Bloodchild Study Guide

Octavia Butler, science fiction’s most notable and influential African-American woman writer, first published ‘‘Bloodchild’’ in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine in 1984. The story was well received and won two of science fiction’s most prestigious awards, the Hugo and the Nebula. Butler, who is known primarily as a novelist, did not publish the story in book form until 1995, when she collected five of her short stories and two essays in Bloodchild and Other Stories. By this point, Butler had gained a much broader critical and popular reputation, and the collection was praised highly in distinguished mainstream forums such as the New York Times and Booklist. That same year, Butler was awarded the celebrated MacArthur Fellowship—commonly known as the ‘‘genius’’ award—for the body of her work.

Butler has described ‘‘Bloodchild’’ as a story about male pregnancy. Set on a foreign planet inhabited by giant, powerful, and intelligent insect-like beings, ‘‘Bloodchild’’ is the story of a young human male coming of age and coming to terms with his role as the carrier of an alien species’ eggs. He witnesses the violent ‘‘delivery’’ of alien grubs from the abdomen of another man and is forced to question the relationship he has long taken for granted with the species whose planet he shares. Butler is acclaimed for her fully realized characters and her sensitivity toward the psychological dilemmas created by her imaginative science fiction scenarios. In the disconcerting world of ‘‘Bloodchild,’’ Butler raises provocative questions about sex roles, self-sacrifice, and the interdependence between different species.

Bloodchild Summary

The protagonist of ‘‘Bloodchild,’’ Gan, is a Terran—a human—living on an alien planet among its powerful insect-like hosts, the Tlic, some time in the future. The story opens on Gan’s ‘‘last day of childhood.’’ The events that unfold describe a rite of passage that takes place in a society where these two different species must depend on one another in order to survive. Gan’s family has a special relationship with a particular Tlic named T’Gatoi. T’Gatoi has been a friend of Gan’s mother, Lien, since childhood. When, generations earlier, Terrans arrived on the Tlic planet, the Tlic species was dying out. The Tlic needed Terrans in order to reproduce, using the Terrans’ bodies to incubate their eggs. Despite the fact that the Tlic are more powerful physically and politically, they remain dependent on Terrans for the survival of their species. According to the arrangement between the Tlic and the Terrans, Lien would have to provide one of her children for Tlic reproduction. Gan’s older sister Xuan Hoa had wanted to be chosen to play this special role, but T’Gatoi instead chose Gan and nurtured him from his first days.

The action begins with T’Gatoi bringing the family sterile Tlic eggs, which act on humans like both a drug and a medicine. The Tlic eggs make Terrans feel drunk and also prolong their lives. There is some tension between T’Gatoi and Gan’s mother, Lien. Lien initially refuses to partake of the egg, but she eventually succumbs to T’Gatoi’s wishes, sipping the egg and allowing T’Gatoi to embrace her. Gan does not understand why she does not want the egg. T’Gatoi comments that there was not enough egg left for Lien and so she stings her in order to sedate her. The sting loosens Lien’s inhibitions and she refers to... » Complete Bloodchild Summary