SOURCE: "'Would You Really Rather Die Than Bear My Young?': The Construction of Gender, Race, and Species in Octavia E. Butler's 'Bloodchild,'" in African American Review, Vol. 28, No. 2, Summer, 1994, pp. 259-71.

In the following essay, Helford analyzes Butler's "Bloodchild" and its implications on our conception of gender, race, and species.

"Did you use the rifle to shoot the achti?"

"Yes."

"And do you mean to use it to shoot me?"

I stared at her, outlined in the moonlight—coiled graceful body. "What does Terran blood taste like to you?"

She said nothing.

"What are you?" I whispered. "What are we to you?"

She lay still, rested her head on her topmost coil. "You know me as no other does," she said softly. "You must decide."

Although the invitation is to the character Gan, the questioning human voice in this conversation between human and alien from Octavia...