Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -… [410]

“We’ve agreed to that. We’ll give him a good scare and let him know there are easier ways to get a dollar.” … “Yes, indeed. Our thieves didn’t steal all that food because they were hungry. They stripped those trees—took everything they could.” — , Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -…, 410

Note

The neighborhood watch’s whole moral framework arrives in a euphemism. “We’ll give him a good scare” is designed to sound humane — the alternative to shooting is spelled out as mercy — while “there are easier ways to get a dollar” quietly recasts theft as a rational business decision. The second paragraph diagnoses motive through a verb choice: “stripped” and “took everything they could” distinguish the mercantile thief from the starving one, and the forced “Yes, indeed” is agreement performed rather than felt.