“How could it feel so good when it should be disgusting and painful?” (Butler 75) These words spoken by Theodora, an elderly white woman, about her symbiotic and sometimes sexual relationship with Shori, a black “elfin little girl” (Butler 75), express the societal fear that Octavia Butler exposes in her characterization of Shori as a monster. Shori is a monster because her very existence is a testament to the blurring of historically concrete lines. She is androgynous, vampire and human, black and white, a child with adult strength and urges. Shori’s relationship with her human symbionts and other Ina usually defies normal standards of behavior and acceptance by using pleasure instead of pain as a mechanism of control and abandoning traditional ideas about gender, sexuality, and crossbreeding.
One fear that Octavia Butler illustrates in the relationship, between Shori and her human symbionts, is the overwhelming influence that pleasure has over human beings. The euphoric feeling inspired by the venom of the Ina combined with several health benefits cause humans to leave their normal ways of life and adapt to a foreign culture. Brook, a symbiont that Shori inherited from her father articulates this point when she says, “They take over our lives. And we let them because they give us so much satisfaction and…just pure pleasure.” (Butler 127) Another example of the use of pleasure as a means of domination is visible in the way that humans become highly sensitive to the suggestions of Ina once they have bitten them. It is only after Shori bites her proposed assassin that she is able to question him. After exposure to her venom, the man has no choice but to answer her questions. This embodies the fear that people act against their...
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...cause she is, a crossbreed Shori is stronger than humans, more sensitive to smell and sound than humans are and less susceptible to the elements. She possesses qualities that make her superior to regular Ina, She can stay awake during the day, sleeps lighter, and her dark skin is not as vulnerable to sunburn. It is Shori’s enhanced human and Ina capabilities that allow her to keep the Gordon family safe against attackers. The fact that most Ina see Shori’s crossbreeding as a help and not a hinderence questions the American society’s fear of miscegenation and genetic engineering.
The Ina and their symbionts represent an alternate society of “other” people because they allow the lines between monster and friend, male and female, black and white, as well as vampire and human to become obscure.
Work Cited
Butler, Octavia E. Fledgling. New York: Seven Stories, 2005.
Isolation is similar to a puddle of water – it is seemingly dull and colorless, but all it takes is for one drop of paint to change the entire picture. The novel cc is about a ailing Chinese boy named Stephen who goes through the same cycle. Stephen moves to a Japanese village during a time of war between Japan and China to recover from his disease. By forming bonds with several locales and listening to their stories, he quickly matures into a young adult. Throughout the novel, Gail Tsukiyama shows how disease forces Stephen into isolation; however, his relationship with Sachi and his time spent in Matsu’s garden lead him out of solitude.
What defines an individual’s racial characteristics? Does an individual have the right to discriminate against those that are “different” in a specific way? In Octavia Butler’s works, which are mostly based on themes that correlate to one another, she influences the genre and fiction in ways that bring light to the problems of societies history. Through Kindred and the Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler examines themes of community, racial identification, and racial oppression through the perspective of a black feminist. In each novel, values and historical perspective show the hardships that individuals unique to an alien world have to face. Through the use of fictional works, Butler is able to delve into historical themes and human conditions, and with majority of works under the category of science fiction, Butler is able to explore these themes through a variety of settings. This essay will discuss two of Butler’s popular works, Kindred and the Parable of Sower, and will interpret the themes of women, race, independence, and power throughout the two novels.
Birge, Barbara. "Bram Stoker's DRACULA: The Quest for Female Potency in Transgressive Relationships." Psychological Perspectives. 1994. 22-36.
Octavia Butler’s trilogy Lilith’s Brood contains a myriad of characters who would be marked as “different” in contemporary American society, whether it is because of their race, gender, sex, or species. Their differences are often the catalyst for conflict between others who see themselves as more normal and, therefore, better and higher ranked in the human hierarchy. Butler’s disdain for human hierarchical tendencies is clear in Lilith’s Brood as she often calls human intelligence and hierarchy “the human contradiction”. Using the protagonists Lilith, Akin, and Jodahs, Butler criticizes the misconceptions formulated about race, sex, and gender and, through their interactions with others, underlines the illogical harassment that often derives from the fear of what we do not yet understand.
Soyokaze. "Thread: Female Sexuality in Bram Stoker's Dracula." Urch Forums RSS. N.p., 8 Mar. 2008. Web. 6 May 2014. .
Stevenson, John Allen. A Vampire in the Mirror: The Sexuality of Dracula. 2nd ed. Vol. 103. N.p.: Modern Language Association, 1988. JSTOR. Web. 6 Jan. 2014. .
Fiction of each era reflects the insecurities, concerns, and ideals of its generation, and through this genre, authors are able to construct entire universes of their own fantasy. These universes might contain characters that push boundaries for what is socially acceptable, but the authors need not be held accountable for their actions. The same holds true for works of the 19th century, where authors question traditional Victorian notions of the boundaries of acceptable gendered behavior and sexual roles. Specifically, Bram Stoker’s Dracula pushes social conceptions of customary gendered conduct through the vampires’ and Dracula’s actions and characterization as mutable. Qualities, such as intelligence, sexuality, and parenthood as portrayed
Dr. Manganelli depicts a mixed-race woman, which was a figure of intense interest to Victorian writer Charles Kingsley, who wrote in the voice of the mixed-race female and imagines her as “an embodiment of undisciplined desire, at once dangerous and deeply alluring to men” (Manganelli 501). Marie is already pushed into a performative role, when her sexuality is connected to her African blood, which makes her into a spectacle for white suitors. While the white females were safely shielded away from the white men looking for a sexual adventure, women of African descent were first displayed at the auction block and therefore already performing, however involuntarily.
In contrast to the commonality of sex in Diaz’s Dominican world, sex in Kindred is secretive, violent, and has a negative connotation attached due to the culture norms in the early 19th century. Even though Rufus supposedly loves Alice, he repeatedly rapes her because “There was no shame in raping a black woman, but there could be shame in loving one” (124 Butler). Rufus uses sex as a form of violence against women, which could have been influenced by his father’s rape relationships with other slave women, during Rufus’s childhood. As a powerful white man Rufus is able to control Alice and since she is a slave and a woman, she is unable to refuse him, which is evidence to suggest women’s low status. Another example of the dark, violent depiction of sex in Kindred is the almost rape between Dana and the policeman. Her fear of rape allowed her to return home, which indicates that sex is a form of violence in this setting. Dana’s narration of the event signifies the negative depiction of sex and violence expressed in a black woman’s life in the early 19th
Angela Carter was a writer in the 1970s during the third wave of feminism that influenced and encouraged personal and social views in her writing. This is demonstrated through her own interpretation of fairy tales in The Bloody Chamber. She combines realism and fantasy to create ‘magic realism’ whilst also challenging conventions of stereotypical gender roles.
The Ina and their symbionts represent an alternate society of “other” people because they allow the lines between monster and friend, male and female, black and white, as well as vampire and human to become obscure. Octavia Butler’s presentation of Shori and the Ina provokes readers to question lines between species, genders, and races. Through Butler's creation of a new prototype of monster readers and society have the ability to explore the challenges and fears of the evolving contemporary society.
Excerpts from three books, written by three magnificent novelists, show how sexuality, race, physical appearance, etc. play a major role in writing that are often times overlooked or downplayed, but are put in the the novel to show a bigger picture of what people define as a monster. In Judith Halberstam excerpt “Parasites and Perverts: An Introduction to Gothic Monstrosity” Halberstam argues that “ Nineteenth century literary tradition is a Gothic tradition and that this has everything to do with the changing technology of subjectivity that Foucault describes” (Halberstam,1991,p.125). In the excerpt from “Gothic Realities: The Impact of Horror Fiction on Modern Culture” L. Anderson Cooper expresses the formula of how “MONSTER=HOMOSEXUAL”(Cooper,2010,p.141). He tells how the homosexual is expected to be reversed with the popular heterosexual. In the final excerpt of “Civilized Vampires versus Savage Werewolves: Race and Ethnicity in the Twilight series” Natalie Wilson show readers about the white privilege. White (vampires) is associated with “ civility, beauty, and intellect...
...present powerful characters, while females represent unimportant characters. Unaware of the influence of society’s perception of the importance of sexes, literature and culture go unchanged. Although fairytales such as Sleeping Beauty produce charming entertainment for children, their remains a didactic message that lays hidden beneath the surface; teaching future generations to be submissive to the inequalities of their gender. Feminist critic the works of former literature, highlighting sexual discriminations, and broadcasting their own versions of former works, that paints a composite image of women’s oppression (Feminist Theory and Criticism). Women of the twenty-first century serge forward investigating, and highlighting the inequalities of their race in effort to organize a better social life for women of the future (Feminist Theory and Criticism).
As the saying goes, “Women can do everything Men can do.” In the Gothic Novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, there is a constant theme of sexuality, from both male and females in society. In the Victorian era, the roles of male and females have caused a lot of tension. After reading Dracula, some would argue the roles men and women hold in society. As mentioned in Dr. Seward’s Dairy from Val Halsing., “Ah, that wonderful Madam Mina! She has man’s brain—a brain that a man should have were he much gifted—and a woman’s heart. The good God fashioned her for a purpose, believe me, when He made that so good combination” (Stoker and Hindle, 2003 250). A women’s mind is not the always the first thing on a males mind. Some would overlook what a woman really has to offer.
Sex in Kindred is far from the fun pleasure of sex in the Dominican world. Due to the culture normality for relationships in the early 19th century, sex is secretive, often violent and has a negative connotation. A clear example of the violent nature of sex in Kindred, is Rufus raping Alice repeatedly and ultimately doing anything to maintain his pleasure of raping her. “I was beginning to realize that he loved that woman- to her misfortune. There was no shame in raping a black woman, but there could be shame in loving one (124 Kindred). Rufus used his status as a powerful white male to obtain Alice, however the relationship between the two of them is extremely violent, it may be love, but only physically. Rufus continues to rape and beat Alice despite her unwillingness because she as a black woman, could not have refused his offer. In addition to the violent domestic relationship between Alice and Rufus, Dana goes through a similar experience as one of the white policemen chases her off into the woods ripping off her clothes. This indicates the negative violent form of sex that was embedded in a black woman’s life in the early 19th