I found that Octavia Butler’s “Bloodchild” was by far the most outlandish and unconventional short story that our class read. I still cannot seem to wrap my head around the implantation of Tlic eggs into the Terran hosts. What I found the most jarring though was actually how accepting the humans were of their submissive role to the Tlics. 

Throughout human history, humans have always managed to find and seize new things that were not there for the taking. For centuries, imperialism was second nature to many powerful nations. The arrival of European powers was always followed by the appropriation of land and resources and the forced assimilation of natives. I found it quite surprising that the humans had not attempted to subject the Tlics to their own influence upon immediate arrival on the Tlics’ land. Butler reveals that there had been Terran resistance to Tlic power in the past; however, the resistance seems more likely to be over the reproduction arrangement than an unsuccessful attempt at imperialization. Perhaps the first Terrans to arrive really had tried to colonize the Tlics’ land but failed and were written out of history as a result.

Regardless of whatever the backstory might have been, the Terrans’ obedience is still surprising because of how unbalanced their relationship is in favor of the Tlics. Human beings have always viewed themselves as the single most important and developed species, so it is quite out of character that they would submit to another species.