Blog # 22, Fiction Journal

17. Do you have any unanswered questions about the story? Explain. 



  So, one of the more obvious questions I think almost everyone who has read the novel is DOES ACORN SURVIVE!? Aside from this, I feel like it's an irrational question almost but between this novel and the Handmaid's Tale, I keep having the reoccurring question of where is the future headed exactly? These two stories shows very different but also very similar types of distopian societies and the issues that they face don't affect just one small area, but the entire world as a whole. The fact that these stories were written not too far apart leaves me with a somewhat uneasy feeling as well. In the world today, we still wage wars, set off bombs, hurt or kill one another and just for the most part live in chaos nearly everyday. I feel as though at this point, it is easier to see the negatives in the world than the positives so I guess my question is, one day, will all those negatives consume us to the point where our world crumbles like those of Offred and Lauren?  

Disscussion Questions ( End of book )

9. What lessons do you feel you took away from this novel?

       I feel like from Parable, I got quite a few important lessons.  I think the most prominent one that I found was the fact that you are your own person and to not sub-come to what you don't believe in. Through out the entire novel, I feel as though Lauren was being almost being forced to follow the beliefs Christianity because nearly everyone around her did, especially her father, but she braved through that storm and even created her own form of religion on her journey so she didn't let anyone tell her what to believe and kind of just did her own thing. Another lesson that I took from this novel is that no matter how small or young you are, you can do great things. As I just said, look at Earthseed, to me for a fifteen year old girl to be able to create her own stable religion, that, at least for me, is really inspirational.

QUESTIONS:

1) Would you change anything about the ending? If so, what?
2) Do you thing Earthseed will live on?
3) If you had to give a short summary of this book for the back cover, what would you say?     

Convo Prep, George Toska, Parable

1. How does the title of the novel work on various levels?

The title " Parable of the Sower " to me surprisingly works in kind of an ironic way to me. If I recall correctly, a parable is something used in the Christian religion, almost like a short story about God and his life or journey's. To me, this sounds a bit ironic because Lauren makes it very clear throughout the story, even from the beginning that she does not really believe in God and the stories that people tell her about him. So that's kind of something to laugh at. On the other hand, it actually fits quite well with the story because we know that Lauren is writing " Earthseed " which is basically like her own personal bible while she creates what is practically her own religion. A sower is someone who plants seeds and whatnot so I guess calling it " Earthseed " is pretty fitting for a title of her bible.


QUESTIONS:

1) Do you think that Lauren's religion will catch on in the story?
2) Do you think Lauren will make it till the end?
3) How does this future compare and contrast to that of The Handmaid's Tale?