The Feminist Martin Luther King

Lauren represents the role of a true leader in the novel, “”Parable of The Sower by Octavia Butler. In order to take charge and accomplish goals, she is forced to become mature for her age. After the attack on her community, Lauren was driven out of her home with no choice but to set off on a journey in search of a new and better environment. She invites Harry and Zahra on her journey up North after meeting them following the attacks.

Lauren naturally adapts a mother-like role to her new companions and cares for Zahra and Harry, taking them under her wing of knowledge like the natural born leader she was meant to be.

There are a lot of racial issues highlighted in the novel. Being an African American girl, Lauren is already at a disadvantage in the novel’s society. Being a female means she is prone to harassment or robbery by thieves and snatchers on the roads. In order to save herself and the group from all the unnecessary attention, she disguises herself as a boy. Lauren implements her gun knowledge in order to safeguard herself. This shows her expertise as a leader, she understand the skill needed to operate a weapon, unlike other who have never learned. Additionally, she serves as a good asset to the group because she is the only one who can read and write. As the narrator and protagonist of the novel and a young woman, Lauren is incredibly strong-willed with several leadership qualities. She takes full charge of the group and makes choices about which people should be included in it.

An effective leader always has a strong passion for a cause. A cause that is larger than they are in its true sense. Someone with a vision and a dream for the betterment of the society. Without passion, a leader won’t have enough courage to bring his or her dream to reality. A true leader is a holder of values that are life-giving to the society. Apart from warmth, a leader should know how to respect one another as it is difficult to lead without gaining the respect of others. A leader without the respect of his or her followers is not true leadership in its best form, instead it becomes manipulation which is the quality of an ineffective leader. One can deal with diversity if he or she respects and gains respect in return. A leader requires admiration in order to rule effectively, in modern times and even in ancient times, leaders were known due to their behavior with the masses. (Insert quote from book about group liking Lauren)

With a strong vision comes great passion. Lauren stops at nothing to make her ideas of change and her vision of Earthseed come true. This drive is based on intellectuality and creativity. In order to have good visions, Lauren had to think outside of the box and bring novel and effective strategies that would help in the advancement of her vision. A leader should also be a reader and a learner so that he or she could excel in the cause. Lauren makes herself out to be a substantial leader by possessing the ability to plan for the future. She created a vision of what life could potentially be and hopes to guide the team to obtaining that dream. (Insert quote from book An effective leader is also a listener, a communicator, and one who can see many perspectives. Qualities like these will help in keeping the group and movement together. Ineffective leaders, on the other hand, are mostly autocratic and have this “”my way or the highway approach which makes them unsuitable for the leadership position.

However, Lauren has all the qualities of a leader. In the time depicted in the novel, women began changing their roles and started taking control. Leading them to become the alphas of the family rather than assuming that males are the real heads of the family, the sole earners, and are superior to the women (Nichipor et al, 2016). Although Lauren is depicted as ruthless in the novel at times, she is very compassionate by sharing everything she has with the outsiders that join, despite when supplies are scarce. She also learn how to read and write. She is the narrator and protagonist of the novel. As a young woman, Lauren is incredibly strong-willed with amazing leadership qualities. She takes full charge of the group and makes choices about which people should be included in it (Shmoop Editorial Team).

An effective leader always has a strong passion for a cause. A cause that is larger than they are in its true sense. Someone with a vision and a dream for the betterment of the society. Without passion, a leader won’t have enough courage to bring his/her dream to reality. A true leader is a holder of values that are life-giving to the society. Apart from warmth, a leader should know how to respect other as it is difficult to lead without gaining the respect of others. A leadership without gaining the respect of the followers is manipulation which is the quality of an ineffective leader. One can deal with diversity if respects and gains respect in return. Respect is the critical need of a leader in the modern times and even in the ancient times, leaders were known because of their behavior with the masses. With a strong vision comes great passion. If one doesn’t have strong feelings about something, then it’s difficult to come up with a good idea regarding it. Thus a leader always comes up with ideas of change and a vision that is based on intellectual drive and creativity.

In order to have good visions, one has to think out of the box and bring novel and effective strategies that will help in the advancement of the vision. A leader should also be a reader and a learner so that he/she could excel in the cause. A great leader should also have the ability to make great plans and can see what needs to be done and should guide the team in getting it done. an effective leader is also a great a good listener, open in communication, confident, has good conflict resolution skills and is a good delegate. Qualities like these will help in keeping the group. An organization, movement or project together. Having good business skills for financial management is also a prerequisite. So a leader must have some skills in human resource, information management, and financial management, sales and marketing. Ineffective leaders, on the other hand, are mostly autocratic and have this “”my way or the highway approach which makes them unsuitable for the leadership position.

Lauren, on the other hand, has all the qualities of a leader. In the time depicted in the novel, women were changing their roles and started taking control and becoming the alphas of the family rather than assuming that males are the real heads of the family and are the sole earners and are superior to the women (Nichiporet al, 2016). Although Lauren is depicted as ruthless in the novel at times, she is very compassionate by sharing everything she has with other people even if the supplies are very little and even helps people read and write. That is the main reason people are drawn to her group. Her combination of qualities helps her earn respect in the eyes of other people in the group. This attitude helped her create the first earth seed community. The novel also represented the period of slavery in America. The slaves were made to live in unhealthy living conditions and were beaten up if they refused to do what was being told. He tried to break out of the plantations to a new free land that was headed north. As African Americans, they were already easy targets which made hard for them to stay invisible in order to avoid getting caught in the run. As the life of Lauren and other people was in danger, she had to take charge and stay alert all the time during the travels and even took rotations to be on the night duty. She also carried a gun for her protection and the group whenever they were attacked.

In an examination of Lauren’s role in the book, I believe that Lauren is the new Christ and is responsible for sowing new seeds of Christianityafter the Armageddon which destroys the evil civilization that is responsible for abandoning the newly found beliefs of the nation. The strong leadership skills of Lauren and her rise to the status and alter of a new prophet puts her in the long line of exemplars and trendsetters that are known to the American readers. She is the Martin Luther King of the future history.

Lauren is not the only one in her family with strong leadership abilities. Cory Lauren’s stepmother who is fond of playing piano and teaches the kids of the neighborhood has served as a role model of community leader for Lauren. In the novel when Lauren brings Amy, the poor, helpless girl to the admitted early in the school and asks Cory to accept her as her pupil, Cory agrees and takes the kid’s responsibility. That is how Cory helps Lauren to think in terms of responsibility and work. The female characters take the task of coping with power largely on lands such as Lauren and Zahra. Both of the characters are experienced in taking power for themselves via the use of weapons for their defense. By adapting to the dystopian society notion of what it means to be seen as powerful, Lauren confronts the existing power dynamics in the novel. Appearance plays a vital role in the display of power which helps in the survival in harsh environments.

Lauren becomes more powerful as a female character because of posing as a man as males are considered to be more powerful in a male-dominated world. The stereotypical perceptions of femininity are subverted by the efforts of Lauren as females are considered weak and submissive. She displayed mental and physical strength through protection of her group and herself and through her decision-making skills as a leader for the protection and survival of her whole group. In the novel, Lauren portrayed herself by “”carrying her resources in a pillowcase resting on her hip like a child. Thus the writer has contrasted the traditional role of a mother with traits associated with masculinity like roles as leadership and control of resources. Lauren connotes power as she is a strong leader, a provider and a caretaker and a complete survivalist institution that is evident from her internal and external portrayal of power that is linked to her appearance, weaponry, and company. As a gun is a phallic symbol and shows the possession of power and is tied to the idea of masculinity equaling power and strength. As denoted by Butler, power is a changing contrast and females can also be powerful and strong leaders.

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