User:CheenaVero/sandbox

Citation Practice

Octavia Butler was shy as a child.

Bloodchild

Summary

In the story “Bloodchild”, Octavia Butler writes of a boy living in a world where “aliens”, Tlic, have taken over and use humans, Terrans, as host bodies for their eggs. Each Terran family had to have at least one member become the host. The main character a boy named Gan who has been chosen by T’Gatoi to be her host Terran. Gan did not have any problem with being T’Gatoi’s host because he had grown close to her and cared for her until one day when he watched a host being eaten from the inside by the grub, the Tlics spawn. The host, a man named Bram Lomas, was hosting eggs that hatched inside of him and needed them to be removed before they killed him. T’Gatoi need to remove the grubs to help Bram Lomas. Gan assists her by slaughtering an animal, achti, to transfer the grub to and also by holding him down while she does the procedure. After the procedure is finished Gan goes outside and sees his brother, Qui, who tells him about how he has seen a Terran get eaten alive by grub and that is the reason he does not like the Tlic. And the reason Qui ran away so much. Qui gets Gan thinking about what it means to be a host and what he will be going through. Gan then threatens to kill himself because he does not want to be a host, but when T’Gatoi says she will just use his sister he changes his mind to protect her. T’Gatoi implants her eggs in Gan and he realizes he loves T’Gatoi and he wants to be the host to her grubs.

Quotes

• " And to keep you for myself," I said. It was so. I didn't understand it, but it was so."

• "I could have done that. I nearly did. That's Qui's 'away'. I wonder if he knows."
• "The whole procedure was wrong, alien. I wouldn't have thought anything about her could seem alien to me."

The Evening and the Morning and the Night

Summary

The story "The Evening and the Morning and the Night" by Octavia Butler is about a girl named Lynn who has a disease called Duryea-Gode. DGD is a genetic disease that, in adulthood, causes people to self-mutilate or harm others. Both of Lynn's parent had DGD and passed it onto her. Young people with DGD are normal up until adulthood when the disease takes over, DGDs do not expect to live very long after that.The only way non-DGDs know who the DGDs are is because the eat special foods, "dog biscuits" and must wear an emblem on their person. Lynn unsuccessfully tries to commit suicide at 15 after her parents take her to a tour of the DGD ward. Three years later her father is consumed by the disease and kills her mother and then himself. Lynn attends college, gets a house with other DGDs and becomes the "house mother", keeping everyone in line and reminding them to do their chores. She falls for another DGD, Alan, and after telling him of her story he decides to get in contact with his mother who was sent to Dlig a DGD ward. They visit the ward and realize it is nothing like the hospital that Lynn visited as a teenager. There are "controlled DGDs" which is something they haven't seen before. Beatrice, the doctor from Dlig, gives them a tour and re-introduces Alan to his mother. Beatrice explains to Lynn that she has a gift, being born from two DGD parents make her a type of "alpha" DGD, and should work for the Dlig. Even though Lynn does not like Beatrice, she knows that she has to do it because a DGD with her gift is a very rare find.

Quotes

• "Dad had killed Mom then skinned her completely. At least, that’s how I hope it happened. I mean I hope he killed her first."
• "Healthy people say no one can concentrate like a DGD. Healthy people have all the time in the world for stupid generalizations and short attention spans."
• "For long, irrational minutes, I was convinced that somehow if I turned, I would see myself standing there, gray and old, growing small in the distance, vanishing."

Book of Martha

Summary

The story "Book of Martha is about a woman named Martha who meets with "God". Every time she sees God he is in a different form, first a overgrown white man, to a normal sized white man, then a black man, and finally a woman who looked as if she could be her sister. God asks Martha to do a "job". She is asked to make humanity less self destructive. At first Martha is hesitant because she is not even sure if this being actually is God. She also does not want the responsibility. She is afraid she will fail not only God but also humankind. She accepts God's offer and begins to talk to him about her ideas. Her first idea is to limit the amount of children people are able to have. She discusses this with God but ultimately changes her mind. Limiting the amount of children people can have will have to many complications in the future. Martha then tells God that she thinks people should have vivid dreams about the things they desire most in their lives. God asks her questions about this idea to see if this is truly what she wants. Martha stands by her decision about the dreams even though it would destroy her career as a writer. God asks her if she would like to remember the meeting they had but she does not. Martha did not want to remember because she did not want to know that it is her fault if the dreams fail. She just wanted to go home and forget it all.