CLOSE READ: Dawn by Octavia E. Butler
Exploring Human Nature on the Brink of Extinction in Octavia E. Butler’s 1987 “Dawn”
Harleen Lalli
With Earth nearing complete annihilation from being consumed by the fires of a nuclear war, it forces humanity to bear their final memories of the apocalyptic horror before them. Yet Lilith Iyapo is Awakened, with a pulse very much beating despite the odds of survival that humankind was just facing.
In Butler’s science-fiction novel, Dawn, we find out that an intergalactic species, the Oankali, intervened at the critical point to rescue the remaining survivors. In exchange for their help, the Oankali wants to create a new generation of hybridity by genetically engineering their biology with human DNA. This is where the novel’s protagonist comes in, Lilith, a black woman who is carefully chosen by the Oankali to prepare her people for their new world.
Lilith’s task is to acclimate her group on the spaceship. This is doomed from the minute the order is given. Readers naively assume that because these people represent the last of humankind, they will be determined to do good, and yet, readers are met with bitter disappointment. Any sense of morale to work together for a better future becomes painstakingly difficult to achieve as their volatile instinctive impulse of self-destruction begins simmering to the surface. Instead of looking back at their past with acknowledgement about how their world ended up in flames, they refuse to learn and continue enforcing their traditional hierarchical behaviour system.
This is seen through the formation of male and female couplings, imposing heteronormativity as the only structural basis to go by, which inevitably becomes problematic when members of the group begin using it to form dangerous ideas around what constitutes their “rights”. Allison, one of the newer members to be Awakened, is quickly cornered by two of the men and is demanded to find a “mate", which takes on dual meaning, referring both to a physical partner and the act of breeding. They shout at her about what “her duty” consists of, and the possessive determiner “her” reinforces the men’s attitude towards the relationship between women and the archaic “duty” of reproduction; they do not perceive women more than their wombs.
It reaches a point where Lilith, who carries a parental duty toward these people, intervenes to physically defend Allison from being assaulted. “There’ll be no rape”, she says, and this short monosyllabic declarative pushes her as a voice of morality and authority. However, Lilith’s body begins to tremble involuntarily as she cannot handle her disgust for these people. This is showcased through the semantic field of rage: “residual anger”, “frustration”, and “losing control”, and these synonyms enhances the severity of the situation as Lilith begins doubting how long she can keep in charge of such an unstable group.
One of her followers advises her to play the role of “Moses”, to get the unruly members under her control behind an act of divine rule; but unlike Moses, who had God himself appoint him as a leader to free the Israelites, Lilith is very much powerless and has no one in her corner to help her guide these people. This is why Lilith insists she’ll only be regarded as the “Judas goat”, which contains the biblical reference to Jesus’s betrayer. This juxtaposes with the reality, as the only betrayal happening is from Lilith’s opposing faction, who demonises Lilith for her physicality and enhanced strength, as well as also throwing racist and homophobic rhetoric towards her Chinese-American partner, Joseph, demonstrating the continuance of othering towards anyone who does not fit western norms.
Lilith declares to the group that if they wish to abandon all composure and morals, then they can act like animals when they are back on Earth, which evokes the semantic field of incivility: “caveman”, “stone-age”, and “ape”. These descriptors create strong visual imagery of prehistoric brutes, which successfully mirrors the men’s outdated entitlement, which compels Lilith to entreat everyone to behave “like people”, a reminder to the group to retain their humanity. Otherwise, if mankind’s ego is truly this fragile that it overcomes the need for adaptation, then what stops their destructive drive from bringing them back to their inevitable extinction again?
Harleen Lalli was born and raised in the UK and is a postgraduate with a MA in English. She's a writer, an artist and an unabashed enthusiast of The Godfather trilogy. You can find Harleen on Instagram.
