Gendered Survival and Climate Collapse: Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower as Climate Fiction

Cli-fi which is also called as Climate fiction is a genre which deals with environmental imagination towards issues concerning climate change. This genre often portrays dystopian or speculative futures in which the planet has been drastically altered by environmental shifts, such as extreme weather events, rising sea levels, or ecological collapse. Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower is said to be one of the earliest Cli-fi where the theme has been taken out with the help of female perspective. The novel's events start in post-apocalyptic southern California, when racial unrest and violence are common, food is in short supply, and the climate is changing. Lauren, the central character tries to flee with other survivors, disguising herself as a male. She progressively creates her own Earthseed belief system. Butler provides a potent critique of patriarchal society and its systems of dominance, viewing the strong's hegemony over the weak as a kind of parasitism. Because of their examination of oppressive intersections and their visceral depiction of the links between destructive activities that hurt the environment and societal institutions that oppress women among other groups.