What makes Lauren so special?

 Why is Lauren the main character? 

Lauren definitely fits the mold of a typical dystopian protagonist, in that she has creative new ideas, a strong will, and an ability to think rationally about things that cause others to panic. Why is this type of character so often the one who saves a society in dystopian stories? In many ways, Parable of the Sower seems “different” from other dystopian novels because it introduces religion as a huge part of the plot, and is scarily realistic to where our world could be in the future. In a lot of ways, Lauren is also “different” from the typical dystopian protagonist. She doesn’t have a lot of power over or respect from the other people in her neighborhood, she thinks about much deeper, more important things than most characters, it is implied that she is a woman of color, etc. But in some ways, it feels like she is no different from Tris (Divergent), Katniss (The Hunger Games), or any other number of female world-changers featured in dystopian novels. I really like Lauren as a character, but am slightly disappointed with how well she fits the mold of a typical dystopian protagonist. What are your thoughts?

Comments

  1. Anna ParkApril 16, 2021 at 7:13 AM

    Yeah... she is not as unique and interesting as I thought she was going to be. Although she is very different from the protagonists of our previous books, old white men, she is very similar to ones in more modern day dystopias. Even if she is different, I do wish the book would dwell more on those cultural and religious differences to make it more interesting.

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  2. L. MoffittApril 16, 2021 at 7:30 AM

    Ooh, that is a great question. This book IS different. On paper, Lauren is a fairly ordinary person, other than her hyper-empathy. But yes, I can see similarities with Tris and Katniss as well, and I didn't think about it until you said it but I agree that it is slightly disappointing -- and I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe it's because I know I myself could never be as strong as Lauren and it seems even more unreasonable to expect a 15-year-old girl to be that way, so why create a model for action that is somewhat unreasonable?

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