Octavia E. Butler takes her readers through the journey of the only black vampire of her species, the Ina, to rediscover who she is as well as fight for her life and her right to live in the novel Fledgling. This vampire Shori is the result of a genetic experiment combining the DNA of the Ina as well as that of an African American human. She loses her memory after the community where her mother, sisters, and their respective symbionts lived is burned down as a blatant hate crime against Shori because not only is she black but she is part human which disgusts some of the purist Ina. The story continues as determined Shori is forced to both fight and flee for her life, as her loved ones are murdered by her own species. Finally a council is
called …show more content…
The theme of radical prejudice is an issue that is ever present in today’s society especially through racial and gender based prejudice both of which are present in the novel. Shori is the ultimate outsider not only being a mixture of human and Ina having come about through experimentation, but also by being the only black person in her entire species as well as being a woman and having the appearance of a small child. However one can immediately tell that she is much more intelligent than an average 11 year old girl through her intelligence shown through the complexity of her language and thought process as well as her intense empathy and moral compass. Her empathy and compassion is shown by how much she cares for her symbionts or anyone else that she bites. This is first really shown when she is with her first symbiont, Wright a short time after she first feeds on him “It was good to see him eat, to know that he was well. It made me feel relief. I hadn’t hurt him. That was more important to me than I’d realized” …show more content…
They are placed inside her mind feeling all of her emotions as they come and understanding her pain. This makes the prejudice all the more intense and personal by connecting the reader so closely to the main character. In the beginning Shori cannot imagine that someone of her own kind would have any inclination or desire to bring her any harm. When she sets out to meet her father, she has no idea who he is but she trusts him to a certain extent.
Shori’s tone is consistently determined, inquisitive, calculating, and empathetic. She pieces together her life as well as who she is, taking in her surroundings at all times through the use of all of her senses. This is demonstrated when Shori makes her first kill “Then I heard something coming toward me, something large and noisy, some animal. I couldn’t see it, but after a moment, I could smell it. It smelled…not exactly good, but at least edible” (Butler 1-2).
At the beginning of the novel when she has no use of her eyes, Shori uses her hearing and sense of smell as well as instinct to kill her first meal, not knowing who or what it was. From the very beginning Shori is determined and has incredible instinct and insight. This is easily
called …show more content…
The theme of radical prejudice is an issue that is ever present in today’s society especially through racial and gender based prejudice both of which are present in the novel. Shori is the ultimate outsider not only being a mixture of human and Ina having come about through experimentation, but also by being the only black person in her entire species as well as being a woman and having the appearance of a small child. However one can immediately tell that she is much more intelligent than an average 11 year old girl through her intelligence shown through the complexity of her language and thought process as well as her intense empathy and moral compass. Her empathy and compassion is shown by how much she cares for her symbionts or anyone else that she bites. This is first really shown when she is with her first symbiont, Wright a short time after she first feeds on him “It was good to see him eat, to know that he was well. It made me feel relief. I hadn’t hurt him. That was more important to me than I’d realized” …show more content…
They are placed inside her mind feeling all of her emotions as they come and understanding her pain. This makes the prejudice all the more intense and personal by connecting the reader so closely to the main character. In the beginning Shori cannot imagine that someone of her own kind would have any inclination or desire to bring her any harm. When she sets out to meet her father, she has no idea who he is but she trusts him to a certain extent.
Shori’s tone is consistently determined, inquisitive, calculating, and empathetic. She pieces together her life as well as who she is, taking in her surroundings at all times through the use of all of her senses. This is demonstrated when Shori makes her first kill “Then I heard something coming toward me, something large and noisy, some animal. I couldn’t see it, but after a moment, I could smell it. It smelled…not exactly good, but at least edible” (Butler 1-2).
At the beginning of the novel when she has no use of her eyes, Shori uses her hearing and sense of smell as well as instinct to kill her first meal, not knowing who or what it was. From the very beginning Shori is determined and has incredible instinct and insight. This is easily