Octavia Butler Analysis

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Octavia Butler is considerably one of the outstanding divas in the domains and genres of science fiction. Octavia Estelle Butler who was born on June 22, 1947 and lived up to February 24, 2006 was an American science fiction writer. According to various scholars she was one of very few African-American women in the field. She won both Hugo and Nebula awards. In 1995, she became the first science fiction writer to receive the MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Grant. The author’s background plays a vital role in delving into the author’s work in any attempt to come up with meaningful explorations and interpretations. Butler was born and raised in Pasadena, California. Since her father Laurice, a shoe shiner, died when she was a baby, Butler was raised by her grandmother and her mother (Octavia M. Butler) who worked as a maid in order to support the family. Butler grew up in a struggling, racially mixed neighborhood. According to the Norton Anthology of African American Literature, Butler was "an introspective, only child in a strict Baptist household" and "was drawn early to magazines such as Amazing, Fantasy and Science Fiction, and Galaxy and…show more content…
As Lauren is only fifteen, she already knows that her community is fated. She also knows that no one is facing up to the fact. This leads her to conclude that she must take matters into her own hands. She faces an extenuating external environment which will not help her external authority will help her as the police are corrupt and the rule of law has totally lost its effect and power. She reads everything she lays her hands on about how to survive when the time comes to leave Robledo-how to use guns, how to handle medical emergencies, how to live off the land. She also puts together an emergency pack so she will be well prepared if she has to leave in a

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