The Parable of The Talents

The parable of Talents is a fascinating book that has attracted a great deal of attention from different people, including readers and authors. It has several unique features in many aspects, mainly information and idea structure and presentation. Although it is fictitious, the story is presented so that everybody can accept it or think it is a true story. Parable of the Talent is a science fiction novel written in 1998 by American author Octavia E. Butler.

CITATIONS

Butler, Octavia E. (1998). Parable of the talents: a novel. New York: Seven Stories Press

 

The Parable of the Talents: A Visual Journey. (n.d.). Retrieved August 7, 2021, from Five Talents website: https://fivetalents.org/videos/2018/6/20/the-parable-of-the-talents-a-visual-journey

The Parable of the Talents. (n.d.). Retrieved August 7, 2021, from www.churchofjesuschrist.org website: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media/video/2014-01-0001-the-parable-of-the-talents?lang=eng

 

 

 

SUMMARY

The second book of the Parable trilogy that came to light after Butler, who experienced the author’s coalition, is Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler, a work of science fiction and the follow-up to Parable the Sower, and which focused her creative attention elsewhere. It is a post-apocalyptic series that has destroyed climate change, corporate greed, and wealth inequality. Lauren Oya Olamina, the main character of the first book, has the power of hyper empathy and the ability to share the pain and feelings of others. Parables of the Talents is about the persecution of the Earthseed religion, and ultimately it covers the success of the Earthseed. Parable of the Talent takes up a new character, the daughter of Lauren Olamina called Larkin, who reads and thinks about her mother’s journals to assist her in dealing with her sorrow following her mother’s death. The book portrays the traditional role of internal themes of social isolation and transcendence, violence and spirituality, slavery and liberty, separation, and communities, which is now an established community that thrives to survive.

In Parable of the Talents, Larkin is dealing with the death of her mother, Lauren Olamina. Larkin believes her mother was a misguided prophet who had a passionate belief and, over the top, neglected her family, especially her children. The novel retrieves some of the events of Earthseed, including Olamina’s philosophy, and talks of the State of America, when Olamina was an active religious leader in the early 21st century. America was chaotic and quickly dismantled in the early 21st century. The President enrolled Christian America as a fanatical religion for all citizens, and gangs of corruptors devastated gated communities in Los Angeles, including Olamina’s Acorn Community. Much of this is reported in the journals of Olamina, which Larkin reads and reflects on. Lamina talks of Earthseed’s foundation, a community that she creates to counteract the chaos that she sees. The founding principle of the Earthseed is “God is the Change,” which means that people are to control their destinies. Taylor, a doctor of Larkin’s father, urged Olamina to leave the Acorn community for her family in a safer way, but she was determined to spread Earthseed philosophy at any cost. The Acorn was raided, Taylor murdered and Olamina enslaved by radical religious crusaders. Larkin was taken to a Christian family and raised and was renamed, Asha Vere.

The book continues by raising Larkins’ experience away from his mother and connecting him with Marcus, his mother’s brother, a Christian who loved his sister but had been in conflict about his alternative system of belief and fanatical behavior. At the same time, Larkin reads her mother’s journals to learn about her escape from slavery to begin a settlement in Oregon. Larkin tells the story of the US president and his Christian Army’s downfall. Larkin’s uncle Marcus lies about reconnecting Olamina to her; he does not say they are related to Olamina or Larkin. When the truth comes out, Larkin is devastated by the lying of her uncle, and Olamina rejects her brother because of her child. The book ends with Olamina’s death and her ashes scattered through the stars according to her will. Her death comes when her followers in the Earthseed board a starship bound to another solar system, in which they think that they will eventually escape religious persecution. Olamina, too old, stays behind and dies watching the starboard launch. Olamina reflects her belief system. The book ends, ironically, by citing a passage from the gospel of Saint Matthew.

Butler, O. E. (2019). Parable of the talents. In Open WorldCat. Retrieved from https://www.worldcat.org/title/parable-of-the-talents/oclc/1048445128&referer=brief_results

The highly optimistic source brings the prompt message of hope and resistance against fanatism in the highly regarded novel, which is more relevant than ever. Thus, the brilliant and brutally powerful 1998 Earthseed novel Parable of Talents is presented by Octavia Butler. The author expresses how Lauren Olamina survived the destruction of her homes and family in 2032 (Butler, 2019). Based on her newly founded faith, Earthseed, she realized her view on a peaceful community in northern Calif. The emerging community is a shelter to outcast persecution following the election of an ultra-conservative president who vows to make America great again.

Parable of the Talents. (n.d.). Retrieved August 7, 2021, from sevenstories.com website: https://www.sevenstories.com/books/3951-parable-of-the-talents

This source is a highly respected journal that offers an insight on Celebration Butler’s topics in the shockingly familiar, broken world of 2032, alienation, transcendence, violence and spirituality, slavery and freedom, separation, and communion (Butler, nd). The author talks about the story concerning the voice of the daughter of Lauren Olamina, from whom she is separated with sections in the form of Lauren’s journal for most of his life. Based on a war-torn continent and an extreme right-wing religious crusader in the office of the US presidency, this is an extract from a society that has been thrown into chaos, and that seems almost impossible to meet the basic physical and emotional needs of individuals.

Fiction Book Review: Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler, Author Seven Stories Press $24.95 (365p) ISBN 978-1-888363-81-4. (n.d.). Retrieved August 7, 2021, from PublishersWeekly.com website: https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-888363-81-4

According to Butler (2021), a black teenager Lauren Olamina grew up in an America which was tearing apart in the 21st century. Global warming, huge unemployment and corporate greed all unite to disrupt society and California’s poor southern neighborhood. The author states that Lauren is a victim of hyper empathy, a disorder in which her victims sense the pain of others and find themselves homeless and alone in a brutal society. Lauren escaped the urban jungle and started Acorn, a hard-working, prosperous rural community based on the lessons of Earth-seed, a religion that she founded and based on believe in the change of God and the destiny of humanity.

 

The literary device analysis from The Parable of the Talents, which appeared in the Gospels of the New Testament of Matthew and Luke at times, called the Parable of the Minas, shows how ordinary persons seem to benefit from the blessings of God. The parable starts with a master who entrusts his servants with ‘talents’ before taking a long journey. The Parable of the Talents can glean a lot of lessons. This parable is valid today as it was a thousand years ago, which explains the role of opportunity, hard work, and accountability in our everyday lives.  The Parable of the Talent gives lessons on how you can change those you love most. The parable could change people’s commitment to God’s Word and how unique blessings are applied to everyday life.

The three possible prompts for discussion on the Parable of the Talent includes

Considering the comforts and safety of Acorn and the fact that he was rescued by his long-lost sister and saved him from a life of bondage, why does Marcus think he refuses Earthseed and risks his life to strike himself? Why did he find it so difficult to embrace and understand the aims of Lauren Olamina? Why does the Christian America organization not believe that Lauren and Acorn may be cruel? After Marcus has discovered Larkin/Asha Vere and established a deep family relationship, he intentionally decides not to let Olamina know her daughter. Why does Larkin preserve everything for him?

Olamina’s daughter Larkin is resentful because she thinks Earthseed’s mother is more important than the family. After all, her mom, husband, and baby had an opportunity to relocate to a remote seaside village and start a new life that could have been safer. Do you agree or disagree with the decision of Olamina to stay in Acorn and remain devoted to its ideals and objectives and her foundation? In your opinion, what obligation is more important? What remarks about the family do it make regarding the youth of Lauren Olamina compared to the childhood of Larkin and Asha Vere and the family structure established in Acorn before it has been demolished?

The five hashtags on social media that can be used to categorize the main topic in the Parable of the Talent includes,

# We are not all formed with the same abilities, opportunities, and skills.

# Success occurs when we take action.

# When we work, our efforts must be directed towards God rather than our pleasure and goal.

# God provides us with everything we need to do.

# We will be held accountable.

Reference

Butler, O. E. (2019). Parable of the talents. In Open WorldCat. Retrieved from https://www.worldcat.org/title/parable-of-the-talents/oclc/1048445128

Fiction Book Review: Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler, Author Seven Stories Press $24.95 (365p) ISBN 978-1-888363-81-4. (n.d.). Retrieved August 7, 2021, from PublishersWeekly.com website: https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-888363-81-4

Parable of the Talents. (n.d.). Retrieved from sevenstories.com website: https://www.sevenstories.com/books/3951-parable-of-the-talents