Marc’s friends gave Lauren a letter, saying that he was sorry and that if she really wanted to find her daughter, she should join Christian America. It would have been the best, safest way to find her only daughter yet she rejected his advice. If Lauren truly did want to find Larkin, she should have joined CA, like her brother suggested, despite her different beliefs. She should’ve become a Christian, for the time being, and put Earthseed to the side.

Parable of the Talents

            The Parable of the Talents is beginning to mirror reality more and more as the novel goes on.  There are religious extremists that terrorize people for not believing in their religion, dictatorships, drugs that plague society, indentured slavery, and massive immigration to find a better life.  One thing that Octavia butler might be saying is that the reason that society falters is that humans make mistakes and do not learn from them. Octavia Butler could also be saying the human sense of nostalgia makes people want to do thing that were done in the past, therefore not progressing forward.  Whether humans create the future through nostalgia or if people are just making the same mistakes, Octavia shows thought the novel that the same events leads to the same results.  Building a community, community destroyed by extremists, followed by a search for a new place to live, and then rebuild a new community is the most noticeable in Octavia Butler’s books.

            I believe that Butler is saying that both humans forgot the past results but they try things from the past because that is what they know best.  Lauren’s society tries the same thing but expects different results.  We can really see this when Lauren creates Acorn.  While Lauren was little, her little town of Robledo was destroyed.  In many of the residents’ minds, they knew at some point in time Robledo would be destroyed.  They thought they were pretty safe from the outside world, with their night guards and wall, but when both defenses failed they had to run.  In Acorn, after establishing a rather large community, everyone felt safe.  There was wired the community, people on watch duty, and Acorn was in a semi-remote location.   Again, establishing a sense of security made everyone feel that nothing would really happen to Acorn.  Although some of them feared something would happen, no one did anything to stop it.  Bankole pleaded with Lauren to move so they would be safer but Lauren thought that her “walled” community was safer.  This repeated mistake cost Lauren her husband and her daughter.

            Through out the book Lauren was to do things that she did in the past, but expects different results.  She is too stubborn to think of other ways, they have to be her father’s ways.  The reason Lauren keeps going in circle is because she uses her father’s guidelines as her way of life.  She looks likes him, preaches like him, and is the leader like him.  Lauren will not be able to break this circle of events unless she can stray herself from her father’s way of life.  Lauren said that “God is change.”  Normally religion does not change the people that follow the religion change.  Now it is time for Lauren to change and break the cycle.