"The highway north was emptier today than I've ever seen it. We were the biggest crowd around-eight adults and a baby-and other people kept away from us. Several of the other walkers were individuals and couples with children. (Butler 247)
"First, he didn't like us. That was obvious. He didn't like us at all. I thought he might resent us because we were united and armed. You tend to resent the people you're afraid of. I told him we kept a watch, and that if he could put up with that, he was welcome. He shrugged and said in his soft, cold voice, "Oh, yea." (Butler 291)
"We help each other. A group is strong. One or two people are easier to rob and kill." Yeah." He looked around at the others. There was no great trust or liking in his expression, but he looked more relaxed, more satisfied. He looked as though he had solved a troubling puzzle." (Butler 302)
In these passages, there is a common theme of teamwork over individualism. This theme is highlighted very much over the course of the novel, Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler. Survival as a group increases the chances of every individual's chances of staying alive in a setting of explosions, looting, killing, and stealing. Every individual that has tried to do great things by themselves for a short period of time has fallen to the violence of groups with bad intentions. At the same time, individual efforts within a group towards a goal has defeated many occasions that challenges their existence. In this journey towards the life they dreamed of, this group of different character types prove again and again that there is no contest that a team will always achieve more than an individual.
Barry Huang
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