What is the role of empathy in Parable of the Sower?
Power and empathy are important in Parable of the Sower, first of all in the neighborhood that my character lives in, the neighborhood that she’s born in. She’s born in a neighborhood that is similar as far as class is concerned: Everybody is pretty much middle class in an area where being middle class is the same as being rich. But people come in all colors and backgrounds, and the good thing is, I’ve lived in neighborhoods like that, and I’ve lived in neighborhoods like that that became communities. So I was able to just reach back into my own past and find the kind of thing that I really needed. As a matter of fact, in my writing, one of the things that my characters are always doing is either joining or building some kind of community. And it’s always a community of people who actually do get on together, whatever their difference is. So it’s just something that I come to naturally. You know, as far as empathy is concerned, my character actually has a disorder called “hyperempathy
