Biblical references/quotes in Parable of the Sower
John 1
(general story of Jesus)
Acts 2
(general story of early Christianity: ‘And day by day the Lord added to their number those whom he was saving.)
Jericho
(and the walls came tumbling down)
10 Commandments
(honor thy father and thy mother; thou shalt not steal)
Revelations
(Babylon the great is fallen)
Good Samaritan
Job
(after Job’s ten children, crops, and herds have been destroyed by Satan, with God’s permission): Throughout all this Job did not sin; he did not charge God with unreason….(Then Satan afflicts Job with boils and sores): Then his wife said to him, ‘Are you still unshaken in your integrity? Curse God and die!’ But he answered, ‘If we accept good from God, shall we not accept evil?’ Throughout all this, Job did not utter one sinful word. …. (Then Job wishes he had never been born, and God reminds him that he, God, made the world and the crocodile, and has all power.) Then Job answered the Lord: ‘I know that thou canst do all things and that no purpose is beyond thee.’ … So the Lord restored Job’s fortunes and doubled all his possessions…and he had seven (new) sons and three (new) daughters.
Ecclesiastes 3
For everything its season…. A time to be born and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to uproot; a time to kill and a time to heal…
Genesis 6
Noah was a righteous man, the one blameless man of his time…. God said to Noah, ‘The loathsomeness of all mankind has become plain to me, for through them the earth is full of violence. I intend to destroy them, and the earth with them. Make yourself an ark…. You shall go into the ark, you and your sons, your wife, and your son’s wives with you. And you shall bring living creatures of every kind into the ark to keep them alive with you…. To ensure that life continues on earth. … God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase, and fill the earth.”…. And from a man also I will require satisfaction for the death of his fellow-man: ‘He that sheds the blood of a man, for that man his blood shall be shed.’
Nehemiah 4:14
And I looked and rose up and said unto the nobles, and to the rest of the people, be not afraid of them: Remember the Lord which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives and your houses.
Luke 18:1-8
There was once a judge who cared nothing for God or man, and in the same town there was a wido who constantly came before him demanding justice against her opponent. For a long time he refused; but in the end he said to himself, ‘True, I care nothing for God or man; but this widow is so great a nuisance that I will see her righted before she wears me out with her persistence.’ … And will not God vindicate his chosen who cry out to him day and night, while he listens patiently to them.
Fishing that river
Jesus said to them, ‘Come with me, and I will make you fishers of men.’
Luke 8:5-8
A sower went out to sow.
QUATER-1-PE-HEALTH-LC2- this is just a sample of unpacked lesson
Biblical referencesquotes in Parable of the SowerJohn 1(gen.docx
1. Biblical references/quotes in Parable of the Sower
John 1
(general story of Jesus)
Acts 2
(general story of early Christianity: ‘And day by day the Lord
added to their number those whom he was saving.)
Jericho
(and the walls came tumbling down)
10 Commandments
(honor thy father and thy mother; thou shalt not steal)
Revelations
(Babylon the great is fallen)
Good Samaritan
Job
(after Job’s ten children, crops, and herds have been destroyed
by Satan, with God’s permission): Throughout all this Job did
not sin; he did not charge God with unreason….(Then Satan
afflicts Job with boils and sores): Then his wife said to him,
‘Are you still unshaken in your integrity? Curse God and die!’
But he answered, ‘If we accept good from God, shall we not
accept evil?’ Throughout all this, Job did not utter one sinful
word. …. (Then Job wishes he had never been born, and God
reminds him that he, God, made the world and the crocodile,
and has all power.) Then Job answered the Lord: ‘I know that
thou canst do all things and that no purpose is beyond thee.’ …
So the Lord restored Job’s fortunes and doubled all his
possessions…and he had seven (new) sons and three (new)
2. daughters.
Ecclesiastes 3
For everything its season…. A time to be born and a time to
die; a time to plant and a time to uproot; a time to kill and a
time to heal…
Genesis 6
Noah was a righteous man, the one blameless man of his time….
God said to Noah, ‘The loathsomeness of all mankind has
become plain to me, for through them the earth is full of
violence. I intend to destroy them, and the earth with them.
Make yourself an ark…. You shall go into the ark, you and
your sons, your wife, and your son’s wives with you. And you
shall bring living creatures of every kind into the ark to keep
them alive with you…. To ensure that life continues on earth.
… God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be
fruitful and increase, and fill the earth.”…. And from a man
also I will require satisfaction for the death of his fellow-man:
‘He that sheds the blood of a man, for that man his blood shall
be shed.’
Nehemiah 4:14
And I looked and rose up and said unto the nobles, and to the
rest of the people, be not afraid of them: Remember the Lord
which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your
sons, and your daughters, your wives and your houses.
Luke 18:1-8
There was once a judge who cared nothing for God or man, and
in the same town there was a wido who constantly came before
him demanding justice against her opponent. For a long time he
refused; but in the end he said to himself, ‘True, I care nothing
for God or man; but this widow is so great a nuisance that I will
see her righted before she wears me out with her persistence.’
… And will not God vindicate his chosen who cry out to him
3. day and night, while he listens patiently to them.
Fishing that river
Jesus said to them, ‘Come with me, and I will make you fishers
of men.’
Luke 8:5-8
A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell
by the wayside; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the
air devoured it. And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it
was sprung up, it withered away because it lacked moisture.
And some fell upon thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and
choked it. And others fell on good ground,, and sprang up, and
bore fruit an hundredfold.
Parable of the Sower (large cover: 329 pages)
Fire
4, 18, 23, 31, 143, 196, 308
Fire drug
54, 110, 143, 154, 304
Water
13, 17-18, 47-48, 201, 265, 318,
Cops
19, 51, 71, 114, 164, 229, 237, 316,
Firemen
32
Guns
8, 10, 36-37, 38-39, 40, 81, 94, 216, 227
Rape
9, 13, 22, 163, 184, 237
11. 163, 243
Maggots
8, 142
Pack
163
Gang
200
Charity, compassion
203, 214
Benefits of helping others
203
Liabilities of helping others
Responsible for those helped
209
Worth
173, 214, , 257, 279, 281
Invited, not invited
161, 188, 203, 212, 222, 254-56
English 1C – paper four
Parable of the Sower
You have read Parable of the Sower. Your 4th paper will use
Parable of the Sower but may incorporate other arguments
12. (articles, books, and/or films, short stories, novels…).
You have two options. One is more of a cultural analysis paper
while the other is more grounded in science. Either way, you
must present a clearly stated thesis and support it with specific,
focused, relevant evidence, including at least four (4) credible
sources (not counting Parable of the Sower). Your paper should
be 5-6 pages long. Films, short stories… do not count as
sources but should be listed in your bibliography. This essay is
worth 200 points.
Remember to submit your paper to Canvas turnitin on time.
Option 1
Generally speaking, you want to identify some specific theme,
image, plot pattern, image, reference, type of relationship, event
or set of related events… and figure out how that specific thing
relates to, or illuminates, or helps us understand the larger
themes of the novel (and other texts, films… if you choose to
include them). How might some specific set of incidents or
explanations or comparisons or whatever… help a reader
understand these texts’ quests for community, for safety and
survival, for freedom from oppression and exploitation and
control, for a better future, for hope…. The Book of Eli, The
Road, The Road Warrior, and other post-apocalyptic films might
be useful for comparison.
Your essay should not simply answer these questions as I have
posed them. Use these passages as starting points for your own
thinking and exploration, or go beyond them to find another
relevant topic for discussion. In any case, make sure the topic
you explore and the thesis you advance add to the reader’s
understanding of the texts. Do NOT simply retell the stories.
Possible topics would include, but are not limited to, the
following:
Leadership/Power. While slaveowners and employers and the
corporation that buys Olivar seem willing to exploit, control,
dominate, or even enslave those without power, Lauren has a
different approach. How does she lead, how does she inspire,
guide, persuade, share governance, make decisions, and create a
13. cohesive “pack”?
Difference. As much as some people seem to want a sense of
community, they still see significant differences that may keep
them apart. Consider the ways people react to racial/ethnic
differences as well as gender differences, class differences,
education differences, physical differences, even age
differences. How do these differences, or rather people’s belief
that they matter, affect or relate to larger themes of community,
survival, building a future?
Caretaking. Who parents, and how? Who doesn’t? Who takes
responsibility for children, and why? What does it mean to
people to raise and protect children, and what does it mean to
others to see them do it? Why are certain people so concerned
with, so conscious of, how children are treated? How might the
treatment of children relate to the overall point of the story, the
overall movement of the community? Why are children
apparently so important, even though they pose a number of
problems? How far will people go for children, and why do
some limitations exist on the level of sacrifice they’ll make for
children? Is the treatment of children (or the sick, or the weak,
or the elderly) a way to measure or evaluate characters? If so,
how, why, and with what insights as a result?
Love, trust, community, interdependence. Who loves? Who
gets trusted, and why? What criteria are in use? Who is not
trusted, not a member, not included? Why, and with what
consequences? Who relies on someone else, and with what
consequences? Who won’t, who can’t? What makes a
community? Who gets to join, and why? And how quickly?
Who doesn’t, and why? Do the rules for who’s invited stay the
same? Does everyone want to be in a community? Are there
different kinds of communities? What are the purposes or
advantages of communities? What does the nature of a
community say about, or how does it relate to, or how does it
offer insight into, the story as a whole, the situation presented
in the book/movie? What might be the point the author is trying
14. to make by representing the community (or communities) in this
way? How does thinking about the community, and how it
works (or doesn’t) illuminate the story as a whole?
Consumption. Environments get used up, people get eaten,
structures get burnt, money runs out, space programs get
cancelled, workers get used up, cities die, knowledge fades,
families get destroyed, planets get poisoned. How do people
seem to relate to their possessions, assets, resources,
responsibilities, opportunities? If people relate differently, act
differently as stewards or owners or employers or parents or
consumers, what is the point being made? Who succeeds, who
fails and why, whose methods are represented favorably?
Cannibalism. Who will, who won’t, and why? What point is
being made about dying societies resorting to cannibalism?
What point is made when some characters refuse to do so, or
react in horror, or reject those who commit cannibalism? If
cannibalism is symbolic, what is it a symbol of? What is it a
measure of? How does it relate to other problems in these
imagined worlds?
Metaphors. The novel uses a number of different metaphors or
symbols to convey the narrator’s perspective of the brutal
realities of her world. Explore the types of symbols she uses,
the symbols she chooses, and what they convey or suggest about
her world.
Option 2
In an organized essay of 5-6 pages, offer a specific thesis and
explore it with discussion of specific examples from Parable of
the Sower. (You can also incorporate filmsif you choose.)
You will be researching your topic and must include at least
four (4) credible sources (not counting Parable and any films
you might include).
What “real-world” comparisons can you make to the phenomena
you see in Parable? You will identify a specific phenomenon in
the novel, explore how it happens in the imagined future of the
text, and explain how it really is now (or how it really was in
15. the past).
Make sure that your paper explores both the reality and the
fiction. Do not simply mention Parable in the introduction and
then write a straight research paper; your essay should engage
with Parable throughout, using it as a prediction for what might
happen and how it would affect human life/society/well-being if
a specific problem escalated beyond our present-day experience.
Use Parable specifically, thoughtfully, and relevantly to frame
your analysis of a specific present-day real-world problem and
its possible effects in the future. (Do not just write a bland
scientific explanation of climate change with a few quotes from
Parable tacked on. This should be a deep analysis, using
Parable as a projection of a present-day problem if it were to
escalate and get much worse in the future.)
Possible topics would include, but are not limited to, the
following:
Loss of farmland (topsoil, water, the land itself…)
Lack of access to clean, potable water
Illiteracy and lack of access to public education
Lack of access to health care, including birth control/family
planning
Company towns
Debt slavery
Exploitation (including sexual exploitation) of workers
Slavery (unpaid, unsafe work)
The psychological effects of constant fear and hopelessness
Survivalists, bunker-builders, people who mistrust the
government or fear its collapse
Communes, collectives who share resources and ideologies, who
protect each other
Shared child-rearing
Polygamy, multiple wives, exploited women, bought women
Inflation, the collapse of trade, massive unemployment,
monopolies
The effects of hunger, starvation, malnutrition… on people’s
16. behavior, decisions, outlooks on life, and values
If the novel is making predictions, or projections, or
exaggerations, based on real life, on real history or the actual
present-day problems we see, you should be able to discuss the
real-life phenomenon and the fictional representation together.
Offer a thesis, an insight, a comparison, a prediction, or another
claim that specifically guides the reader’s understanding of this
phenomenon as it is represented in the novel.
Whichever option you choose, your essay should be well-
written, clear, focused, specific, and organized.
A successful essay will contain:
An interesting title (not Paper #4) and an introduction that gets
the reader interested.
A clear thesis (claim, argument, position, idea, point),
effectively expressed, insightful, and useful. Plot summary and
general facts are not an argument. Go beyond telling me what
happens, and provide something new: why it happens as it
does, or how it’s similar or different in the novel and “real
life,” or why it didn’t happen some other way, or how the novel
is a realistic extension or projection based on what has really
happened in history (or the present) ….A thesis statement
should probably express an idea like “because,” “however,” “in
contrast,” “as a result,” “similarly,” or “despite the fact that.”)
A literary-analysis thesis will be a little different from a real-
world-comparison thesis, but in either case your own insights
should be expressed clearly, directly, not generally.
Logically ordered paragraphs, focused on specific points, using
topic sentences to focus each paragraph and transition sentences
to connect them. A new idea or example needs a new paragraph
and topic sentence.
Specific evidence, quotes, and examples (drawn, for this paper,
from the novel and your research, as well as any other science
fiction films or novels you think are appropriate).
17. Clear discussion of what the evidence means, describing it for a
reader who hasn’t seen or read it, explaining what it means, and
tying it to your thesis. (Try to imagine, as you describe and
explain your evidence, that I have not read the novel. It’ll help
you be more specific about what happens and what it means.)
An effective conclusion that sums up and comments on the
overall point you’ve made, ideally with some sense of its
significance. Your significance might point to a specific
comment on human society, in science fiction or real life.
Solid grammar, punctuation, and mechanics, including MLA
format….
An appropriate tone, without sarcasm or vague generalities
about how we “should” treat each other or the planet.
You might want to review some of the material we read in A
Brief Guide to Arguing About Literature before tackling this
project.
Please submit, with your final version, a SELF-TEST of your
essay’s organization.
You will turn in this outline and any inked changes, stapled to
the front of your essay, with your name and paper title at the
top.
Re-read your draft and type a one-sentence paraphrase of the
main idea of each paragraph.
(If you find this difficult to do, it might be because a paragraph
lacks a specific idea or has too many ideas for one paragraph.)
Print out your paraphrase of each paragraph’s point, double-
spaced.
Then, on this printed paraphrase, indicate needed changes:
Break long paragraphs and unfocused paragraphs into smaller
units of thought.
Delete paragraphs (or parts of paragraphs) that are off-topic or
redundant.
Move paragraphs into a better order, if possible. Arrows would
18. be useful to indicate where things should move.
Then, going back to your complete draft,
Revise your draft to reflect the changes suggested by the
paraphrasing exercise.
Review and Clarify the topic sentences in your essay. Each
topic sentence should focus and set up the subject and point and
insight of the paragraph. A general fact or vaguely stated idea
makes for a poor topic sentence.
Develop clearer transitions and a stronger thesis that more
clearly states your overall insight.
Proofread and re-read for content, clarity, and organization.
