Parable of the Sower Discussion Questions

What do seeds and acorns symbolize in Parable of the Sower?

Seeds and acorns represent survival, persistence and growth in challenging circumstances. Lauren Olamina notices how seeds can grow miles from their place of origin, much as she hopes to build a sustainable life far from her Robledo home. She starts thinking of humans as “Earthseed” who will spread “Earthlife to new earths” by settling other planets.

Acorns are a food that meets the needs of changing times. In Chapter 6, Lauren’s father describes his struggle to convince people in Robledo to eat acorns after diminishing farmland made other grains too expensive. Lauren and her companions later name the first Earthseed community Acorn, representing the new lifestyle they hope to create in a hostile world.

How do the lessons of the biblical parable of the sower from Luke 8:5–8, quoted in Chapter 25 of Parable of the Sower, apply to Lauren Olamina and other characters?

Parables, short stories illustrating religious or moral beliefs, are common teaching tools in Christianity. This parable is also an allegory, or a story with a symbolic meaning—one that can apply to Christianity and Earthseed. The sower stands for God, which to Earthseed followers means change. The different fates of the seeds represent different people’s responses to change, particularly change that forces them to face adversity.

The dead and choked seeds resemble characters who either are overcome by change or fail to cope. Some characters die in poverty, some turn to drugs and theft, and some seize power by harming others. But only those who accept change and who work to improve their situation—like the seed on good soil—will grow and prosper. The successful seeds also multiply, representing the Earthseed survivors who have the chance to expand their small community into a larger movement.

In Parable of the Sower, what role does literacy play in Lauren Olamina’s life?

Lauren uses the ability to read and write as a tool for survival—both for physical safety and the endurance of her ideas and dreams. The novel is structured as Lauren’s journal, showing how the act of writing helps her understand the world as the plot unfolds. Her father’s books teach her concrete survival skills, but they also teach her to value information. When she reads about history, she can see how new political developments follow old patterns.

Through writing, Lauren steps into her role as a leader, teacher and founder of a movement. When she writes Earthseed proverbs and collects them in a book, she passes her thoughts down to future generations. Parable of the Sower shows Lauren in the act of creating a sacred text, one she and others can turn to for wisdom like her father turns to the Bible.

How do drug use and addiction shape the lives of characters throughout Parable of the Sower?

For characters with hyperempathy syndrome, drug use leads to intergenerational trauma. The novel considers how drug use can offer an escape from grinding poverty; Zahra Moss reveals that many of the mothers in her impoverished former neighborhood took drugs. But the effects on children perpetuate a cycle of suffering. Lauren has hyperempathy because her birth mother abused the experimental drug Paracetco. Emery Solis and Grayson Mora also pass the condition to their children, limiting the children’s ability to protect and defend themselves.

Since Paracetco can alter human biology, Lauren is part of an evolutionary change. Her condition makes her more aware of the ongoing and frightening power of change as a dominant force.

The havoc caused by “pyro,” a drug that makes people enjoy setting fires, demonstrates the larger societal impact of drug epidemics. Pyro addicts’ fires change the landscape of California and destroy communities like Robledo, forcing survivors to migrate.

Why does Butler draw parallels between slavery in the early United States and Parable of the Sower’s 21st-century economy?

By imagining a resurgence of slavery in the 21st century, Butler challenges the idea that the future will always lead to social progress and improvement. She warns readers that any progress and human rights legislation can be rolled backward if people in power decide to do so and others let it happen.

Importantly, workers in Parable of the Sower don’t recognize debt slavery right away. Instead, many workers are desperate for jobs in company-controlled towns, since there are few paid jobs left. Work for a corporation provides an illusion of safety, but Lauren’s father recognizes the trap, saying, “There’s nothing safe about slavery.” Butler shows how corrupt business practices can give the false appearance of progress.

For Black characters like Lauren, her father and Taylor Franklin Bankole, United States slavery is a part of history they can’t easily forget. As Lauren meets more allies walking north, she calls the journey a “modern Underground Railroad,” referring to the pre-Civil War system in which people secretly helped escaped slaves travel north to safety. Lauren’s knowledge of the past and how 19th-century escaped slaves worked to survive helps her lead a similarly vulnerable group also traveling north to safety.