1. When Lauren stopped on the side of the road to comfort Allie after the loss of her sister, she showed humanity and understanding without saying a word. She has been the leader of this traveling group and now shows even more strength and support of her members. She has always been in search of belonging to a community like Earthseed so that no one will ever feel alone like she did after her family was killed. Butler writes," In spite of your loss or pain, you aren't alone." She has been successful in building this community of many different races, genders, children and adult alike into a family willing to protect, feed, and support each other.

1. One attribute or fact about the new character of Emery Tanaka Solis that is significant is she was sold into debt slavery and she was also a sharer too. Her story is tragic as well, due to the loss of her husband, she and her 3 children were indentured debt slaves to the company that her husband worked for. Her 2 boys were taken and sold which left her no choice but to protect her daughter and escape. It is so telling that Allie and Jill knew she endured trauma because of the way she and her daughter responded to threats by going into a self protective fetal position to shield oneself from the cruel beating. Also, they are not sharers themselves. It is interesting that the abused and victimized can sense this in other abused victims without a word.

1. This Earthseed entry perfectly describes the journey that the group has been undertaking. Throughout the daily danger they have endured, they have been students and teachers of each other. I believe the message is that all your experiences come from God and he will give you the lessons through others so that you learn. If you choose not to learn from your mistakes then you will likely die.

1. In this place of the story, I found this conversation between Mora and Lauren to be significant. Mora still remains skeptical of joining this group and in particular is distrusting of the white man, Harry. The undercurrents of discrimination and racism are present throughout the story and this group is unique in its ability to accept each other and value everyone's contribution no matter their color or race. Mora also is battling the fact that he is a sharer and if found out, could be more easily sold back into slavery. Lauren called him out on his cowardice and the reason why he ran when the gang invaded their camp. Lauren provides him a safe place to finally talk about his hyper empathy and he knows she understands how painful it can be. His sharing makes him more vulnerable as a parent and protector of his daughter, Doe. Lauren is a good judge of character and can read others and their motivations well which makes her a good leader.

1. I found this conversation between Bankole and Lauren significant because it gives you a foreshadowing to where the beginnings of Earthseed will be. As a 57 year old man, Bankole is amused by the youthful hopes and dreams of 18 year old Lauren. He has his agenda to marry her and wants her to move into his land plantation of 300 acres. She explains that he has to understand her purpose and drive to create the first Earthseed community starting with this travel group. To further show her trust and commitment to him, she reveals her hyper-empathy to Bankole who accepts her and her future Earthseed community completely.

1. One place in the text where Lauren's character is evolving in her world view is during the discussion between her and Bankole and their past family religions and her new quest for Earthseed. Bankole challenges her to describe what Earthseed is and how she invented it. She admitted not believing in the Baptist beliefs of her parents and he did not share his late wife's Methodist beliefs. As she defends the principles of Earthseed, she admits that when she was at her lowest just witnessing the death of her her family and home, and the realization that she is totally alone in this dangerous world, she had to believe in something, in order to keep going. Earthseed has become her identity and is the one thing she can believe in in order to have any hope for a future.

1. In the Earthseed verse of Chapter 20, it explains that the group needs to find what they need within themselves and through one another because God is neither love or hate, good or evil. In other words, the world is what it is and they have to adapt and lean on each other to survive and meet their human needs. Each person in this group of 8 adults and one baby, has individual needs of belonging, basic safety, companionship, and have lived through past trauma. An example of learning to adapt, is when they come upon an orphaned 3 year old boy that needs someone to care for him and Allie naturally bonds with him even though she is tormented by the memory of her father killing her baby son. By taking care of each other, they are learning how to heal.

1. One fact about the new character, Taylor Franklin Bankole is that he has an African surname chosen by his grandfather. Butler introduces this character, Bankole to Lauren and there is an immediate connection between them because they both share the same heritage as African descendants of their grandfathers that both chose Yoruba African names for their families back in the 1960s. Bankole symbolizes a connection to her African heritage and her dead family. In this crazy world of danger and uncertainty, the connection between them is a safe place where love can grow.

1. This place in the text reminded me of the Book of Ecclesiastes chapters one through twelve that we read in September. Lauren is trying to explain her vision of God to Travis as God is change. I believe she is searching for the human wisdom of God just like in the Bible. We are limited as humans in the understanding of God. Ecclesiastes describes "vanity" as material things, pleasures, and human wisdom is meaningless without faith and focus on God. When Lauren speaks of "shaping God", I think she is limited in her human thinking. We cannot shape God. He has shaped the whole world and our human behavior and mind cannot fathom the real power of God.

1. I was significant that Lauren revealed her secret about her hyper-empathy condition to Harry and Zahra so early in their relationship because of the extreme circumstances that they were faced with. She had to explain why she went the extra step in slashing the wounded man's throat so that he would not, but also she would not, continue to suffer the pain of dying. This act appeared cold blooded and extra violent to Zahra and Harry. Lauren was taking a chance that they would abandon her as being too extreme or a violent renegade by revealing her truth in this vulnerable moment. Harry was still feeling betrayed because he thought he knew Lauren from his hometown and called her a "good actor" and nothing like he perceived her. Zahra's reaction was acceptance and support of her new friend.

1. The Earthseed verse that describes embracing diversity is significant because Lauren realizes that she has to trust and rely on other strangers in order to survive in this outside world. She and Zahra are black women but were never friends because they were in different social stations in the their little town of Robledo. Now they find that they need one another and they each have skills that they can share with each other, for example, Lauren can teach Zahra how to read and write and Zahra can teach Lauren street smarts and how to survive in a world without basic necessities. Harry is a white guy that offers a male presence with two women traveling and they can help each other by combining their monies, food, and personal protection of each other. She also included the mixed race couple of Travis ( black male) and Natividad ( Hispanic) and their baby into their group to offer more protection for each other against all the others who will prey upon them. Racism is always a threat and uniting their diversity can make their group stronger.

1. Lauren reflects on remembering the person she was raised to be, a pastor's daughter, following all the rules, and the laws of God. Lauren gets angry when Harry calls her out on the fact that she is okay with Zahra stealing peaches for them to eat and mocks her with scripture. She is having an internal struggle with going against her father's teachings but also new awareness that now she must kill and steal in order to protect herself and survive. This is significant because she is changing her beliefs in order to survive. Her new focus is survival by any means necessary which goes against the church and her father's teachings. She realizes that she is inexperienced and is eager to learn about the real harsh world from Zahra and others along the way.

1. One place that reveals something significant about how Laurens character is this place they decided to settle down at for the night after being on the highway. During the beginning of this section, Lauren seems to be calling some shots and she is the one with the gun so she assumes more power. When she wakes up she eliminates the threat and saves her friends. She makes the hard decisions that in this instance Harry would not have made which is important for somebody who is stepping or leaning more into this leadership role.