Zoboi Fire In Your Sky Analysis

“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

Stoker’s novel Dracula, presents the fear of female promiscuity, for which vampirism is a metaphor. Such fear can be related to the time in which Dracula was written, where strict Victorian gender norms and sexual mores stipulated

The two Gothic works, Christina Rossetti’s “The Goblin Market” and Bram Stoker’s Dracula paint a vivid depiction of Victorian gender norms, exemplifying the prevalent idea of fallen women through their female outcasts: Laura and Lucy Westenra. Fallen women was a term used in the 19th century Britain to describe women who have lost her innocence and chastity, or those who seek independence from male-dominance. The male-centred Victorian society regarded these unconventional women as suspects of the society [Fallen Woman]. Both “The Goblin Market” and Dracula follow the transgression Laura and Lucy, both initially pure and innocent, into these fallen women. Laura, in Rossetti’s poem became an outcast of Victorian society when she ate the fruits offered by the goblin men, as with Lucy in Stoker’s novel, who

Octavia Butler’s Dawn explores a world of the unknown after humans nearly destroy their kind along with Earth, causing an extraterrestrial species to intervene. The protagonist, Lilith, finds herself in a predicament as she is captured and locked in solidarity for a long. The extraterrestrial species that intervenes, Oankali, strip her of her clothes, mysteriously cut her and then tell her it is her role to mother a group of humans and prepare them for a return to Earth. In the novel Lilith is conflicted, she knows she has no control of her body and that humans have been “enslaved” by the Oankali but begins to trust and connect with them, especially Nikanj. Through the relationship of Lilith and Nikanj side by side with Humans and the Oankali, Octavia Butler explores the monstrous aspects of people and acts within the cultures.

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

    Perhaps no work of literature has ever been composed without being a product of its era, mainly because the human being responsible for writing it develops their worldview within a particular era.  Thus, with Bram Stoker's Dracula, though we have a vampire myth novel filled with terror, horror, and evil, the story is a thinly veiled disguise of the repressed sexual mores of the Victorian era.  If we look to critical interpretation and commentary to win support for such a thesis, we find it aplenty "For erotic Dracula certainly is.  'Quasi-pornography' one critic labels it.  Another describes it as a 'kind of incestuous, necrophilious, oral-anal-sadistic all-in-wrestling matching'.  A

In a particular addition of Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, Maurice Hindle had suggested that “sex was the monster Stoker feared most.” This essay will examine the examples of this statement in the Dracula text, focusing on female sexuality. The essay will also briefly look at an article Stoker had written after Dracula which also displays Stoker’s fear.

This essay will attempt to discuss the two gothic tales ‘Carmilla’ and ‘Dracula’ in relation to cultural contexts in which they exist as being presented to the reader through the gender behaviour and sexuality that is portrayed through the texts. Vampire stories always seem to involve some aspect of sexuality and power.

In Carmilla, Sheridan Le Fanu uses vampires to identify and challenge gender roles of women in the Victorian age. From the outset, Carmilla and Laura’s relationship appears to transcend mere homosocial characteristics; Carmilla awakens sensations in Laura which she has never known before because her sexuality has always been suppressed. This suppression is inherently motived by the dominant ideology in Victorian culture that lesbianism, and homosexuality more generally, are “unnatural” forms of sexuality. According to Colleen Damman, “as a woman, Carmilla can only claim her sexuality after death” (). This is an interesting statement because it provides context for the idea that vampirism is the only way Carmilla can express her own carnal desires; She too is then subject to the constraints of Victorian culture. This to say that, for Le Fanu, the only way to have an open discussion concerning homosexual desire is to employ the vampire. Bearing this concept in mind, by analyzing certain key passages and elements of Carmilla and by applying some modern conceptualizations on gender and sexuality, one can see that Carmilla and Laura are merely byproducts of a period rife with sexual desire, frustration, and tension.

The first relationship explored in the novel, that of Dracula and Jonathan, defies the constraints of heteronormative sexuality. Dracula’s interest in seducing, penetrating and draining another male are desires that are acted out in the novel, however not solely by the Count himself, but instead by his three vampiric paramours. The homoerotic desire between Dracula and Jonathan is offered a feminine form for the masculine penetration that is being detailed (Craft,

Different depictions of vampires are commonly exhibited in vampire folklore in past and present literature and film. The diversity of different variations of vampire legends are prominently seen in most literature, but the main ideas and attributes are generally the same. This is not that case when focusing on specific novels discussed in class. The novels I Am Legend by Richard Matheson and Fledgling by Octavia Butler are two contrasting works of vampire folklore. The novels are about different societies of vampires. They both emerged in different ways, the survive and feed in contrasting ways, and they both represent completely different forms of vampires. This essay will examine the characterizations of the contrasting the vampire species in both I Am Legend and Fledgling, as well as, investigating how these different species of vampires relate to human species.

The book is laced with emotionally and erotically boosted encounters. A person who would enjoy reading about vampires, the urge to keep reading comes within the first few chapters; in this story early as chapter three. The novel is a new vampire paradigm that casts a steady

The story of Dracula is well documented and has stood the test of time since it’s Victorian age creation. More times than not, literature writings are a reflection of the era from which they are produced. In the case of Dracula, Vampire literature expresses the fears of a society. Which leads me to the topic I chose to review: sexuality. The Victorian Era was viewed as a period diluted in intense sexual repression and I believe that Dracula effectively exploited this as the fear of sexuality was commonplace in the society. In this paper I will examine Bram Stoker’s Dracula and highlight his use of sexuality. I will analysis the female sexuality that is prevalent throughout the book, the complexities are at work within the text, and the

Bram Stoker’s Dracula illustrated fears about sexual women in contrast to the woman who respected and abided by society’s sexual norms. Joseph Sheridan LeFanu’s “Carmilla” represented not only the fear of feminine sexuality, but also the fear of sexuality between women. John William Polidori’s “The

Punter and Byron reinforce this claim by stating that, “Dracula is associated with disruption and transgression of accepted limits and boundaries” (231). It is relevant to consider the aggressive behavior of Dracula towards his victims while he is on the prowl to fulfill his thirst for blood, especially with Lucy and Reinfield and the image of female vampires feeding on young children (Lucy). This bolsters the notion that the depiction of vampires in early portrays was violent. Also, as a sexually powerful creature, he preyed on men and women to fulfill his desires. The sexual representation of vampires is also evident from Ernest Jones’ early analysis of folktales, including the vampire. He proceeded to conclude that vampire’s and their counterparts, namely the Churel (India) and the Drud (vampires that prey exclusively on other vampires), do not confine themselves to sucking blood; rather “in the unconscious mind, blood is commonly associated with semen” (106). It would be inaccurate to associate these references to anything but the erotic nature of older folktales. Even in Dracula, the Count is portrayed as a seductive aristocrat who sucks on the blood of men and women, alike. The homosexual aspect of vampire tales is also apparent in “Carmilla” (Joseph le- Fanu 1872). As pointed out by Punter and Byron, Laura experiences intense erotic advances from the female vampire, to the extent of being puzzled