Parable of the Sower: Chapter 10 Summary & Analysis

The narrative jumps ahead to the year 2026. Lauren writes that Keith has come back again. He is almost 14 now, and very tall. Keith tells Lauren that he’s “got a room” in a building, which Lauren takes to mean he’s squatting with a gang or a group of prostitutes or drug addicts. Lauren asks if his friends know how old he is, and Keith replies that of course they don’t. Lauren cooks them rabbit stew and acorn bread. After years of mutual dislike, Keith now talks to Lauren more than anyone else in the family. He tells her that the building looks “nasty” on the outside, but that inside it is filled with hi-tech amenities. He explains that the people he lives with need him around because he can read and write, and they are all illiterate. He helps them to read the instructions on their equipment so they can actually use it.

Lauren knows Keith is lying, and that he must be earning money through theft or selling drugs. Keith asks if their father has ever beat Lauren, and she admits that the last time he did was when she was 12 and he caught her having sex with a neighborhood boy in the bushes. Keith says she was lucky not to get pregnant, and Lauren agrees. Keith calls their father a “bastard,” and Lauren counters that he is “the best man I know.” Lauren keeps asking Keith questions about his life outside, which makes him realize that Lauren wants to leave the neighborhood too. Eventually Keith explains that he initially slept in a cardboard box for three days and stole food. Eventually, he stole a “sleepsack” and some money from an old man, and started making his way to LA. Lauren notes that it has always been Keith’s dream to move there.

Keith admits that he stole $23,000 from a man who’d come to LA from Alaska, before shooting him. He warns Lauren that she’d do better to stay in the neighborhood, marry Curtis, and have babies than go outside. He claims that Lauren would not be able to “last a day” because of her hyperempathy. Keith tells Lauren about “crazies” who take the drug that makes them want to watch fires. They shave off all their hair, paint their skin bright colors, and set fire to buildings and people. Keith swears that he’s never tried the drug. He adds that most of the addicts are young people, and that he thinks people don’t tend to live long after they start taking it.

That evening, Keith gives presents to the family and offers to bring something for Lauren next time, but she refuses. The next Monday is Lauren’s birthday. She has sex with Curtis using condoms he’s managed to find. Keith comes over and gives Lauren some money as a present. She tries to give it back, but Keith refuses to take it.

Two days later, Cory and Lauren’s father have to go downtown to identify Keith’s body. Lauren is unable to write for three days. On Saturday, she says that writing may help her understand what has happened. Keith’s skin had been cut away and burned, and his eyes had been burned out. It is clear that he had been tortured slowly. The police say that this is how drug dealers torture people, and that Keith must have either been stealing from or competing with them. The police treat Lauren’s father suspiciously, especially after Wardell Parrish tells them about the fight he had with Keith. It is well known that the police often accuse people of crimes just for the sake of it—but no one else in the neighborhood will back up Wardell’s story, so they drop it.

Lauren’s father asks his friend, another reverend, to handle the funeral. Cory can’t stop crying, but Lauren’s father doesn’t cry—he never has, although now Lauren wishes he would. It’s only when Curtis points it out that Lauren notices that she herself hasn’t cried either. Lauren’s feelings about Keith remain mixed, and she resents how he “messed up” their family. She is still devastated by his death, and wishes that everyone had hyperempathy, because that way people wouldn’t kill each other. Failing that, she wishes she could at least live among other people with the syndrome. Lauren does not regret the fact that she cannot cry over Keith, though she hopes that he rests in peace—“in his urn, in heaven, wherever.”