The Parable of the Sower Chapters 21-25

Chapters 21-25

Lauren's group found tents of squatters along the edges of the San Luis reservoir. Laurent felt that they had perhaps arrived before the river of people from the ruined bay area. They found a secluded area in the surrounding region, and all of them lay down exhausted from the long walk. They were going to stay at the reservoir for another day to rest. The couples from the group began to peel away in search of privacy, and Lauren left with Bankole. They sat down in privacy and worked in silence. Then they began to talk of their pasts, Lauren rightly guesses that Bankole was a doctor. He had left his home after his neighborhood had been attacked in much the same way as Lauren's. Lauren talked to him of Earthseed, and he felt that her religion was too simple, and told her that it needs some sprinkling of mysticism like the other religions. Bankole's wife had been religious, she had died a few years ago, drug addicts had broken into their home and they had beat her. She suffered from a heart problem, and so couldn't stand the beatings. Bankole found her still alive, but she died in his arms an hour before the ambulance arrived.

Bankole and Lauren make love, Lauren shares the simple pleasure he takes in her body, and after a long time appreciates the sense of sharing pleasure instead of pain. She tells him of Curtis, and how she wasn't sure whether he was alive or dead. They were going to be married and had also made plans to travel north together. Lauren shocks Bankole by telling him that she is 18 years old, at first he pushes her away and berates himself. Soon, he makes peace with that information and tells her that she doesn't behave or look like she is 18.

The next day, during Zahra's reading lesson, Lauren includes Allie and Jill. She ends the lesson by reading verses from Earthseed, Allie had at first been reluctant to learn of their religion, but now she questioned Lauren about her religion. Most of the time, it is the other members of the group that answer Allie's question, even Bankole answers one. The group then set out back to the road, and they come across fewer people, more trucks, and even more skeletons. The road seems to be littered with them, the group decides to avoid taking a rest day until they have crossed Sacramento. They resupply there shortly, and in the hills witness a chilling scene. Lauren sees a group of teenagers no older than her brothers, roasting and eating a human leg. Lauren watches a young girl, huge with pregnancy, carve off a sliver of human flesh and eat it.

They continue onwards until they are far from the city, and then they camp for another rest. During that rest, Bankole tells Lauren of his intended destination. She had suspected he had a definite plan, she knew that he wasn't a wanderer. Bankole owned 300 acres of land, hidden in the hills, away from any major road. His sister and her family were staying there, but he owned it. He invites Lauren to come with him, but Lauren explains to him how important Earthseed is to her. He understands that she would come only with the rest of her congregation or not at all. Bankole readily accepts and asks her to marry him. Lauren suddenly recalls that she hasn't told him about her Hyperempathy, she doesn't want to lose Bankole by being dishonest with him. So she tells him and emphasizes how her sharing could cause her to become a liability in a dangerous situation. He accepts the knowledge, and when she asks him if he still wanted to marry her, he laughs a full laugh. He tells her that he would never let her get away.

They continue their journey, and one night when they are camping near the highway, they hear a gunfight. The group is now used to the sound of gunshots, and log exchanges of fire, all of them lie down and keep their heads low so that no stray bullet may find them. Once the gunfire has subsided, they all drift back to sleep, but two shapes find their way to the group's camp and lie down to sleep, unnoticed. Lauren wakes up and finds two people lying among her friends, Travis and Harry also notice them. As the three of them inch towards the shapes, they wake up and reveal themselves to be a woman and a child of about nine. They are thin, ragged, and dirty. Lauren offers them food, and they reluctantly accept. They stay huddled on the side of the group as the rest of the members get up, they all follow Lauren's example and share food with the poor souls. The group prepares to leave, but the women and child beg them to be allowed to accompany them. Lauren sends them away as she discusses it over with the group, she tells them of Bankole's land and his offer that they use it to set up Earthseed. They table the discussion of whether they will stay at Bankole's property for now and decide to include the woman and her daughter. They are Emery Tanaka Solis and her daughter Tori Tanaka. Emery had been married to a Latino man and they had worked together at a farm. Then a corporation had bought the farm and paid wages in company scrip, not actual money. The workers were forced to pay for everything, and soon they ran out of money and were forced to become heavily indebted to the company. Emery's husband had died a slow death, suffering his pain quietly, unable to pay for a doctor. Emery had been forced to continue working, she had three children, two boys and a girl who was the youngest child. Emery and her children had inherited the debt of her husband after he had died, and then the company had carted away her two sons, she wasn't even told where they were being taken. She and her daughter had then finally escaped, Emery was worried that they would take her daughter from her as well.

Emery and Tori begin to integrate themselves into the group and learning their ways, Tori makes a friend on the road, another young girl, who is accompanied by a man. The man is called Grayson Mora, and his daughter is Doe Mora. Lauren feels there is something odd about their four new members, they all have the habit of taking a fetal position at any sign of trouble. Jill and Allie reason that it's because they've been beaten a lot in life since people learn to shield their face and front when they are beaten enough. Lauren and Bankole both suspect that the Moras have also been slaves like Emery and her daughter. However there is another thing about the four of them that Lauren can't precisely describe, they are all tentative, Mora most of all. Lauren believes that giving slaves freedom and refuge in their community would mean that they would fight the hardest to preserve it.

On one of their stops, Emery, Tori and Doe are attacked by some bald men, Lauren rushes into the woods to help, but she leaves Zahra and Harry behind with the children to guard their packs. She goes to rescue the screaming children with Travis, Bankole, Mora, and Jill. Mora bounds away as soon as he has picked up his fleeing daughter, Emery is fighting a man who is holding Tori. Other bald people are rushing into the trees from the highway, towards the source of the noise. Lauren crouches, aims, and shoots the man holding Tori. Lauren collapses on the ground sharing her victim's death. She recovers herself, and stands again to aim and shoot at another attacker, she downs him and falls to the ground again. Jill picks up Tori and rushes her back to the safety of the others, Lauren and the others retreat as well when their attackers begin to shoot at them. Lauren hides behind a tree and hears Bankole fire beside her, she feels herself experience another death, and the pain begins to overwhelm her, she nearly loses consciousness. Once the attackers have been repelled, Bankole picks up Lauren and tells her that she has been shot. He cares for her wound, and they retreat to the others. When Lauren recovers, Zahra informs her that Jill had also been shot but she hadn't survived the wound. Lauren hears Allie's painful shriek of agony as she learns of her sister's death. Zahra also points out the odd way in which their four new members react to pain, and Lauren concludes that all of them are sharers just like her. Mora is adamant that they move immediately, he believes the bald people are going to throw paint on themselves and return with fire. The group decides to leave, and as they being to move away from their place they look back to see a fire beginning to consume the trees.

More fires begin to spread behind them, and the group understands that they will have to walk throughout the night to keep ahead of the fire. Both sides of the road catch flame and the fire begins to roar behind them, finally, after nearly a whole night of walking, the fire shifts away and they can finally rest. Throughout the night, they had used their canteens of water to wet clothes to prevent them from burning and from inhaling hot ash. They now slump in the smoky but unburned part of the highway catching their breath, and taking a little time to rest before heading towards the lake that lies on their route. Mora causes conflict when he calls out Bankole for obeying Lauren like she was everyone's leader. His daughter manages to diffuse the tension, and Lauren tells him to either follow their way of life as a community or to leave.

They arrive at Bankole's land hoping to find the buildings in which his sister's family lived, but they only found skulls and ash, marked by an old stone chimney like a tombstone. Bankole goes to the police to find out what had happened with his sister and her children but learns nothing from them. The group then begins to contemplate whether they should settle down on this land or continue further north to seek out something safer and with better economic prospects. Mora is vocal about how dangerous it might be to live off the land in the hills, and Harry agrees with him. Lauren tells them all that there was no certainty anywhere in the world, but here in this land, they could build a true community. They would keep guards and build better defenses, and food was practically gold in the world, she had plenty of seed and they could start a farm. Everyone eventually agrees, but many of them continue to believe that their community will be short-lived and that they may soon be uprooted once again. The next day they hold a funeral for Bankole's dead family members, and the other members of the group mourn their dead. All of them point to an acorn tree for all the loved ones they had lost. They decide to name their community Acorn.

Analysis

The author continues the development of the exploitation theme through the people that Lauren meets on her way north. As her journey progresses, she comes across people who have increasingly worse experiences than the most recent addition. The first people to be included in her group are Travis and Natividad. They were never quite slaves, but their employer had begun to use his power over them, with the help of the employer's wife, Travis and Natividad were able to avoid the worst. The next additions are the Gilchrist sisters, who had been forced into prostitution by their father. Jill's description of how her father had beat Allie's child with his fists until they became bloody paints a truly gruesome picture. The last members to join are the slaves, and it is evident that they were completely within the power of their owners, Emery's children were sold away like cattle or sheep. Bankole helps drive Butcher's main point home by explaining that this level of exploitation is not new but rather a continuation of what had occurred even during the 20th century.

Lauren's acceptance of Mora and the Tanaka family indicates her growth as a leader of her community. In the early chapters, Lauren was extremely cautious of new people, especially those that couldn't bring strength to the group. Now, she is more confident in her abilities as well as those of her small community. This growth in her character is also demonstrated by how Lauren reprimands Jill for being lax in her watch.

Religion is a central theme of the novel, and there are certainly many references to the Bible throughout the course of her journey. Lauren is depicted as the Christ figure, as she takes the old teachings of Christianity and other religions to create a new one. She has Hyper-empathy, and so she shares the pains of those around her just like Jesus. Like Jesus, Lauren experiences death to save her community. When they arrive at the land that is going to become their future home, Lauren is accompanied by 12 followers. Lastly, throughout the novel, we never learn the name of Lauren's father.