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Can Earthseed serve as the foundation for a new community?

 In my opinion, Earthseed is a tremendous thing to serve as the foundation for a new community, especially a community trying to become a utopia (and prevent itself from becoming a dystopia). One of the issues with a lot of dystopian communities, both in real life and in literature, is that they become rigid in structure, and are unable to adjust themselves to improve lives for their civilians. This rigidity is the downfall of their community, as their founders have an extremely specific vision for what life *should* be like in a society and decline to consider what is working or not working for the people in that society. Earthseed, meanwhile, is based upon the idea that "God is change." Change is built into this community from the start, and this will allow flexibility to improve quality of life. 8.7.3
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The Final Community's Basis off Lauren's Childhood

 At the end of the novel, a community forms after Lauren and her group escape safely to the North. They say that they will have to fight anyone who tries to endanger them because it is either going to be "them or us" that survives. This reminds me of far earlier in the novel when Lauren's father says that he has the create the armed patrol in order to fight off the robbers because it's either them or us that are going to survive. The parallelism shows how Lauren's traumatic childhood shapes her views for her utopia going forwards. 8.7.3
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Lauren's Trauma and Earthseed

By the time we near the end of the novel, it is clear that Lauren has undergone an inordinate amount of trauma in her past few years, far more than the majority of people are forced to bear in their lifetime. Lauren's childhood is a dystopia on Earth, as her living environment is completely chaotic. First, it is her brother who falls prey to the world around them, as he is brutally tortured before being killed. Then, her entire neighborhood is burned by drug addicts, and most of her family killed, as she has to begin to migrate to the North. She's gone through so much trauma she needs something to cling to that helps her maintain hope in hard times, and Earthseed is this. 8.7.3
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Lauren's Father and Earthseed

 One of Lauren's father's main attributes is his obsession with guns, shooting, and self-defense. Lauren's father is a Baptist minister who believes the outside world is completely out to get everyone and everything. In some ways, he is right, because of the perils in the rest of the world. His son dies after trying to maintain a life on the street, people are dying out east from disease, and Lauren's father himself ends up succumbing to drug addicts who set fires. 8.7.3
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Keith's Behavior and Religion

 One of Lauren's formulating experiences is the life (and death) of her brother, Keith. Keith, like Lauren, is very skeptical of Christianity, but he is a very hardened individual, desperate to prove himself in any way he can to the world. Keith is completely unempathetic to his surrounding, even admitting he shot and killed and man and speaking about it without feeling any sort of remorse whatsoever. Sadly, after living a short but semi-successful successful life on the street selling drugs (he would often drop off money to Lauren's house), he is killed, and even tortured before he dies. After he dies, the Reverand spins his death as a lesson not to leave their small neighborhood, also hinting that his rejection of religion was one of the reasons for his downfall. 8.7.3
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Richard Moss' Religion

 One of Lauren's formulating experiences is her experiences regarding Richard Moss, an African-American man in her neighborhood who practices his own religion, and his son, Peter Moss. Richard Moss' religion is a combination of "traditional" old-testament based Christiniatiy with West African ideas. Sounds quite empowering for Richard to combine his traditional culture with Judeo-Christian ideas to find a faith that truly speaks to him, right? Wrong, he's a "total shit" who uses his wealth from his decent job to pick up homeless women and make them his wives. His "religion" is extremely misogynistic, and anything but good for society. Since the Old Testament is extremely sexist, it is interesting to consider how Richard's application of these verses has to do with her view of Christianity. 8.7.3
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Adherance to Religion

One of the most interesting questions through the first few chapters of Parable of the Sower is the question why Lauren chooses to allow herself to be baptized despite the fact that she clearly says that she does not subscribe to her father's church, religion, or god anymore. Religion is generally something that brings people together, and I guess that this begrudging obedience is more about her relationship with her father than her relationship with religion. Since her mother died while birthing her, and her fathers' parents died in a murder many years ago, Lauren is kind of all her father has left, and I am sure it would be very painful for her father to learn she rejects his faith. 8.7.3
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