the fight between olamina and bankole is ultimately the fight between nuclear family and community family (or just community?). individualistic vs collective approach to life.

which makes sense since acorn seems to be an amazing anti-capilist-ish community based around mutual aid (i mean, the way the school works is amazing).

but the two things that bother me a lot are:

• the religious aspect (earthseed) which i find totally unnecessary;

• the doubt that butler herself wasn't aware of it? the narrator is clearly against the community, even though it might be mainly for the "religious" aspect, nonetheless...

and then, again, i feel like butler believed humans were inevitably naturally evil. im gettin this through the younger bother marc (amongst many other characters) as well as the whole xenogenesis trilogy.

that is not a good starting point to start any community work imo.