The Earthseed verse in chapter 20 in Parable of The Sower caught my attention when I was reading the novel. I believe that this verse on page 245 explains one of the main and on going themes within the novel. Lauren Olamina is the creator of Earthseed, and she is making the changes within this crazy world. She wants people to follow in her direction, because her strong faith to keep fighting shows that she is willing to change the world herself one step at a time; life isn’t going to change itself. This short verse sums up the parables in that it shows that changing ways and people of Earthseed fight the constant struggle of life to unify a community for a better life. By taking a positive ownership in change, Lauren believes she can make the world a better place. She doesn’t let change control her life, she acknowledges the damage and shape of the country and embraces the idea of change as a positive tool in her quest.
Lauren knows that faith can take her only so far, not totally relying on it; she embraces the power inside of her as a leader. When Lauren saves Allie and Jill from the abandoned house that collapsed she knows that she is going to have to defend herself when she came out. It was an immediate reaction to save the two, but it was her faith that drove her to save the two helpless victims to survival. She is able to separate her faith in order to survive when an attack was brought on; she feels bad that she had to kill a person. Even though she doesn’t feel guilty about her actions, she does feel the pain of taking a life. Lauren had taken the attacker’s life in order to survive as seen in this quote, “the six inch blade went in to the hilt. Then, in empathic agony, I jerked it out again, I can’t describe the pain” (234).
Throughout the novel, Earthseed’s overall goal is to change the world. During their journey they discover an innocent child named Justin who has lost his mother to an attack. In keeping with their faith they decide to pick up the child and take him in their group. This is a small step in their “search of a better life” and being able to mold young Justin (254). They are able to form him into an Earthseed member, because he isn’t heavily influenced by any other ways until this point.
Earthseed’s idea of God can be described as the process of change within the overall world. They are fulfilling their faith in order to change the terrible situation they are in. They cannot just believe in it, they have to apply their learned abilities to their faith. With the knowledge from books and their ability feel things around them they are able to rely on one another within the close nit group to survive. They have to believe that they can be successful in their quest in order to win this change.
As Earthseed continues to move north, they pass through the town of Hollister and they decide to resupply because they do not know their next time they will be able to. They have seen the damage the earthquake has caused this town and even though this town has been destroyed, they have noticed that the people haven’t turned into animals and “they seemed to be helping one another with repairs and looking after their own destitute. Imagine that” (257). This is an eye opener for the Earthseed’s because they are able to foresee that a changed world is possible. This gives them some motivation as they continue on their quest for a new world.
A major belief of the Earthseed is that they will always stand by each other. This is evident in Lauren’s quote to Allie, “But if you travel with us, and there’s trouble, you stand by us, stand with us” (238). This quote reflects one of Earthseed’s central themes that constantly being together and watching out for the other members of the group is essential for survival. Their drive throughout their journey is based on the belief that they can achieve change. Although they see small changes within their journey they have not achieved their goal of seeing a new world and they continue to build and strive for change.
You start out, theoretically, focusing on one Earthseed verse. But if you look over what you wrote one more time, I think you'll probably see that you aren't *doing* anything with this verse. You use it in order to begin what is really a summarization, not of the whole plot of the novel, but of aspects of the novel which interest you. Now, in all fairness, presumably you're summarizing these sections not randomly, but because they relate back to your verse in some way. But because you're not really making an argument about the relationship between these events and your verse; you aren't offering an interpretation of the events based on the verse, or vice versa. You tell us about the verse, then you summarize some events of the novel - without a strong connection between the two.
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