Introduction: Literature as a Mirror of History
Shortly after settling in England, the Anglo-Saxons were converted from Paganism to Christianity roughly between the years 500-600 AD. Themes of religion and conversion stretch across history and reach into every genre in literature: they are reoccurring themes in human society. This study will explore the parallels between ideals in pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon England, Octavia Butler's novel Parable of the Sower, and Eugene Thacker's philosophical work In the Dust of this Planet. The connections drawn between these three vastly different areas will prove that some themes will always be important and have relevance in society no matter how many times they are revisited. Religion is and has always been a central part of societies in all corners of the world; despite many clashes between different religions, such as Paganism and Christianity, or Christianity and Octavia Butler's Earthseed, these differing religions often have a surprising number of similarities between them, more than one might first assume.