In “Progress vs. Utopia,” Jameson argues that science fiction is not a portal into a possible future, but rather a look at current modern society. A science fiction work puts distance between the constructed future and reality, reducing an audience’s instinctual need to justify its surroundings and practices. If Alfonso Cuaron and Octavia Butler buy into this theory, then apparently they both have similar views of modern day life.

People, they seem to suggest, are trapped. By their neighborhood or by their country, society has drawn lines to separate an “us,” determined by birth into that community, and “them,” those that lie outside the firm boundaries who clamor to use and abuse resources. The community is doomed within the walls, but the path to salvation and redemption can grow from within the boundaries to flourish outside it.

In Parable of the Sower, the gated neighborhood acts as a small scale version of “Men”’s Britain, paranoid of the outside and militarized against it. In either world, intrusion drives the insiders to acts of cruelty and violence, solely in the name of protecting what is inherently theirs. The fear of intruders is obsessive, inspiring the neighborhood watch in Parable and bombarding Brits with warnings and cages for interlopers in “Men.” Mr. Olamina, a preacher, explicitly admits that he would kill an intruder (PoS, p. 70). This fundamental betrayal of societal ideals and morals (Thou shalt not kill) shows the flimsy bonds society holds on people from acting on their most brutal instincts. Rather than predicting a future slide into paranoia and brutality, these narratives show where we are, warning intruders that we will shoot.

Where can we find redemption from our own fear from ourselves? In both works, the answer is that it is already inside. The solution in Parable comes when Lauren “discovers” Earthseed, rather than “invents”, and Kee discovers her pregnancy in “Men,” suggesting salvation, the answer to our own fears is already within. Whether it is a growing hope for the future, like Dylan, or a plan to build away for fear, depends on who is doing the discovering.