Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -… [2201]

“I know. But we are. If we can make a community like Lauren says and not have to hire out to strangers and trust them when they shouldn’t be trusted, then we should do it. If you grew up where I did, you’d know we should.” — , Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -…, 2201

Note

Allie’s argument lands as an assertion of the plural present tense — ‘we are’ — turning a debate about whether to stay into a fait accompli, then grounds it not in hope but in the negative knowledge of distrust, and closes by converting her own biography into a claim on Harry’s judgment (‘you’d know we should’). The three-part structure — concede, declare, shame — does the persuading without any of the persuasion being spelled out.