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(2017
midterm assignment) Model Student Midterm answers 2017 (Index) Essay 2: Personal / professional topic |
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Katie
Morin
10/12/2017
The Face of the Future: Octavia Butler
While I can honestly say that I have enjoyed each of the readings covered
so far this semester, one writer in particular stands out from the rest: Octavia
Butler. Since I have only just been exposed to her work, I look forward to
learning more about her over the next few weeks. I believe further research will
benefit me personally since I am relatively new to the genre, but as an aspiring
teacher who feels that Butler’s works should be more widely read and discussed,
I will profit from a professional standpoint as well. I intend to further study
Butler’s writings, examining how her work has achieved some level of canonical
status and has subsequently impacted society and/or the science fiction genre as
a whole.
While I believe authors of futuristic literature each exhibit some level
of innovation, Butler manages to do so while also addressing the flaws and
shortcomings of both present and future societies. In his article entitled,
“Post-Apocalyptic Hoping,” Jim Miller writes that Butler “outlines the impact of
class polarizations on a local, national, and international level, while also
paying careful attention to the ways in which the equally important elements of
race and gender oppression intersect with class realities” (349). In Butler’s
novel, Parable of the Sower, the
narrative’s protagonist Lauren Olamina, struggles to survive in a society rife
with racism, violence, poverty, and sexism.
Parable of the Sower serves as a
social criticism which brings to light issues that are still very relevant to
this day, but likely even more so during Butler’s lifetime.
These
themes are ever present in each of Butler’s works. Her most popular work,
Kindred, not only touches on these
racial issues, but gender roles as well. In his paper, “Octavia E. Butler’s
Response to Black Arts/ Black Power Literature and Rhetoric in
Kindred,” Philip Miletic writes that
“Kindred significantly emerges from
and responds to the literature of the Black Arts Movement and the rhetoric of
the Black Power Movement that sought to erase or move past America’s history of
slavery and restricted black women’s involvement and writing” (261). This
sentiment rings true when taking into account another work of Butler’s entitled
“Speech Sounds,” in which the story’s protagonist, Rye, lives in a world where
the vast majority of people are no longer able to either read/write or speak, or
are left unable to do either. Rye, although able to speak, is now illiterate,
which leaves her feeling hopeless and suicidal. Only once she is able to find
two children with whom she can communicate with does she finally realize a
genuine purpose for her life. The ability to understand, and to in turn be
understood, is empowering to Rye, much like Miletic argues in his essay.
As a
future educator hoping to make a difference in her students’ lives, I believe
Butler’s writing to be both engaging and impactful. Because of this, I intend to
study more of her work firsthand (Parable
of the Talents and Kindred) in
addition to conducting outside research in order to better comprehend (and later
convey to others) the importance of Butler’s works.
Miller, Jim. “Post-Apocalyptic Hoping: Octavia Butler's Dystopian/Utopian
Vision.” Science Fiction Studies, vol. 25, no. 2, 1998, pp. 336–360. JSTOR,
JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4240705.
Miletic, Philip. "Octavia E. Butler's Response to Black Arts/Black Power
Literature and Rhetoric in Kindred." African American Review, vol. 49,
no. 3, 2016, pp. 261-275.
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