Mind of My Mind

“She began to fill her hands out, smooth them, straighten the long fingers until the hands were those of a young woman, attractive in themselves but incongruous on the ends of withered, ancient arms.”

Emma is a shapeshifter who prefers the body of an older woman unless she is with Doro. In this scene, she begins to change her body to please Doro, creating a moment of stark imagery that contrasts the different ages she can take. Emma’s hands are that of a young woman’s but are still attached to the arms of an old woman. This contrast represents the immortality that Emma possesses, allowing her to experience life through different identities. The striking juxtaposition of youthful hands and aged arms becomes a metaphor for duality—Emma is both powerful and vulnerable, timeless yet tired. The grotesque yet tender image visually captures the cost of survival under Doro’s influence.

“But me, I was special. Sure. Doro had said it himself. An experiment. Apparently an experiment that had failed several times before. And Doro was trying to shore it up now by pairing me with this stranger.”

Before Mary reaches transition, she is aware that Doro sees her as an experiment. By thinking of herself as an experiment, she can situate herself in Doro’s breeding program, better understanding her relationship with Doro. It helps her to better break away from her love of him and instead see him as a threat, a person who does not value her as an equal, but someone he can control however he wants. The use of fragmented, conversational sentences builds Mary’s internal voice, capturing her skepticism and wounded sarcasm. This quote embodies The Development of Identity Within Community, as Mary begins to separate herself from Doro’s imposed identity.

“He knew that if I hurt him much worse, I would force him out of the body he was wearing—into my body. He’d take me, and all his efforts to get me this far would be wasted. I knew it myself, but I was past caring. I felt like a dog somebody was taking to be bred.”

Octavia E. Butler uses a simile here to describe Mary’s feelings of being controlled by Doro, who sees her as an experiment. Mary feels as though she is a dog being forced to partner with another dog, with no consideration other than her ability to reproduce. This simile further characterizes how dehumanizing Doro’s goals are of creating a race of telepaths. It forces people to become nothing more than their genetic potential, erasing their individuality.

“‘Someday there’s going to be a way for me to hurt you, Doro. Don’t think I won’t do it.’ He shrugged. He didn’t believe it. Neither did I, really. Who the hell could hurt him?”

In this excerpt, Butler uses foreshadowing to allude to the final confrontation between Mary and Doro. In this early scene, Mary tries to hurt Doro, knowing it is nearly impossible to hurt him, as he can easily jump from one body to another. Despite this, she is determined to find a way to hurt him, even if he does not believe her. Her assertion hints at her eventually finding a means to hurt Doro and confronting him again, stronger. The inner monologue and rhetorical question at the end emphasize Mary’s disbelief in her own power—a doubt she will ultimately overcome.

“Had human life ever mattered to Doro beyond his interest in human husbandry? Could a creature who had to look upon ordinary people literally as food and shelter ever understand how strongly those people valued life?”

In this excerpt, Doro’s attitude toward humans is explored through his perception of their use to him. Doro separates himself from everyday people, not seeing them as equals or partners, but instead as food and shelter through which he sustains his immortal life. By describing humans in such a way, the language reflects Doro’s lack of care for others, further alienating him from the other characters of the novel. The metaphor of “food and shelter” casts Doro’s relationship to humanity in primal, utilitarian terms, stripping any emotional or moral dimension from his survival. This quote embodies The Ethical Complications of Oppressive Power.

“No, I think half Doro’s pleasure comes from watching us, running us through mazes like rats and seeing how well we figure things out.”

Once again, a simile is used to create a greater understanding of the relationship between Doro and the active telepaths. Karl reflects on how Doro does not help him or Mary through her transition, instead watching them figure it out on their own. He describes it as though Doro were watching rats through a maze. This allusion to scientific observation and study further solidifies Doro’s acts of experimentation through his breeding program.

“When he tried to shield himself from whatever was attacking him, it was as though he had tried to close a door while his leg or arm was still in the doorway. He was being used against himself somehow.”

As Seth struggles against Mary during the initial mental attack that establishes the Pattern, a simile is used to describe what he feels in the moment. By describing his resistance to the Pattern as closing a door, despite a part of himself being in the doorway, demonstrates how he is connected to Mary. Though he can try to distance himself from her, they are connected in an irrevocable way, meaning he might be able to pass through a door, but can never truly close it. This metaphor also illustrates how Mary’s power breaches traditional mental boundaries, establishing the Pattern as both connection and entrapment.

“Someone had called her in a way that she could not ignore. Someone had made a puppet of her. There was justice in that, she supposed.”

When Rachel connects to the Pattern, she feels as though someone else is controlling her. In this instance, figurative language is used to describe Rachel as feeling like a puppet. This implies that there are strings attached to her, like the connections of the Pattern, and that through such strings, someone else can control her. She finds irony in this, as she understands that she uses a similar relationship with her worshippers to heal them and drain their energy. This quote embodies The Ethical Complications of Oppressive Power by showing how victimhood and complicity can coexist. Butler’s ironic tone highlights Rachel’s dawning awareness of the dynamics she once exploited.

“Since her change, that terrible night three years before, when all the world had come flooding into her mind, she had treated her condition as a temporary thing. Something that would someday end and let her be as she had been.”

Ada struggles more than most with her abilities and hopes that her telepathy is a phase she will grow out of. In describing what her transition was like, Butler uses creative word choice to write that the world came flooding into Ada’s mind. This implies that she suddenly could not control what impacted her mind and quickly overtook her. This language reflects Ada’s concerns over her telepathy, and how she hopes to return to how she was before this disaster. The water metaphor also evokes a feeling of drowning in perception—Ada’s fear is not of violence, but of loss of self. This quote subtly touches on The Development of Identity Within Community, as Ada’s later role with children suggests a gradual reconciliation with her abilities.

“Doro wanted an empire. He didn’t call it that, but that was what he meant. Maybe I was just one more tool he was using to get it. He needed tools, because an empire of ordinary people wasn’t quite what he had in mind. That, to him, would be like an ordinary person making himself emperor over a lot of cattle.”

Once again, Mary thinks of herself as something that Doro can use to achieve his goals. She is a tool with which he can create his empire. She acknowledges that Doro needs to use other people to accomplish his desires because of his lack of telepathic ability. Butler even uses a simile to demonstrate the magnitude of Doro’s goals and the lack of respect he has for people. By comparing an empire of ordinary people for Doro to him ruling over cattle, it implies his superiority. The repetition of “empire” and the shift from euphemism to blunt naming reflect Mary’s growing clarity and disillusionment. This quote embodies The Ethical Complications of Oppressive Power.

“It’s also very basic. One kind of people gave me more pleasure than other kinds, so I tried to collect several of the kind I liked and keep them together. That way, they would breed and I would always have them available when I needed them.”

As Doro explains the reasoning behind his breeding program, he admits to his motivations stemming from a need to sustain himself through others. In this way, the people he breeds become nothing more than food, having no personal significance to him. This allows him to easily kill them without a second thought, their purpose in life being nothing more than to provide a meal. The blunt, transactional tone of Doro’s language—“collect,” “keep,” “available”—mirrors the dehumanizing logic of enslavement, reinforcing the parallels between Doro’s power and historical systems of control.

“A pet, he thought. What difference did it make what you said or did to a pet? […] A pet. In pets, free will was tolerated only as long as the pet owner found it amusing.”

In this excerpt, Karl thinks of Vivian as his pet. He controls her, conditioning her mind to be obedient, and she does whatever he wants her to. Her lack of free will and independence aligns her with a house pet and Karl does not view her as fully human. Karl dehumanizes Vivian, thinking of her as something to control rather than someone to be with. By comparing her directly to a pet, Butler evokes an image that represents Karl’s sentiments. The repetition of “a pet” echoes Karl’s internal rationalization, and Butler’s use of free indirect discourse blurs the narrator’s judgment with Karl’s perspective, heightening the discomfort.

“The shields cut off their mental perception totally. In a way, for them, shielding was like wandering around wearing a gag, a blindfold, and earplugs. None of them could put up with it for long.”

So much of Mind of My Mind happens within the minds of the characters. They are telepathic, and their experiences through life are unique. Butler often uses descriptive language, and in this excerpt, a simile, to demonstrate the experiences of the telepaths. She compares keeping a mental shield up to losing the senses, signifying how the telepaths limit themselves by keeping their minds closed off. The accumulation of sensory deprivation—“gag, blindfold, earplugs”—emphasizes how fundamental connection is to Patternist identity. The discomfort of shielding underscores The Development of Identity Within Community.

“It was a pattern strand. A slender, fragile-seeming thread, like a shadow of one of the comparatively substantial strands of my actives. But it was a pattern strand.”

Butler uses descriptive language when describing the Pattern, creating an image of something that only exists in the minds of the novel’s telepaths. In this instance, Butler describes Clay’s fledgling connection to Mary. It is described as fragile and thin, a firm contrast to the stronger strands that connect actives. This comparison demonstrates the differences in mental ability and strength between actives and latents.

“And as for altruism, whether it was my real motive or not, every latent we brought into the Pattern would benefit from being there. He would regain control of his life and be able to use his energy for something besides fighting to stay sane.”

When Doro and Karl challenge Mary over her motivations for growing the Pattern, they ask if she really does mean to help people. In this excerpt, Mary begins to understand that while she may benefit from bringing others into the Pattern, new members also benefit. It is in this moment that she begins to really solidify her self-perception as that of a foil to Doro. She wants to strengthen the Pattern not for personal gain but for the greater good of telepaths. This quote embodies The Development of Identity Within Community as Mary’s sense of self becomes bound up with her vision of collective healing and sanity.

“He came through. He had sprained his wrist, blackened one of Seth’s eyes, and broken the bed he was lying on, but he came through. He became an active. Seth was proud as though he had just become a father.”

This excerpt describes the aftermath of Seth leading Mary’s cousin through transition. By using a simile to describe Seth as a proud father for leading the boy through transition safely, Butler begins building the communal feelings the new Patternists feel. This foreshadows how the Patternists form unique families built through non-traditional relationships, in sharp contrast with their previous isolations.

“Mary apparently released him then from his paralysis, because he began to move his arms and legs now like a human spider hanging in mid-air from an invisible web.”

When Mary stops controlling Clay after his transition, he uses his telekinetic powers to float. By using a simile describing him as a spider in mid-air, Butler crafts and image that highlights Clay’s abilities. What he does is not normal nor human, therefore necessitating some description that aligns it more with the supernatural. Clay takes on the appearance of something not human, highlighting his strange abilities. The eerie animal comparison also suggests Clay’s liminality—he is no longer human in a conventional sense, but something altered.

“Mary swept the areas she checked so quickly that she received nothing more than a momentary feeling of anxiety from the latents who were in serious trouble. She was like a machine, sweeping, detecting latents here and there mixed in with the mute population.”

As the Pattern expands and grows more powerful, so too does Mary. Accompanying this is an expansion of her network, through which she searches for new latents to take in. Butler uses a simile to describe Mary’s action of looking for new latents as that of a machine operating in search of something. By comparing Mary to a machine, Butler further casts the Pattern as a connected operation, in which the different people connected to it amplify the abilities of Mary, as though she were a machine working efficiently with more power.

“Thus, no matter how much Patternists wanted to insure their future as a race—and they did want it now—they could not care for the children who were that future. They had to draft mutes to do it for them. First Doro, and now Mary, was creating a race that could not tolerate its own young.”

Active telepaths cannot usually be around children, as children’s minds are unpredictable and volatile, and they do not have the telepathic ability to block their minds from others yet. Therefore, the expansion of the Patternists is steeped in irony, as the means of expanding without recruiting new members is also their greatest vulnerability. The bitter irony here underscores one of the novel’s central tensions: how to build sustainable community while managing power. This quote embodies The Ethical Complications of Oppressive Power.

“Hell, he and I would have gotten along fine together from back when he first climbed into my bed if it hadn’t been for the Pattern and what the Pattern represented. It represented power. Power that I had and that he would never have. And while that wasn’t something I threw at him, ever, it wasn’t something I denied either.”

This excerpt demonstrates the complicated relationship between Karl and Mary. Karl resents being controlled by Mary as well as the knowledge that she is superior to him. This keeps him from fully trusting and embracing her. Mary, meanwhile, does not highlight this fact to him but also refuses to lie to foster a better relationship or protect his ego.

“‘You’ve been watching them die for thousands of years,’ I said. ‘You’ve learned not to care. I’ve just been saving them for two years, but I’ve already learned the opposite lesson. I care.’”

As Doro and Mary approach their final confrontation, Mary stands firm in her identity as a foil to Doro. She insists in this excerpt that she is unlike him, even if they both benefit from controlling others. She tells Doro that she means to save the telepaths from themselves, rather than abandoning and even killing them. She wants Doro to know that she will protect her people, even if it means he will fail in the pursuit of the empire he hopes she can deliver. The shift in verb tense—“I’ve just been saving”—marks a pivotal self-realization and cements her rejection of Doro’s detached pragmatism.

“‘I think Doro has made more than one mistake,’ said Jan. ‘I think he’s wrong to believe that Mary still belongs to him. With the responsibility she’s taken on for all that she’s built here, she belongs to us, the people. To all of us.’”

Jan demonstrates how the First Family changes over time from the Pattern. She is miserable and antisocial when she arrives, despising Mary. And yet, two years later, when Doro threatens Mary, Jan stands firm in wanting to protect her. This change from distrust to devotion is reflected in all the other telepaths that came to Forsyth, demonstrating the impact the Pattern has on their ability to be together. This quote embodies The Development of Identity Within Community, showing how commitment to shared life transforms isolation into loyalty.

“She was a symbiont, a being living in partnership with her people. She gave them unity, they fed her, and both thrived. She was not a parasite, though he had encouraged her to think of herself as one.”

Mary is compared to a symbiont rather than a parasite during the final struggle between her and Doro. This distinction is important in understanding how she operates as a foil to Doro. While Doro drains his victims of their life force to sustain himself, killing them, Mary takes a little from her people when she can, never killing, and always strengthening the Pattern, which in turn helps her people. Doro and Mary become opposites, with Doro being a parasite and Mary refusing to join him.