The Power of Love

The Power of Love
In the future society of “Bloodchild”, humans became “host animals”, they host Tlic’s eggs for them so that the Tlic’s generation can continues; and the Tlic have the control and power to rule the world and provide humans with places to live, food sources, and make them stay young and strong. Two main characters Gan and T’Gatoi are not only tagged as living in a different social classes, but more importantly, they are different living beings. They have different appearances, biorgans, and physiologies. From my understanding and perspective of the story “Bloodchild”, Octavia Bulter shows her understand and definition about love from a love story about Gan and T’Gatoi, two very different living beings. T’Gaoti has been look after Gan since he was a baby, she treats Gan as her future partner. Gan likes T’Gatoi, more like a kind of obsession. But after seeing Lomas’s give birth to another Tlic’s babies, the horrifying implantation precess made Gan realized how much difference he and T’Gatoi are. He became afraid that if he decided to carry T’Gatoi’s eggs, he would end up going through the same brutal and lousy implantation as Lomas did, which Gan doesn’t want to happen. During the conversation, Gan felt himself is being angry and jealous, he knows that he is not happy about that his sister Hoa is going to accept the eggs from T’Gatoi. At the end, all the miserable and entanglement cleared off, Gan and T’Gatoi become together as partners.
The story begins with “My last night of childhood began with a visit home” (Pearson 86), which foreshadows at the end of the story when the main character Gan finishes his childhood by accepting to put T’Gaoti’s eggs into his body. At the beginning of the story we can see how T’Gatoi is different from the human, and how important and authoritative she is in this society. “T’Gatoi was the Tlic government official in charge of the Preserve, and thus the most important of her kind to deal directly with Terrans.” (Pearson ) The reaction Gan’s family has for T’Gatoi and how Gan’s mother used to be so proud to as the family have her caretaker demonstrates this. “I had seen the desperate eagerness in the way some people looked at me. It was a little frightening to know that only she stood between us and that desperation that could so easily swallow us.” (Pearson ) While the young Gan is confused about why his mother has changed her attitude to T’Gatoi, he has a different feeling about T’Gatoi’s physical touch among his other family members. Butler said:
“I had always found it comfortable to lie that way, but except for my older sister, no one else in the family liked it. They said it made them feel caged.” (Pearson 88)
The feeling Gan has for T’Gatoi is definitely stronger than the rest of his family members. He loves the way she moves; he wants to help T’Gatoi with Lomas’s giving birth to show her that he is old and strong enough to help her like his older brother Qui; argues with his brother by standing at T’Gatoi’s side without any hesitation, because Gan trusts her. After he sees what happens to Lomas, he starts to question the love he thinks T’Gatoi has for him. He afraid that to T’Gaoti, Gan is just a host animal that carry her eggs, anyone can do it. He asks T’Gatoi what he is to her, he directly asks her face to face with honesty and courage. He told T’Gatoi to choose his sister Xuan Hoa, but then he feels furious and annoyed due to his jealous because he doesn’t want T’Gatoi have someone else. He wants T’Gatoi to be only his, he does not to share her with anyone, even his little sister. What he wished came true at last, he ends his childhood by accepting T’Gatoi’s eggs implanted into his body and he now finally has the intimacy in the relationship.
The story is written in the first person narrator point of view, so it is not easy for us to see what the mental activity and psychology inside of T’Gatoi head regarding Gan is in the story. Gan, to T’Gatoi surely means something special. Gan was the first child that T’Gatoi held in her limbs, Gan had his first egg when he was just a baby and was only a few days old, and thanks to T’Gatoi he does not have to learn how to do family business such as kill a achiti. Instead, he spends most of his childhood time with T’Gatoi.
“My mother, Hoa, Qui could kill them with knives. I had never killed one at all, had never slaughtered any animal. I had spent most of my time with T’Gatoi while my brother and sisters were learning the family business.” (Pearson 91)
All these facts show us that T’Gatoi treats Gan differently from the others since the day he was born. For T’Gatoi, Gan seems like love at first sight. T’Gatoi loves Gan, she doesn’t want Gan to know about all the detailed information of implantation before she thinks he is ready, and she stopped and glanced at Gan before she cuts Lomas’s body to take out the babies. She didn’t kill Gan and his family for hiding a firearm weapon; she faced and answered Gan’s query honestly, and she respects him by letting him make his own decision instead of manipulation him. The story ends with the promise T’Gatoi made to Gan while she is doing the implantation, “I won’t leave you as Lomas was left—alone, N’Tlic. I will take care of you.” (Pearson 102) This promise shows us that T’Gatoi loves Gan. Not only does she loves him, but she protects him and she cares about him.
In the story, Gan and T’Gatoi’s love for each other and the fear Gan has are not extreme stand out to readers. Nevertheless, there are many other characters’ actions which show how Butler defines love. Gan’s mother, Lien, protects Gan as much as she can and she doesn’t want Gan go through what her husband went through before he died. Lien begs T’Gatoi not to take her son away from her. However, she doesn’t realize that Gan actually loves T’Gatoi. Lomas and his Tlic, T’Khotgif Tef, play as the foil characters in the story. Without Lomas giving birth to the babies, T’Gatoi probably would not Gan make the decision this early. Without this example of a Tlic and N’Tlic couple, Gan might have changed his decision at the end to let T’Gatoi to implant his sister instead of him. Without the love that happens between this couple, it would never show us that this story is a love story.
“ ‘Lomas?’ she said harshly. I liked her for the question and the concern on her voice when she asked it. The last coherent thing he had said was her name.” (Pearson 95)
This short question asked by T’Khotgif Tef showed Gan and us that there is true love existing between a Tlic and a N’Tlic, it is not just about hosting eggs into a human body, it is about caring and love.
Overall, “Bloodchild” gives us a new perspective and understanding about love. It gives us the questionable power imbalance between a couple. It gives us a cultural vision shock by showing the detailed procedure of how to give birth to a baby. It gives us the struggle and difficulty of two different beings being in love. There are so many elements that we need to consider and measure when we decide to love someone and to be with someone, but the power of love is so strong so that everything else seems small and weak, unworthy of mentioning. To be with someone you are in love with, it’s the best thing.

Works Cite

Butler, Octavia. “Bloodchild.” Introduction to literature. Ed. Kathleen Shine Cain. Boston: Pearson, 2014. 86-103. Print.