Parable of the Sower Discussion Questions

Here are some discussion questions I put together for a Hugo/Nebula discussion group for the book Parable of the Sower.

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Starter Questions
Opening Questions (General/Generic Starters)

1. What is the first thing you’d tell a friend who was interested in the book?
2. What did you think of the book?
3. Was the book what you expected?
4. Did you enjoy reading the book? Did you like the writing style?
5. The story is set in a near-future world, rather than a fantastic future. Do you think the story is still science fiction? If not, what would you suggest as a category or title?

The Title: Parable of the Sower

1. The title, Parable of the Sower is taken from a passage in the New Testament. What happens in the Biblical parable, both literally and symbolically?
2. Considering the Biblical parable, why do you think Butler chose it as a title for the book? What parallel is Butler drawing between her story and the Parable that Jesus told?

The Characters
Lauren Olamina

1. The book chronicles the life of Lauren Olamina. Do you find her to be a believable character? Did you find the things she did to be normal or natural given the world in which she lived?
2. Lauren is very young in the story, but lives in a world that is harsh. Do you think she grows up too quickly? What does childhood mean in a world that looks like the one Butler describes? Are Lauren’s reactions (predicting the fall of the neighborhood, for example) through the story realistic?
3. Early in the story, we are introduced to Lauren’s affliction with hyper-empathy syndrome. Why do you think Butler gave Lauren this affliction?
4. Lauren is very careful about revealing her hyper-empathy to others. Why is this careful protection of her secret so important?
5. Through the hyper-empathy syndrome, do you think Butler is making a larger comment on the difficulty of being compassionate or trusting? That offering to help others must be done, but the receiver of help must be trusted?
6. The story is told via Lauren’s journal entries. How well do you think Butler did with building a character in this way? Are the entries what you would expect from the journal of a teenager? Do you feel that they show the same blindness or weak-spots that individuals typically have when writing about themselves or how they perceive the world around them? Are they too good?
7. What do you make of the conversation between Lauren and her brother in the kitchen? Are there parallels between the way Lauren treats her brother (cooks him dinner) and the way Lauren acts on her later journey to found Acorn?
8. The timeline of the story covers several years of Lauren’s life, from her teens to early 20‚Äôs.
9. This is normally a time when people grow up or mature a great deal. Do you see signs of this in Lauren’s writing, actions or otherwise? What are they?

The Olamina Family

1. In the first part of the book, Lauren is still living with her family. How would you describe the family and the dynamics between the family members?
2. Lauren’s father is a Baptist minister and teacher at the local college. What role does he play in Lauren’s development?
3. Lauren’s father is clearly the head of the family and he has a history of physical violence against them. Do you think Butler meant this as a character flaw or is she using the father as a symbol of her views of patriarchy or Christianity? Is the father’s use of physical violence a metaphor for Butler’s view that social systems protect themselves through coercion?
4. Why does Lauren’s father tell her to forget what she told her friend Jo? Why doesn’t he want to face the fact that the neighborhood is in an untenable position, long-term? Is he running from the truth, or is his approach to dealing with it simply different from Lauren’s approach?
5. Lauren’s brother leaves the walled neighborhood with the tacit approval of his mother, Cory. It’s clear that he’s living a violent life in a very dangerous world. What does this say about Cory? What is her perspective on the world around her?
6. Why do you think Butler introduced us to Lauren’s brother, Keith? Is it to give us a view into the violent and uncaring world outside? Are there parallels between Keith and Lauren? Do they both see the outside as an inevitable end to the walled community, except that they each react to it differently?

The Earthseed Family

1. Lauren’s first new family members are Harry and Zahra, other survivors from the walled-in neighborhood where she grew up. Describe them. How are they different from Lauren?
2. Do you think Lauren’s approach to meeting and helping people is believable, especially as she starts the journey northward on the highway? Does Butler make it too easy for Lauren or do you think people would be more skeptical of Lauren’s offers to help?
3. How does Lauren take leadership of the group? What are the things she does or says as people meet her or join the group? What would you say if you met somebody like Lauren in a similar situation?

Other Topics
Religion, Philosophy & Earthseed

1. Earthseed is the reason that Lauren decides she will eventually need to leave her neighborhood, gives her purpose when the neighborhood is destroyed and provides her with a philosophy to guide her as she walks northward on the dangerous highway. Describe Earthseed as you understand it.
2. Do you think Earthseed is a religion? Is it a philosophy? What is the reason for answering as you do? How do you think Lauren would answer the question?
3. One key belief of Earthseed is “God is Change” Does Lauren literally mean God as a self-aware entity? Or is she using the word “God” as a way to express something complex in a way that people can grasp and understand?
4. Lauren repeatedly says that she is not a prophet of Earthseed, but that she simply saw the truth before other people. What is a prophet and what does Lauren mean by her denial? Where does the “truth” of a prophet originate and where does Lauren get her truth?
5. How is religion portrayed by Butler in this book? Christianity appears several times in the book, for example. What does Butler seem to think is the role or ability of religion to shape and give purpose to life?
6. Why does Lauren found Acorn? If God is Change then is the establishment of a permanent community in opposition to that ideal? What is Lauren’s plan for spreading her Earthseed idea beyond her immediate group?
7. Comment on the connection between Jesus’ Parable of the Sower and Lauren’s actions in this novel.

Butler’s Future America: Social Commentary

1. The world of the future in this novel did not come about by any apocalyptic event. No war, alien presence or sudden event caused the situation in which Lauren lives. Do you think this is realistic? Could it really happen? Are there examples of this from history that give Butler’s world credibility?
2. Walled-off neighborhoods show an inability or unwillingness of individuals to help strangers in need. As the need grows, both in number and severity, the cost of isolation slowly grows.
3. What do you think the people in the walled neighborhood where Lauren grew up could have done to help other people? Was it too late to help improve the situation by the time the story has started (i.e. help should have been given decades earlier)?
4. The government in Butler’s story is barely present, with the exception of corrupt police and expensive fire service. Whole communities have disappeared and massive refugee migration is underway. Do you see any parallels between Butler’s description of government and what we experience today? What differences exist?
5. How do you feel about the environmental changes that Butler describes. What would happen if such changes actually happened? How would your community change as a result? Would you have to move to survive? If so, what would make you realize that you had to move or that the problem was out-of-control?