How Lauren Stands Out
As we continue reading through The Parable of the Sower, it becomes clearer and clearer that Lauren thinks differently than the rest of the neighborhood. In the books reality for 2025, the living conditions have most of society (at least the people in Lauren's town) believing that there is no hope of saving the world or improving it for the future. Instead they have accepted their bleak reality and have chosen to suffer through the current conditions rather than try to find a better life. However, Lauren instead has a much different outlook. She wants to do something with her future, and has a lot more imagination compared to her neighbors.
Put yourselves in the shoes of one of these neighbors. Realistically, if you were put in the 2025 reality of The Parable of the Sower, would you simply accept your fate? Or would you think more like Lauren?
I like your observation about Lauren's imagination. That is something I hadn't considered. I think dystopias often take imagination away from people, because they are given only one single way of being and looking at the world. But imagination is risky, so I can see why people would just want to accept their fate. I read something where the best bomb diffusers are people without imagination, because they just hunker down and do their work and don't think about what could happen. I guess that's good for bomb diffusers, but I'd rather be like Lauren.
ReplyDeleteIt's so much easier to just focus on the moment and get through one day at a time, but it also created a pretty meaningless life when you can't dream or be creative or genuinely do things you enjoy. I think I would really struggle to not fall into the trap of a survival mindset, but I hope I could be like Lauren.
ReplyDelete