Team 1 Sections
editCharacters
editQuotes
editMain themes
editHybridity
editAgency
editFledgling explores the complexities of self-determination through its protagonist’s struggle to regain control of her life and through the dependence created by Ina-human symbiosis. Shori is a typical Bildungsroman protagonist who begins with little agency and ends in charge of her life. As Florian Bast argues, Butler's novel is a typical African American narrative where the victim of a racially-motivated crime is in a quest for the truth about her former self, about the agony that she has endured, and about her assailants’ identity. By the end of the story, Shori has conquered both her own ignorance and the speciesist discrimination that seeks to define her thanks to her personal strength and the help of her symbionts and Ina family and friends. She is ready to become a full-fledged member of Ina society.[1] Shari Evans also notes that Shori’s amnesia allows her to decide for herself, with the aid of her symbionts, what type of Ina she will become.[2]
In contrast, the symbiotic partnership between Ina and humans challenges traditional ways of thinking about agency, especially because the relationship is hierarchical, with the Ina as the masters of their symbionts. Wright, for example, begins the story as a free agent but his "happily ever after" ending with Shori requires that he give up some of his agency. In addition, the agency of both the Ina and the humans is restricted by biological realities, as the addictive relationship created by chemicals in the Ina saliva when they bite their symbionts cannot be undone. For the Ina, this chemical bond means they need to be in constant physical contact with their symbionts. For the symbionts, it means that they are physically dependent on their Ina, as they could die if their Ina dies, and that they are bound to follow their Ina’s commands. [1]
These complications of agency, Bast argues, mean that Fledgling is “openly asking whether the highest degree of agency is automatically the most desirable state of being or whether there is a higher potential for happiness in choosing a specific kind of dependence.”[1]
References
edit- ^ a b c Bast, Florian. "‘I won't always ask.’ Complicating Agency in Octavia Butler's Fledgling." Current Objectives of Postgraduate American Studies 11 (2010).
- ^ Evans, Shari. "From 'Hierarchical Behavior' to Strategic Amnesia: Structures of Memory and Forgetting in Octavia Butler’s Fledgling." In Rebecca J. Holden and Nisi Shawl. Strange Matings: Science Fiction, Feminism, African American Voices, and Octavia E. Butler. Seattle, WA : Aqueduct Press, 2013.