Ori Dona

Science Fiction

Prof. Gold

4-1-14

In Octavia Butlers “Dawn”, there is a deep sense of loss. When Lilith is awoken from her 250 years of sleep, she is oblivious to reality. Humans are almost extinct and they are now under the supervision of the Oankali. Lilith is forced to start over with her life in another time , Jdahya realizes Lilith’s loss and even offers to kill her to end her suffering. Jdahya tell Lilith,

“touch me here now and you will die very quickly and without pain”. This shows that the Oankali are intelligent beings because they understand Lilith’s situation and how she must fell to offer something so drastic as death. Lilith also is isolated from the other humans and is forced to follow the path that the Oankali has set for her. The fact that the Oankali are genetic engineers is frightening because as Jdahya mentions, the Oankali no longer look like their original selves. Rather they have mutated and evolved based on dominant genetic codes that they picked up over their travels. To Lilith it must be a feeling of deep loss because even her captors do not look the way they were intended to, completely alien and grotesque to her.