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Brandon Castaneda
Diversity in American Literature
For this project, I have decided to look into the author Octavia E. Butler. I chose her
because she seemed like a very interesting author, and I enjoy science fiction books. Researching
her has been insightful. For this specific essay, I am going to look into her background to see
Octavia Estelle Butler was born in 1947. Her father, Laurice James Butler, passed away
when she was very young. So, she didnt have a great father figure in her life. She was raised by
her mother, also named Octavia. She lived a large majority of her life with her mother and aunts.
Her family followed the Baptist religion. Her mother worked as a maid, so she was introduced to
hurt her chances of writing books. She wouldnt let it. At age 10, Butler decided to make her
Her first breakthrough in writing was due to a novel called Kindred. Which draws
inspiration from her mothers job. It is a story about an African-American woman who travels
back in time to saver her white slave owning ancestor. This book is a great example of the type
of science fiction books that she liked to write. They are based on real world experiences but
given twists to them that makes them both more interesting, as well as different. Her writing
She developed her love of writing science fiction due to a terrible movie, called Devil
Girl from Mars. Butler had the thought that she could write a better story than that movie. She
was very confused that someone got paid for writing that crappy film.
I think that she is a very inspirational author. Not only because she writes incredible
pieces, but because of the things she has had to go through to be successful. Butler has seen more
than her fair share of marginalization. She had to deal with Racism, Sexism, and made fun of
Octavia Butler was an African-American woman born in the 40s. You dont need
examples to know that she was the subject of racism. During the 40s, racism wasnt as bad as it
used to be if you compare it to when Blacks were actually slaves. She would have been too
young to remember much about her early life in dealing with racism. But during the 1950s and
60s she would have had to deal with the Jim Crow laws. Which was racial segregation by the
ruling class during the time, which was the whites. But in 1954, the Supreme Court ruled that
segregation in schools was considered illegal Lynching. However, the Southern Democratic
party fought to keep the Jim Crow system. Also during that time, African-Americans had to deal
with the Ku Klux Klan. So, with all that information, one can only think about the horrors that
During Butlers high school years, she had undiagnosed dyslexia. This made her
schooling more difficult. And by the age of 15, she had grown to around six feet tall. This
wasnt the only thing that made her stand out. In total, she was a six-foot-tall, dyslexic African-
American woman. These facts would have made it very hard to blend in with the high school
crowds. So, instead of blending into the crowd, she spent her time in the library. Spending so
much time in the Pasadena library did wonders in her abilities to read and write. Butler also saw
herself as being different due to her being an only child. So, she couldnt talk to those her age
like she could to adults. But she didnt let the negativity provided by her peers to get her down.
Another area that she had to deal with discrimination was by her fellow science fiction
writers. At the time, the majority of science fiction writers were middle aged white men. So,
everything about Octavia was going against the norms of the time. She dealt with criticisms from
When reading Octavia Butlers work, one can definitely find some of the experiences that
she had to face as a child. And if it werent her experiences, it was the experiences of others. She
wanted to write interesting stories, and give people who were dealing with these problems hope.
Her main goal for Kindred was to encourage empathy for people who endured terrible things.
Best Short Story Hugo Award for her story Speech Sounds. That same year, she won a Nebula
Award for her story, Bloodchild. In 1995, she was given a genius grant from the MacArthur
Foundation. She was the first science fiction writer to achieve this.
Octavia E. Butler died in her home on February 24th, 2006, at the age of 58. Her death
was because of a fall that she suffered near her house. Before her death, she suffered from
hypertension and other health problems. Her death was a great tragedy to many groups of people,
people like; African-Americans, women, and science fiction lovers. She was a very good author
Works Cited
Fox, Margalit. Octavia E. Butler, Science Fiction Writer, Dies at 58. The New York Times, The
science-fiction-writer-dies-at-58.html.
www.biography.com/people/octavia-e-butler-38207.
Cox, Carolyn. 15 Fascinating Facts About Octavia Butler. The Portalist, 22 Aug. 2017,
theportalist.com/15-fascinating-facts-about-octavia-butler.