Symbolism In Octavia Butler's Bloodchild

Gan is the narrator of Octavia Butler’s science fiction “Bloodchild.” He is a teenage boy who lives on an alien planet that his ancestors settled on due to persecution. The Tlics are the main residents of this planet. They are big insect-like beings that need live hosts for their parasitic young. T’Gatoi is one of them. She is the Tlic politician that is in charge of the preserve that Gan’s family and several other humans live in. This ensures the safety and continual growth of the human species while still allowing access to their bodies for Tlic impregnation. N’Tlic is the name chosen for these impregnated humans, and T’Gatoi selected Gan to be hers three minutes after his birth. Gan starts his narration during one of T’Gatoi’s regular visits to his family where she gives them intoxicative sterile Tlic eggs. Later that night, T’Gatoi finds an N’Tlic man in

However, I will not dismiss the systematic limitations that influenced his upbringing as a subservient human. It is very important to acknowledge that his life prior to the conversation between him and T’Gatoi was a consequence of the choices of others. His ancestors chose to leave their home planet. His mother chose T’Gatoi, and T’Gatoi chose him. Therefore, it can be said that he chose to be an N’Tlic because it was all he had always known. It can also be said that his upbringing would not allow him to harm a Tlic though he was not pressured by a “master” to choose a “right” option. His love for his sister would not allow him to let her be his escape, and his feelings for T’Gatoi clearly motivated his reply. I believe that without careful consideration of his complex situation, readers cannot just isolate one of this reasons as the reasoning behind his choice. Instead, all should be understood, because then readers would oversimplify the complexity of the world and the character created by