Bloodchild by Octavia Butler

In Octavia Butler’s Bloodchild, a population of humans have settled on a new planet run by an insect-like race known as the Tlic. At first, the Tlic enslaved the humans and treated them as animals, penning them up and using them as hosts to hatch their eggs inside them. The grubs, as they called their young, would then hatch inside the humans and eat them from the inside out, endangering the life of the human in the process. As generations passed, however, the Tlic began to rethink their relationship with humans, and began to form a mutual, more loving bond with them. Humans were still distributed to the Tlic, but they were treated with far more dignity and care. The hatching of the grubs became a partnership, where the human had the final word on whether or not he or she was willing to carry a Tlic’s eggs inside him or her. When the grubs hatched, the Tlic mother would then take them out and place them in an animal carcass so as not to endanger the human host. The Tlic mother would then take care of her human partner as she raised her grubs.

In class, many people have wondered whether Bloodchild helps to represent the way people treat each other, or the way people treat animals. To answer this, let’s examine a quote from the story:

“The animals we once used began killing most of our eggs after implantation long before your ancestors arrived,” she said softly. “You know these things, Gan. Because your people arrived, we are relearning what it means to be a healthy, thriving people. And your ancestors, fleeing from their homeworld, from their own kind who would have killed or enslaved them—they survived because of us. We saw them as people and gave them the Preserve when they still tried to kill us as worms” (25).   

The trick word to note here is Butler’s use of the term “people.” I believe this shows that Butler was representing the relationship between different groups of people. She was trying to expose how people tend to treat each other as if they were from a different species, like the way the Tlic treated the human population on their planet. Even though the lives of Tlic and humans may be equal, despite their differences, the Tlic enslaved the humans, holding the live of their grubs above the lives of their human hosts. They treated them like animals, breeding them, selling them, and using them for their own means as an inferior race. Even now, as the cruelty and enslavement appears to be lifting and the relationship between Tlic and humankind is improving, humans are still asked to risk their lives so that the Tlic may use them for reproduction, even, as it seems, manipulating humans and convincing them that the act of hosting a grub for the sake of the Tlic is a positive and beautiful thing. So thinks our protagonist, Gan. It isn’t until he is faced with the gruesome reality of the dangerous and painful procedure of removing the grubs from a screaming host that he realizes the risk he is taking in agreeing to undertake the task. It is because the ugly truth behind hosting grubs is disguised for humans as something beautiful that we realize that Gan and all the other humans are manipulated into willingly risking their lives for a procedure that could easily be done on other species, and not necessarily on humans. It is the way the Tlic manipulate the humans by only feeding them the positive side of Tlic-human reproductive partnership, the way the Tlic even now distribute humans as necessary commodities, the way Gan and his family are restricted to living freely on their own within the Preserve’s limits, all seems to mirror the way we in the real world have treated each other, with some groups, like the Tlic, enslaving others, and using them to their own advantage. Let’s reexamine Butler’s use of the word “people.” Both the Tlic and the humans are different races of people, implying that they are, theoretically, considered as equal—different, but equal. However, even though both groups are equal, the Tlic still enslaved and mistreated the humans. Even though relationships between the Tlic and the humans are improving, there is still a disparity in rights and privileges, and the humans are still distributed and asked to risk their lives for the Tlic to reproduce. What’s more, just as we’ve seen throughout history, the inferior race that is humankind is lead to believe that they have finally achieved equality, yet, at the same time, Gan and his family cannot venture freely outside of the Preserve without a Tlic accompanying them, nor can they protect themselves with guns. Meanwhile, they are fed eggs to keep them calm, happy, and satisfied.

            While I believe Butler meant her story to represent the relationship between humans, it can also be interpreted as representing humans’ mistreatment of animals. That, in itself, shows how humans can sometimes mistreat each other as animals.