Editing Octavia E. Butler (section)

=== Survivor as hero ===
Butler's protagonists are disenfranchised individuals who endure, compromise, and embrace radical change in order to survive. As De Witt Douglas Kilgore and Ranu Samantrai note, her stories focus on minority characters whose historical background makes them already intimate with brutal violation and exploitation, and therefore the need to compromise to survive.<ref name="Kilgore" /> Even when endowed with extra, paranormal abilities, these characters are forced to experience unprecedented physical, mental, and emotional distress and exclusion to ensure a minimal degree of [[Agency (sociology)|agency]] and to prevent humanity from achieving self-destruction.<ref name="Gant" /><ref name="Belle" /> In many of her stories, their acts of courage become acts of understanding, and in some cases, love, as they reach a crucial compromise with those in power.<ref name="AEW" /> Ultimately, Butler's focus on disenfranchised characters serves to illustrate both the historical exploitation of minorities and how the resolve of one such exploited individual may bring on critical change.<ref name="Gant" />