Concerns About Novel

Although Parable of the Sower is great novel in its own right there are a number of challenges in teaching it. Although not excessive, there is explicit use of language. The is large amount of violence in the form of torture, rape, and death. Cannibalism is depicted although appearing somewhat amoral. There is moderate to moderately strong sexual content. There is also language that can come across as being cult-like. Despite all these issues I would still recommend and teach this novel. It allows teachers to easily draw those sometimes difficult connections of great literature of the past to relevancy to the present and critical to avert a dystopian future.