A Question About Blood Child's Theme

Octavia Butler's "Blood Child" is a truly disturbing and grotesque story. However, a theme of slavery and abusive control is largely present and is the basis for the story. Nevertheless, Octavia insists the story is not about an almost enslavement of the Terran, and more of a love story. I question how it's not about slavery and control and more of a love story. We are shown two main species. Terran and Tlic, are on an alien planet that the Tlic inhabit. The Tlic are spider/centipede/scorpion-esk creatures. They have a “symbiotic” relationship, meaning a mutually beneficial relationship between different animals. of the Terran helping the Tlic and the Tlic helping the Terran for their own goals. However this couldn't be less true, this story is about the Tlic enslavement of the Terran. The Tlic force the Terran to be a host for their larva/eggs, in which they grow in your body and eventually you must remove them or die. The Tlic are much larger and stronger than the humans/Terran, the Tlic's only reason to keep them alive is the sole purpose of reproduction. You may be wondering what the Terran get out of it, they get to live, that is it. Some would argue for an extended life due to the healing properties of the unfertilized eggs they are fed every day. But generally, it's hard to not get the idea of a one-way abusive almost enslaved vibe from this story. This story has scenes of rape, abuse, an attempt at suicide, manipulation, incest, gore, and just overall these unsightly and twisted ideas. 

It's generally hard to ignore or read past the theme of slavery the Terran must deal with. They are kept on a reservation, manipulated, and completely controlled. It also is hard to see a loving relationship. I only see a toxic, manipulative, and one-sided relationship. T'Gatoi and Gan are supposed to be in a relationship. However, it has been one-sided from the start giving Gan no other choice. T’Gatoi chose Gan as her mate and the host of her future children while he was still in Lien's womb and T’Gatoi held him within minutes of his birth to foster the relationship. Gan is essentially forced to do anything T’Gatoi wants to do with him. She manipulates him on multiple occasions even if he was to not listen he would forcefully have his mind changed. Let's take the scene where Gan has just witnessed the birthing of a larva from another human. He comes so close to killing himself because he doesn't want to experience what he just watched. It was so disgusting and vomit-inducing that he couldn't bear to live that experience. One of the main reasons this shows how this story isn't really about love and more about these brainwashed humans is the quote from Gan ‘I moved the gun slightly, brought the barrel up diagonally under my chin." where he is on the verge of suicide because he cannot bear to endure what he had just witnessed. He is just a couple of sentences later convinced by T’Gatoi that her children are worth the pain and these manipulative things. On the next page alone this interchange is truly showing how there is no love and it is just brainwashed and it is him trying to break out of this mental prison he is in. “She would say something like that. She knew how to manipulate people, Terran and Tlic. But not this time. "I don't want to be a host animal," I said."Not even yours."

Initially, once the reader reads the story it seems to be a gross and gory depiction of a symbiotic species relationship. However, if the reader is to look just a couple of lines deeper it is truly more than that. Not a Romeo and Juliet love story but a manipulative, self-destructive, but also a whole society built off the indentured servitude of the Terrans. Just wanting to pay off the debt of the Tlics not killing them by hosting their eggs. The Tlics have more power politically, physically, mentally, etc the Terrans are controlled every moment of their lives and forced to do things they do not want to just to live. The mere idea that this story is supposed to resemble a loving relationship and equitable society is just laughable.