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d/or pleasure of others; the syndrome is the result of her mother’s use of“the smart pill” during her pregnancy (11). Although her “hyperempathy” makesher more vulnerable than most, it is Olamina’s strength that becomes central tothe plot—her strength of mind, body, character, and, eventually, purpose. Sheleaves her family’s community when it is destroyed by arsonists and travels thehighways on foot with two other survivors. She and her companions survive
largely because of the escape pack she had prepared and the supplies she waswilling to gather from the ashes of her community. On the road, Olamina carefullyselects other travelers as allies and eventual members https://www.51lunwen.org/euroliterature/of her group, as theystruggle to survive fires, dog packs, murderers, slavers, and cannibals. Near theend of the novel, Olamina leads her group to a new home in northern California,and they establish a cooperative community called Acorn that is dedicated tothe teachings of Earthseed, a new religion that Olamina has created. The basicpremise of Earthseed is that “God is Change,” and Olamina’s ultimate goal is forher followers to travel into outer space and set up new colonies so that humanitycan survive and evolve. Talents continues where Sower ends, including the voicesof Olamina’s adult daughter, husband, and brother, the latter a survivor of the firethat destroyed Olamina’s childhood community. Right-wing Christian vigilantes
invade the thriving Acorn; enslave the members of the community (includingOlamina); and abduct the children (including Olamina’s baby daughter), placingthe children in adoptive homes. Once again, Olamina finds a way to leadthosearound her, this time to freedom from slavery. The rest of the novel traces her
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Self is body and bodily
perception. Self is thought, memory,
belief. Self creates. Self destroys. Self
learns, discovers, becomes. Self
shapes. Self adapts. Self invents its
own reasons for being. To shape
God, shape Self. (235)
As a “hyperempath,” Olamina sees the self much as Deleuze and Guattari do: an
assemblage that is merely one possible version amongst multiple possibilities.
According to Deleuze and Guattari, “the self is only a threshold, a door, a becoming
between two multiplicities” (249).
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As I have demonstrated in relation to Foucault’s conception of power, Butler’s
works usually provide more than an articulation of an idea or problem; this is
also true of the concept of becoming. Olamina’s understanding of the self’s heterogeneous
potential translates directly into what she believes and does. Early in
Sower, as she is sorting out the ideas that will become the basis for Earthseed,
Olamina contemplates the problem of perpetual change:
Everyone knows that change is inevitable. From the second law of thermodynamics
to Darwinian evolution, from Buddhism’s insistence that nothing
is permanent and all suffering results from our delusions of permanence to
the third chapter of Ecclesiastes [. . .], change is part of life, of existence,
of the common wisdom. But I don’t believe we’re dealing with all that that
means. We haven’t even begun to deal with it. (23)
Coming to terms with change is, for Olamina, the core of Earthseed. God is
change because change is the constant. Beginning with the boundaries of the
self and extending to her perc本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。