Octavia Butlers, the “Parable of the Talents” was an extremely surreal depiction of a broken America. Butler does an amazing and in depth, yet gloomy job creating a post-apocalyptic America. One aspect of her book that struck me as somewhat familiar was her depiction of the Reeducation Camp. After reading this segment I couldn’t help but see the resemblance of the Reeducation Camp, to the holocaust, and concentration camps of WWII. It seemed that Butler was stating that past atrocities will always have an effect on the future, and may always attribute to problems of the future. If this is true, it would contradict idea that in able to move forward, one must learn from the past, but if past inhumanity does not always effect the future in positive ways, it seems there is a downward spiral towards a dystopia. How can a nation truly build and escape from a past tragedy as monstrous as these?