A Study Guide for Octavia E. Butler's "Patternmaster"

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide for Octavia E. Butler's "Patternmaster," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Novels for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Novels for Students for all of your research needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: Jun 27, 2016
• ISBN: 9781535830638

Book preview

10

Patternmaster

Octavia E. Butler

1976

Introduction

The debut novel from acclaimed African American science fiction author Octavia E. Butler, Patternmaster, published in 1976, was the first in what became a series of five novels dubbed the Patternmaster series. The series as a whole covers a period from pre-colonial Africa to the world after a holocaust. Patternmaster is set late in the chronology of the series and explores a future society in which Patternists dominate. Patternists are people with powerful mental and telepathic abilities who are joined through a network called the Pattern and controlled by the Patternmaster. Patternists are served by mutes (that is, humans who lack these abilities) and Clayarks (humans who have come into contact with an alien disease, which has mutated them into a cat or griffin-like hybrid).

In Patternmaster, Butler focuses on the lives and struggles of two brothers, Teray and Coransee, who are powerful enough to succeed their father, the current, ailing Patternmaster. Throughout the novel, Butler examines ideas such as community, communication, power, and responsibility while telling the brothers' story. She also touches on feminist issues in her female characters, especially through the powerful healer, Amber, who becomes Teray's closest ally and mentor.

Critics have responded positively to Patternmaster, though it came to be seen by some critics as one of the weaker novels in the series because it resembled mainstream science fiction more than Butler's other works.

Author Biography

Octavia E. Butler was born on June 22, 1947, in Pasadena, California, the daughter of Laurice and Octavia M. (Guy) Butler. Her father worked as a shoe shiner until his death when Butler was still an infant. Raised by her mother, who took jobs as a maid to help support her daughter, as well as her grandmother, Butler was an introverted, solitary child who enjoyed reading from an early age. She read through the entire children's section at the Pasadena Library before she turned fourteen—at which age she was allowed to enter the adult section. Looking for something new to read, Butler discovered science fiction magazines and became fascinated by the genre.

Even before that, when Butler was twelve years old, she had seen the science fiction film Devil Girl from Mars and believed she could write something better. She began working on what would eventually become the Patternmaster series. By the age of thirteen, Butler was submitting short stories to magazines. After completing high school, Butler entered Pasadena City College where she continued to write. She won a short story contest during her first semester. She put her writing career on hold while she earned her A.A. and continued her education at California State University at Los Angeles