With Octavia Butler’s novel, Fledgling, Butler presents the story of an African-
American girl, Shori, who wakes up in critical condition, with no remembrance of her past.
She goes on to be the narrator of this story, soon finding out that she is a vampire, relying on the symbiotic relationship with humans, needing their blood to survive. As she journeys to find answers with Wright, a construction worker, and his neighbor, Theodora, both her symbionts, she encounters her father, Iosif. She learns that her mother died in a fire at the ruins where she awoke, and that she is a modification of her people, the Ina, all of which are white. Shortly after, Iosif is killed in a similar fire set upon his home. Shori, with the help of another Ina family, learns that the Silk family is the behind …show more content…
Throughout, she seems to have this tone of hope. While she is not sure what to expect through her journeying, also encountering roadblocks and tragedies along the way, she continues to be hopeful for what is to come. Rather than getting down about her circumstance, she keeps her head up, continually moving forward. This hopeful tone helps create that innocence that makes the audience root for her. It’s what makes her a reliable narrator. Had she been negative and angry, although more than justified, she would not have come across as innocent, nor would the reader have any ____ to believe that she would be a reliable narrator from that point forward. Anything she shared thereafter could have been argued to be influenced by her own bias and anger.
In her novel, dealing with themes of discrimination and identity, Butler’s choice of a female narrator that has been cursed with a loss of memory and self is a smart one. Shori’s innocence and curiosity, as well as her hopeful tone, help to make her a reliable narrator throughout the novel, giving the reader reason to care about the story she has to