Octavia Butler Bloodchild Summary

The fight against sexism is not a new fight. Women have been fighting for equal rights, as well as fighting for their lives, culture, and values to be just as important as men's. On August 18, 1920, women were granted the right to vote; but this was only the beginning. From then to now, the role of women in society has significantly changed due to women standing up for their rights at protests and rallies, as well as on social media. While “The Good Wife’s Guide” focused on the promotion of the traditional gender role of women and defined appropriate emotions for women, “The Revolt of ‘Mother,’” by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, represents the start of the resistance of the traditional gender role of women that we see in society today.

Throughout American literary history, nearly every form of literature has covered the topic of slavery and black oppression in America. From William Lloyd Garrison’s abolitionist papers to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s controversial Uncle Tom’s Cabin to Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, the exploration of the black position in America has been a theme that engrossed generations. In the past century, as science fiction has established its place in the literary genre, authors such as Octavia Butler have become increasingly popular. In her short story "Bloodchild", Butler extends the discussion of oppression in America into the science fiction genre. In this manner her story, "…like almost all science

Bloodchild by Octavia Butler is seen as a story about the relationship between alien oppressors and a group oppressed humans. It has also been described as a love story between the human narrator and the chief alien. In her afterword, she describes “Bloodchild” as “a love story between two very different beings,” “a coming of age story” and a “pregnant man story.”(Hardy) However, when one comparing Butler’s “Bloodchild” to Simone De Beauvoir’s essay “The second sex”, similarities surrounding the social issues of gender inequality arise. The circumstances of the narrator mirror social issues affecting modern women. Bloodchild by Octavia Butler examines the dynamics of power between the sexes; by switching the gender roles in the

Octavia Butler was born on June 22 1947 in Pasadena, California. She was the only child of Laurice and Octavia Margaret (Guy) Butler, but was raised by her mother and grandmother as a result of her father’s death during infancy. Her mother was a strict, overprotective, Baptist woman who worked tirelessly to support Octavia and her grandmother. Butler was immersed in a reality with strong female protagonists who endured extreme isolation, humiliation and misery. She watched her mother as she single handedly provided for the family and took the cruel, dehumanizing rhetoric of her white employers with a stone face. She listened to her grandmother, a slave who was forced to work in the cane fields of Louisiana, as she spoke of her past. As if their struggles were passed down through her blood, young Butler wore their mental scars like armour and spun exaggerated tales where their courage and heroism could be seen and commended.

Anne Roiphe’s “Confessions of a Female Chauvinist Sow” first appeared in the magazine New York in 1972. In this essay Roiphe aims to convince her readers that women must put faith in the idea that they are equal to men, not superior. “Women who want equality must be prepared to give it and believe in it . . . .” Personal anecdotes, contrast, and comparison are techniques Roiphe skillfully uses to create a strong, convincing essay.

Women, like black slaves, were treated unequally from the male before the nineteenth century. The role of the women played the part of their description, physically and emotionally weak, which during this time period all women did was took care of their household and husband, and followed their orders. Women were classified as the “weaker sex” or below the standards of men in the early part of the century. Soon after the decades unfolded, women gradually surfaced to breathe the air of freedom and self determination, when they were given specific freedoms such as the opportunity for an education, their voting rights, ownership of property, and being employed.

Women have long been fighting for their right to be seen as equal to men. Even to this day, women continue to fight for their rights, things such as the right to non-gender discriminatory wages. While there may be some arguments over the state of gender equality in the modern world, it is undeniable that there have been great strides made toward recognizing the female 's worth in the workforce and as a human being. Despite these strides, however, things are still not yet ideal for women and many of the issues females face today are the very same issues that have been plaguing them for decades. While it is unfortunate the oppression of women has been so long-lived, the length of that exposure has thankfully enabled many talented writers to both lament over the fact and emphasize the need for gender equality.

The three stories question what it means to be human by presenting different perspectives on how humanity deals with certain topics and also what may be flawed with some of the choices they make in each story.

Society has always forced its people to think in a certain way and make it the social norm. In Octavia Butler’s Bloodchild, Gan faces his real reality that causes him to sacrifice himself to bear alien children. Butler’s writing choices challenges the social norms and how people have to rely on the government to survive, but also helps her cope with a fear..

Women all over the world have been mistreated for more than a century. It has been exploited throughout the world as how “women aren’t currently treated the same as men in certain situations” but it is far more beyond that. Only half of the world seems to at least know what is really happening behind the curtain. Ambiguous people have manipulated the very much realness with what is exactly taking place in our society. In this essay, I will be talking about the following things; Inequity in the workplace, “Asking for it”, Violence against women globally, Education, and The psychology of it all. These five topics need to be demanded attention. Our younger generation needs to be cognizant of what has been going on for many millenniums. Girls and women should be able to walk around at night and not be afraid, nor should they be afraid to oppose another man. There is no real justification on why women should be treated like this but there is plenty of justification on why they shouldn 't, so genuinely why is this problem happening? Some of the books that I read to have mostly validation on this paper from other human beings but also to enlighten myself even more that I already am. “Subjection of Women” by John Stuart Mill, “Created Equal: Voices on Women 's Rights” by Anna Horsbrugh-Porter, and “Equal Pay for Equal Work” by Grace C. Strachan. I chose these three texts because each one yet talks about the same thing but has a little bit of a different perspective on each. I

First of all, the idea about that the fiction novel, Blood Child by Octavia Butler, is only about slavery is completely wrong. This story is focusing the complicated love and hate between the aliens and the Terran. Comparing with the normal slavery stories, there was a love and relationship between of the aliens and Terran families. They grow up together, and sharing experiences and cares. T’Gatoi grew together with Gan’s mother.

Mitchell, Angelyn. “Not Enough of the Past: Feminist Revisions of Slavery in Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred.” The Journal of the Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States, vol. 26, no. 3, 2001, pp. 51-75

"My last night of childhood began with a visit home (Butler, 1995, p. 1).” In her short story Bloodchild, Octavia Butler presents the story of a boy named Gan raised in a dystopian society where two different species depend on each other to survive. From a psychological point of view, childhood is a process that marks a big part of your life. In Freud's subconscious theory, different events can be compared with the growth of Gan: the human mind structured as an iceberg, the memories of Gan and the last day of his childhood.

It is impossible to discuss the role of women in literature without mentioning the influence of feminism. The later in the timeline one reads, the more prominent it becomes. Each new wave of feminism brings with it its own goals, yet it also continues to strive for some of the same goals as past generations because not everything is accomplished all at once. Although “The Well of Loneliness” by Radclyffe Hall and “Rubyfruit Jungle” by Rita Mae Brown, are two starkly different texts that strongly reflect the feminist eras in which they were written, they have some similarities as well.

In Alice Walker’s work called “In Search of Our Mothers Gardens” all of the women that Alice talk about are all oppressed, because of their gender. These women all find a way to work around their oppressors, furthermore finding ways to create something out of themselves no matter what their oppressor does to keep them down. Alice shows us that her story her mother is oppressed. This woman that still finds time to create through all the chaos.