The story, Bloodchild, represents a scientific fiction story that shows human beings isolated in a hysterical world. The humans mainly function as birthing vessels, displaying many elements of western civilization and scientific fiction by the author. However, the author uses many twists in the story showing that the human beings had many civilization weaknesses that needed address. The story happens in space as the characters say that the humans had ancestors saved by the ancient people living on the land. This paper critically analyzes the story Bloodchild by Octavia Butler showing various elements of the short story that changed the view of the readers in the story.
The story is a dystopian story that shows the human perceptions of space and the view of the author that the things that happen in space resemble the activities on earth (Butler 4). However, the story juxtaposes its own theme by deviating from the activities taking place in space to talk about normal human activities. Bloodchild starts by showing that it is a story from an adult by saying that the last night of childhood began with a journey home (Frances 246). This means that the author is a mature person. The story goes ahead to show human activities like the rights of passage. The growth of human being also shows a social feature of the story. However, the twist in the story occurs when the reader discovers that the story does not happen on earth. T’Gatoi shows that the story is taking place in space by saying that the ancestors of the humans survived after rescue by the creatures from space. This occurred when they ought to have gone to slavery. Critically, the attention of the reader digresses away from the dystopian nature of the story by temporarily making the story human and appealingly earthy. However, the story reveals dystopian features, which means that the story did not happen on earth.
The story shows the dystopian nature of the space world through the nature in which humans do not get their humanity (Butler 12). According to the narration of Gan, the humans went into slave treatment involuntarily in exchange for political power and control. He explains that they received unfair treatment while the masters who sold them languished in riches and economic enjoyment. The story is a narration of the suffering that the humans faced throughout their lives in slavery (Frances 246). The author shows that the humans faced mass mistreatment from the beings in space, yet he also shows that the beings in space rescued the humans from slavery and mistreatment. Critically, this shows that the dystopian nature of the beings in space is not clear. At some point, the readers may believe that the beings are brutal while the revelation that they saved the humans from slavery changes the faith. No explanation exists as to whether beings liked the humans or not. Critically, this is a mix-upto the readers as they cannot take a position on the beings in the dystopian life because of inadequate information on their real nature.
The human being objection towards the Tlic technology highlights that people did not believe in the argument that technology was created to bring about efficiency in the universe (Butler 16). Most of the ancient theories of human beings identify humans as people who interacted with technology to bring constant change to the prevailing situations. However, the author contradicts the opinion. Lien refuses to eat the eggs from T’Gatoi because she says that they are alien eggs (Frances 246). These are eggs bred through the Tlic technology, which the humans opposed. Throughout the story, the interaction between humans and foreign technology reveals that the humans lived skeptically in relation to alien technology. According to human theories by scientists like Clark, humans naturally transformed things through the prevalence of technology to more efficient items for their uses (Butler19). This means that human beings interacted with technology in a natural way and that did not reject new technology on any grounds. However, the opposition to Tlic technology dehumanizes them. Scientific dystopia places the aliens ahead of human beings because the aliens accepted and followed technology selectively. However, the humans theoretically follow all technology but they practically ignore some technology.
Concisely, bloodchid is a scientific narration of life in space and the detention of some people in space. However, the point in the story is critical in terms of the dystopia fact in most of the scenes. The author begins by showing things that happened in real human life like rites of passage and slavery. However, the author later reveals that the story is not happening on earth when he shows that the humans received rescue from slavery by the aliens. Furtheromore. the author says that the story is not about slavery but love. However, the story tells of treatment of the humans in slave conditions, which goes against the notion of the author that the story is about love. The rejection of the Tlic technology also shows the deviation of the story from its dystopian form. The humans should embrace all technology. However, the characters in the story reject the technology, which implies that they do not go in line with the technological alienation of the humans.
Works Cited
Butler, OctaviaE. Bloodchild and Other Stories. Second edition with new stories. 2011. Print.
Frances, Duetsch L. "Science Fiction; After the Zap, by Michael Armstrong. New York: Questar/Popular Library." The Christian Science MonitorAug 07 2007. Pp. 246.
