At the age of thirteen she was submitting her own stories to magazines.īutler attended Pasadena City College, and while a student there she was awarded fifth prize in the Writer's Digest Short Story Contest. Butler loved reading science fiction stories as a child, and she soon started writing them herself. Her father died when she was a baby, and her mother supported the family by working as a maid. Octavia Estelle Butler was born in Pasadena, California, on June 22, 1947, the daughter of Laurice and Octavia Margaret (Guy) Butler. She heads north, on foot, with a couple of companions in a perilous search for a better life.īutler's disturbing dystopia, written in the form of Lauren's diary entries, is at once an adventure story, a coming-of-age story, and a thought-provoking exploration of some negative trends in American society that have become more pronounced in the decade that has elapsed since the novel was written. When the enclave is completely destroyed by bands of arsonists and thieves, Lauren is one of the few survivors. She lives in Robledo, about twenty miles from Los Angeles, which has become a walled enclave only partially protected from the rampant lawlessness and desperate poverty that exists beyond the walls of the neighborhood.

The protagonist is Lauren Olamina, an African American girl who is fifteen years old when the novel begins. Climate changes brought about by global warming are also central to the novel. It is a grim near-future novel that exaggerates trends in American life that were apparent in the late 1980s and early 1990s, such as fear of crime, the rise of gated communities, illiteracy, designer drugs and drug addiction, and a growing gap between rich and poor. Parable of the Sower ( New York, 1993) by Octavia Butler is set in California and covers a period of three years, from 2024 to 2027.

The Land Girl by Allie Burns