Bloodchild

Upon my initial reading of Bloodchild by Octavia Butler I had several ideas of what the author was attempting to address with her story. I believed, and still do believe, that the plot explores the ethics and complexities of abusive relationships, and that as the story progresses the reader discovers the extreme lengths that human beings will go to in order to survive. However, after discussion in class, I also found that the plot examines several other issues as well.

Butler presents the odd relationship between Terrans and Tlics as if it were between a victim and an abuser, or a master and a slave. The Terrans at times feel loving towards the Tlics, and at other times they are resentful towards them and fear them. In many ways, their relationship resembles such situations when the victim suffers from Stockholm syndrome and becomes strongly attached to the abuser out of fear. In these instances, the abuser constantly manipulates the emotions of the victim in order to strengthen the victim’s dependency on the abuser. The Tlic T’Gatoi is shown to behave in a similar way with Gan, playing with his emotions so that he will not take his or her life and will remain in the relationship.

“’For my children’s lives?’ She would say something like that. She knew how to manipulate people…”(24).

Terrans continue to stay with the Tilcs, even though most of the Terrans know that they will have to endure horrible, unnatural experiences if they become hosts for the Tlic. The story touches on the greed and selfishness that human beings can display in order to preserve or better their own lives.  Many humans comply with being host animals in order to receive eggs that will greatly extend the length of their lives, and some even consider sacrificing family members in order to avoid being chosen to host the Tlic’s spawn.

“‘Shall I go to Xuan Hoa?’ ‘Yes!’ Hoa wanted it. Let her have it” (25).

After discussion in class, I learned that the story does not simply focus on the relationship between human beings and the Tlic. In fact, the story also considers the relationship between men, women and birth. Butler creates a world in which men “give birth” to Tlic. This birth is painful and bloody, much in the way that women endure horribly painful, and at times bloody, births. There is a very real chance that the hosts in Bloodchild will die birthing the larva of the Tilc, referencing the thousands of women that have died during childbirth in real life. In the story, it is often not even the choice of the men to host these creatures, yet they are forced to anyway, much like women in all societies have been forced by men for years to carry children without any choice in the mater. In fact, the process of implanting the larva in the men is a very sexual process, and could almost be equated to rape.

“The small amount of fluid that came into me with her egg relaxed me as completely as a sterile egg would have, so that I could remember the rifle in my hands and my feelings of fear and revulsion, anger and despair” (29).

The story Bloodchild appears to address many issues with its plot; however, I believe that ultimately it focuses on those sorts of relationships between beings that result in the suppression of rights, abuse, or some other form of degradation. Not only are the Tlics manipulative, but they also force some human beings to give birth to their larva, in a manner that rapes the host of his (or her) rights. Therefore, with Bloodchild, Octavia Butler draws attention to the ways that abuse and injustice can manifest in relationships, whether it be through bribing and manipulation or sheer physical advantage. The author displays that science fiction does not address only the questions concerning race and sexuality that might have emerged during the civil rights movements or the cultural revolution as we have read in many other stories in the class, but it can also even address the problems that have occurred and will continue to occur in domestic relationships and between people who have been held under the power of another person against their will.