Chapters 4-6 Summary

The quote beginning Chapter 4 explores how different people cope with being “a victim of God,” or a victim of change.

Lauren and her friends often go to the hills to practice shooting for self-defense. But Lauren feels nervous about traveling in a multiracial group, and when she shoots a dog, she’s forced to kill it to avoid feeling its pain.

By March 2025, Lauren is concerned that global poverty, water shortages, illnesses and natural disasters will dismantle her community. She reads her father’s books on wilderness survival and assembles an emergency evacuation kit.

After a Robledo woman dies by suicide and a neglected Robledo child dies in an accident, Lauren shares her fears with her best friend, Joanne Garfield. Later, Lauren’s father advises her that teaching people is more effective than scaring them.

Meanwhile, hungry thieves are stealing food and property in Robledo. The community sets up a neighborhood watch, but the thefts continue.

Chapters 4-6 Analysis

The demographics of Robledo mirror the racial diversity Butler observed in Los Angeles, California. And in Butler’s imagined future, racism and race-related tension continue affecting people’s lives. Lauren is nervous about traveling outside the gates in a multiracial group because she knows that hardship can lead people to seek refuge in group identity and racial prejudices.

By now, Lauren is starting to understand what her beliefs mean for her future. Part of this realization is an increased awareness of her vulnerability. The death of a Robledo child means the community failed to protect its weakest members. And Lauren grapples with her own weaknesses as she prepares for the possibility of killing in self-defense.

Lauren describes the surrender of some people using the image “victims of God,” like her neighbor who dies by suicide. Others, like Joanne, are reluctant to prepare for catastrophe. Lauren’s own behavior is motivated by her need to work with change, not avoid or deny it—work she thinks of as partnering with God.

The weather disasters, food scarcity, and other climate-related events Lauren and her father describe are examples of humans shaping God in a destructive way. Scientists agree that global warming was spurred by human industrial development, leading to a new modern era where human activity has changed natural ecosystems.

Despite her maturity and survivalist wisdom, Lauren still has a lot of learning to do at this point in the book. Though her father doesn’t share her beliefs, he’s still her role model, and he guides her to become a humbler and more patient teacher.