Resistance

In the spirit of Octavia Butler's writings, the short stories collected in Octavia's Brood explore the ways in which the individual or groups of individuals might resist oppression or marginalization in the name of creating great change. In "Revolution Shuffle," the unnamed main characters decide to break into the newly instated prison camps in order to free "Americans of Asian and Arab descent be[ing] interned as laborers" (10). Though they know they "can't save everyone," the young woman asserts that that "Doesn't mean [they] can't try" (14). Instead of standing idly by and accepting the camps, these two characters boldly pursue change, hoping for "something like a revolution" (14). In "Black Angel," after fallen angel, A., sees ICE agents throwing immigrants "on top of each other into . . . trucks until they were full," she realizes that she must intervene (48). "No one was coming to help," she suddenly understands (49). After...