49 pages • 1 hour read
Octavia E. ButlerA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.
Short Answer
1. What do you think sets science fiction apart from other types of fiction? As a genre, what themes do you think science fiction emphasizes? Can you name any female science fiction writers? Do you know of any Black science fiction writers?
Teaching Suggestion: Traditionally, the science fiction genre has been dominated by white male authors, such as H.G. Wells, Arthur C. Clarke, and Isaac Asimov. (Indeed, “Speech Sounds” was originally published in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine.) Conflict between humans and alien species—including xenophobia—is a common theme in classic science fiction, as is the colonization of other planets and the development of the male protagonist into a world-saving hero. Ask students to think about what a more diverse field of science fiction writers might mean in terms of the themes and issues with which the genre wrestles.
2. The 17th-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes believed that selfishness drives human behavior, so life in a “state of nature”—without the law and order a social contract imposes—would be “nasty” and “brutish.
By Octavia E. Butler
Adulthood Rites
Adulthood Rites
Octavia E. Butler
Bloodchild and Other Stories
Bloodchild and Other Stories
Octavia E. Butler
Dawn
Dawn
Octavia E. Butler
Fledgling
Fledgling
Octavia E. Butler
Kindred
Kindred
Octavia E. Butler
Parable of the Sower
Parable of the Sower
Octavia E. Butler
Parable of the Talents
Parable of the Talents
Octavia E. Butler
The Evening and the Morning and the Night
The Evening and the Morning and the Night
Octavia E. Butler
Wild Seed
Wild Seed
Octavia E. Butler
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