Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler and Intersection in Feminist Movement

Octavia E. Butler’s novel Fledgling presents the story of Shori, a vampire. Just from this information, it is easy to assume that this is an another vampire novel about romance and fantasy. Yet, the characterization of Shori and the storyline can also be analyzed from different perspectives. Particularly, the storyline of the novel can be seen as the representation of discrimination in the society. By using a fictional setting and unrealistic characters like vampires, Butler uses hypocrisy and otherness which can be seen as the parallelism of the similar themes and the problems in real life. Moreover, the character Shori might be seen as the symbolized version of black women,  their role in society, and how they discriminated throughout the years.

1. Octavia E. Butler (THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP)

Feminism in Fledgling

After learning that Shori is not actually a human, the story continues with the relationship of Wright Hamlin and Shori. Even this part of the novel and this relationship can be deconstructed from the novel and analyzed from a feminist perspective. For instance, why the man helps a helpless woman. For years, these have been the stereotypical roles of the hero of the story who rescues the damsel in distress.

After all, what the reader knows so far is that a young girl, a kid as referred to in the book, agrees to go with a stranger that she just met. The male figure is both guidance and the protector for the young girl at this moment. For now,  it may still be seen as not completely shady or controversial but after a while, Hamlin’s proposal to go his home and Shori’s approval to this can be seen as the start of this problematic relationship.

Not because of the age issues since we learn later that Shori is actually much older but because of the actual reason beyond helping which is, what Wright Hamlin wants from this relationship is purely sexual. And in fictional reality, Hamlin does not know the actual age of Shori and she is referred to as a kid.  However, when the fantasy part of the novel kicks in the pleasure and the roles are changing to a different than the patriarchal relationship structure. From this perspective, it is basically not even a relationship but it is sexual pleasure in return for giving his blood which might be interpreted as prostitution in a sense. Shortly after it is revealed that Hamlin becomes a slave-like figure for Shori in return for a short pleasure. Moreover, this symbiotic relationship also evolves with others than Wright Hamlin. Shori finds many others for her need of blood. Of course, as a highly protective and possessive male figure, Wright Hamlin is not happy about this issue. This part of the novel actually reminds me of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening. Especially, the part of how the protagonist of that novel has many lovers throughout the story, and when one becomes too possessive and protective, this made the protagonist felt cornered and captured.

Intersectionality and Symbolism of Black Feminism

It is also important that Shori is not actually a human but still manages to live with humans in a coherent environment. As the story unfolds she is actually a genetically enhanced Ina (a vampire). Moreover, she also has darker skin than other Inas. In other words, she is an other for humans as an Ina and she is also another among Inas because of her dark skin. This aspect is also very controversial when considering the history of people of color in the US. In Butler’s story, the better and the superior one is the black Ina rather than other Inas. However, this still creates otherness and discrimination. Moreover, this betterness and superior emphasis also can be discussed in terms of humans vs Inas. Any other vampire narrative, generally what would assumed would be that the uncanny and the other would be seen as freaks and unnatural. Humans are the keystone of society and they are the superior species because of this subject.

2. (Book Cover Of Fledgling)

To follow up from the idea of Shori might be the symbolism of black women in society. In this novel one can assume that this approach to the Inas from humans perspective might be the parallelism of men’s perspective towards women in society throughout the years. From the 18th Century to the late 20th Century especially, women have seen as the secondary aspects of society, as another in a sense. To be specific, women in certain places or certain professions would have been seen as absurd and unnatural as Inas in human society. Therefore, what Butler creates in her novel is that coexistence in a human-dominated society is a parallel to the coexistence of both genders in men dominated society.

Discrimination is not limited to Inas in human society in the novel as Shori as a black Ina. As the story goes, the narrator also reveals that what makes Shori black is actually a human gene. This difference can be seen as a fault or a weakness, yet in the novel, it actually makes her able to resist to sunlight. In other words, from Ina’s perspective, Shori is inferior and not a pure Ina since she also has a human side. Yet, in reality, actually, this unique aspect of hers also makes her superior to other Inas. This issue is even discussed near the end of the novel when in the council one person mentions that how even the colored humans are treated as slaves before. This is particularly important because this is the only moment the line between fiction and reality becomes blurry and Butler speaks directly towards the audience (Butler, 278).

Overall

To conclude, Shori is the ultimate combination of bridges between different groups. She is considered as other by all and yet she represents the better sides of all these groups. This character shows that the difference can be a blessing and difference can be betterness. This positive aspect of the character of course is also punished by the society and the one-sided approach of the people. Throughout the novel what Shori experiences, both in the town and in the court can be analyzed and interpreted as parallelism of what a black woman experiences in the United States.

As an Ina, she is not the dominant figure in society, like the women in a patriarchal constructed society and as a black Ina, she is not also welcomed and not seen as pure by the fellow Inas, which can be seen as a very clear depiction of racial discrimination. This shows that every group dissolves around minimal differences and otherness. Race and gender only two areas that show this in the novel. From a feminist point of view, the feminist movement divided and divides itself many times because of this issue whether this division created by race or sexual orientation. Shori is the ultimate symbol that all these differences are stronger and better when they are together in one body, in unity.

References:

Butler, Octavia E. Fledgling. Kindle ed., Headline, 2014, p. 278.

Chuck Robinson. “Minority and Becoming-Minor in Octavia Butler’s Fledgling.” Science Fiction Studies, vol. 42, no. 3, 2015, pp. 483–499. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.5621/sciefictstud.42.3.0483. Accessed 15 July 2018.

Morris, Susana M. “Black Girls Are from the Future: Afrofuturist Feminism in Octavia E. Butler’s ‘Fledgling.’” Women’s Studies Quarterly, vol. 40, no. 3/4, 2012, pp. 146–166. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23333483. Accessed 15 July 2018.

Image Resources:

1.THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP. Octavia E. Butler. 2016. Accessed 13 June 2021.

2. Book Cover Of The Fledgling. 2015, https://epicstream.com/featureslist/4-Examples-of-Social-Allegories-in-Fantastical-Fiction-The-Good-the-Bad-and-the-Ugly/2. Accessed 13 June 2021.