The Parable of the Sower Chapters 17-20

Chapters 17-20

As they walk on the freeway, they see clouds of smoke rising from burning houses, or communities, none of them wants to go to the burning site to scavenge, although Zahra does propose it. At night, Lauren overhears Harry and Zahra making love, her hyperempathy causes her to share their experience. Lauren is angry that they would choose to indulge their sexual desires when they are supposed to be keeping watch. The next day, during the reading lesson with Zahra, Lauren raises the issue and reminds Zahra that they are in a hostile environment. No one should take their watch lightly, and Zahra apologizes for the slip-up.

They stop at a water station to gather some safe drinking water, and they are all very cautious of the obvious dangers of a place with safe water and people with money to pay for it. They all see a family of three being robbed of their water by a couple of thugs, Lauren intercedes, she trips one of the thieves and threatens him with her gun. She retrieves the water they had been trying to steal and hands it back to the family. It is an interracial family, the man has a dark complexion, while the woman appears Hispanic, and carries a baby a few months old. Harry admires Lauren for helping the family, and Zahra concludes that it must have been the sight of the baby that had caused Lauren to intervene. They continue on their way after the water station, and the interracial family follows them from a distance.

They reach the coast and are greeted by the sight of a beautiful beach, Harry goes into the water immediately, while Zahra and Lauren wait until nightfall, afraid to expose their womanly figures to the people at the beach. The people on the beach seem less hostile, and after confirming with the rest of her group, Lauren approaches the interracial family and invites them to their camp. The man scoffs at her offer and believes that she is looking for something, so Lauren retreats without forcing the issue. She sees them as the perfect allies, given their interracial background, and the possession of clean equipment. They would all benefit from a larger group, numbers could deter some of the more ambitious thieves and robbers.

Later in the night, Lauren observes feral dogs come onto the beach, and approach the place where the little family lies. She sees them attack the woman and her baby, she wakes Zahra and heads towards the family, she gets a clear aim on one of the dogs, and shoots him dead, while the rest of the dogs retreat. Lauren falls to the ground with the empathy from the dog's wound and stumbles back to her camp. Harry puts her to bed and takes over the rest of the watch for the night. The following day, the family joins them and reveals their names to be Travis, Natividad, and little Dominic Douglas. They had been living together as servants to a rich couple but had been forced to leave when their master when he had begun to eye Natividad with lust. The man's wife had helped the couple escape. Travis is particularly interested in Lauren's religion of Earthseed, he questions her often and challenges her writing. Lauren enjoys the process, Travis is an intelligent man, his intellect is a result of his mother stealing books from her employer to have Travis read and learn from them on his own. Harry accidentally reveals Lauren's real gender to the couple on the very first night of their joint camp, and Natividad claims to have known it from the beginning. Natividad and Zahra listen closely to Lauren when she talks of her religion, but Harry seems to be the only one who doesn't take much of an interest in it. In response to Travis's many questions, Lauren outlines the philosophy of her religion. God is change, nothing can deny change, but God doesn't have to be worshipped or prayed to but rather shaped. She talks of setting up Earthseed communities and begins to entertain notions of recruiting more people from the seeming river of people that flowed northwards. Earthseed's destiny was to take root in the stars, it was to be their heaven, and everyone knew such heaven existed. There were living worlds in the universe, and Earthseed communities would prepare to live in the stars, but there was a lot of work to be done before then. Zahra wasn't interested in space travel, but she liked Lauren's talk of setting up Earthseed communities. In this way, Travis was perhaps her first convert and Zahra the second.

The group makes its way into farming territories, where some small communities lived in small clusters. The change of their surroundings is accompanied by a large earthquake. Lauren notices an old man fall and instinctively moves to help him. A middle-aged black man notices her and smiles at her. She smiles back at him, she likes the way he looks. None of the members of her group are affected by the earthquake, but one of the houses from a nearby community begins to burn. Lauren guides her group away from the fire, cautious of the scavengers and thieves that were bound to be attracted by the flames and the smoke. They hear shooting begin behind them, and Lauren notices that the man she had smiled at earlier had followed their example and was now waking close to them. Lauren introduces herself to him and discovers that his family like hers had adopted Yoruba names in the 20th century. His name is Bankole, and he is 57 years old, similar in age to her father.

As they are walking along, Bankole hears women screaming, he runs off the path towards the screaming. Lauren's group follows him, and they all come upon a small house that has collapsed in on itself after the earthquake. All of them help to clear the rubble and to free the two women trapped in the ruin of the house. The two young women are Jill and Allie, women who have escaped from a life of prostitution that their father had forced them into. Lauren has trouble being close to the women, as one of them is marked with injuries from being trapped in the house. The group tries to hurry the women away from the wreckage, as their run to the ruined house had attracted other people from the road. These homeless people were now looking hungrily at the group of women, and the supplies that they carry. Lauren knew the attack would come before it had even begun, she was bringing up the rear of the group along with the two recently rescued girls. She hears a shout up ahead and feels a pull. She trips as she turns and brings down her attacker as she falls. She pulls out her knife and stabs it deep into his chest. She screams with the pain of the knife, never before having experienced such excruciating pain. The other members of the group kill three other men. They search them all and take whatever worthy goods they can find.

Allie seems to have more anger and frustration than Jill, and she disparages religion when Harry introduces their group as Earthseed. Lauren explains that her group had risked their lives to rescue the women, if they choose to travel with Lauren's group then they would be to look out for them. Allie acquiesced and moved away from Lauren, Bankole had heard their exchange and approaches Lauren. He asks Lauren if he too could travel with them, and Lauren playfully informs him that he already was traveling with them.

They come upon the town of Salinas, which seems to possess a more vigilant police force, many officers stood on the sides of the highway fully armed. They seemed to be expecting the troublemakers that had been loosed by the earthquake, Lauren and her group had come upon many fires and dead bodies during their walk. They did some shopping in the town, as well as some cleaning. Bankole helped the group by suggesting the purchase of an old yet working rifle from the street market. The group had been meaning to travel towards San Fransisco, but they change their plans. Lauren hears terrible news about the Bay Area, the earthquake had been worse there and had loosed untold violence in the region. Using her grandparent's maps, Lauren deciphers another route that allows them to avoid the bay area. They choose not to rest and push forward on the new path. The inner roads are much more deserted than the freeway. The group camps at night only to be woken by a gun battle as some thieves try to hijack a truck, Lauren has her friends remain crouched on the ground. Soon one side of the conflict withdraws, and the shooting stops. Lauren notices that Bankole had disappeared. Lauren and Harry go out to search for him and find him carrying a small child of three years. Bankole had rescued the child, from the side of his mother, who had been killed by a stray bullet. Lauren and Harry help Bankole recover the mother's belongings, and Natividad comforts the child during the night. Bankole thanks Lauren for coming to look for him in the dark, and they kiss.

In the morning, Justin, the three-year-old orphan, clings to Allie, although she is reluctant at first, by the end of the day they have become inseparable. Jill tells Lauren that Allie had had a baby boy called Adam, but their father had killed him when he wouldn't stop crying. Jill and Allie had set fire to their home, stolen the money that their father had earned through them, and left him lying drunk in the burning home. Their home was now nearly 300 miles away, and yet Jill confesses that she still has nightmares that her father would somehow find them.

Analysis

Lauren saves Travis and Natividad from 'coyotes' at the water station, and Harry jokingly calls her a good Samaritan. This is yet another biblical reference and a reminder that Lauren is not a Christian. In the bible, Jesus tells a story of a devout Jewish man who was robbed and grievously injured. The injured man was ignored by a Jewish priest and his assistant but a non-Jewish man, a Samaritan, who would normally be considered the enemy of the Jewish man, stopped on his way to help the injured man. Jesus tells his followers to be like the good Samaritan and not the Jewish priests. This reference to the Samaritan also indicates Lauren's differing religious views, like the Samaritan, Lauren is not a Christian even though she has been raised in a Christian household.

Lauren's immediate recognition of Bankole's name, and her understanding of its origin in the black power movement indicates an education about the racial history of America. There isn't any particular mention of Reverend Olamina's views on race, but he felt strongly enough about it to ensure that his daughter understood the significance of the movement.

Justin is an interesting addition to this group, as it is evident that he brings nothing but disadvantages with his inclusion. He is an extra mouth to feed, and an extra cause of concern, and yet no one disputes taking him along. As Lauren observes, it can be healing to have someone to take care of.