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@article{189505,
        author = {Dr. S. Jerald Sagaya Nathan},
        title = {From Petro-Myth to Survival Ethos: Rethinking Energy Dependency in Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2025},
        volume = {12},
        number = {7},
        pages = {6584-6589},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=189505},
        abstract = {Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower imagines a near-future United States fractured by climate change, energy scarcity, and the breakdown of social infrastructure. The novel resonates strongly with contemporary concerns about rising temperatures, unstable energy systems, and widening economic inequality. This paper argues that Butler critiques the dominant cultural assumption that American society is fueled by limitless energy and guaranteed progress—a narrative scholars describe as the petro-myth, which naturalizes fossil-fuel abundance as synonymous with security, prosperity, and modern identity.
By depicting a society where electricity, gasoline, and public institutions have collapsed, Butler exposes the fragility of this myth. At the same time, she presents an alternative through Lauren Olamina’s Earthseed philosophy, a worldview grounded in adaptation, interdependence, and ecological awareness. Drawing on energy humanities (LeMenager; Szeman; Boyer), myth theory (Barthes), and ecocriticism (Buell; Heise; Nixon), this paper demonstrates how Parable of the Sower moves readers from a petroleum-driven worldview toward a survival ethos rooted in ecological realism and communal resilience.
Rather than offering dystopian pessimism, Butler’s novel invites readers to reconsider the cultural stories that sustain energy dependence. It ultimately suggests that sustainable futures require abandoning myths of technological salvation and embracing narratives of vulnerability, cooperation, and intentional change.},
        keywords = {Energy Dependency, Petro-Myth, Earthseed, Survival Ethos, Climate Fiction, Ecocriticism, Energy Humanities, Octavia Butler},
        month = {December},
        }