Douglas 1

Stephanie Douglas

Honors 394

15 May 2017

Response Paper

Dawn

We are Oankali.

Oankali. Sounds like a word in some Earth language.

It may be, but with different meaning.

What does it mean in your language?

Several things. Traders for one.

You are traders?

Yes.

What do you trade?

Ourselves. (Butler 22).

In Octavia Butlers novel Dawn, Lilith Iyapo is a human that has been taken aboard an

alien ship after nuclear warfare wiped out most of the human race. The aliens, a race called

Oankali, train Lilith to lead a group of humans back to Earth to rebuild the planet, but as the

Oankali are gene traders, the future human race will be genetically different than it once was.

With themes of interplanetary interaction and trading, Dawn has commonalities with Ursula Le

Guins novel The Left Hand of Darkness.

Tensions from alien differences are clear in both books. In Le Guins novel, the envoy

is referred to as perverted by the locals because of his biological differences, and the envoy
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struggles with understanding the sexual and social structures of the foreign planet he is on. In

Butlers novel each race is initially repulsed by each other based on physical differences, and the

lifestyle dissimilarities further show the foreignness of each other. These elements communicate

the unease and even hostility that can arise with differences in looks or culture. There is a clear

othering or us versus them mentality that arises in the books, which can be found in the real

world as well. A more easily paralleled example can be found in the racism against the Hong

Kong-born Joseph Li-Chin Shing in Dawn: There are already two human males speaking

against him, trying to turn others against him. One has decided hes something called a faggot

and the other dislikes the shape of his eyes (Butler 159). Both novels show fear of whats

different, and the ways people may react to something or someone alien to them.

While there is a highlighting of differences, characters attempt to blur some of these

distinctions by transferring parts of their own lives to the other. Each of the two novels includes

goals of trade. In The Left Hand of Darkness, the envoy Genly Ai seeks to bring the planet

Gethen into a society called the Ekumen of Known Worlds. He explains, Open trade is really

what Im here to try to set up. Trade not only in goods, of course, but in knowledge,

technologies, ideas, philosophies, art, medicine, science, theory (Le Guin 138). He wants to

exchange aspects of each of the worlds to enhance living on all worlds. Similarly, in Dawn there

is also a theme of trade. In the quote at the top of this paper Jdahya explains to Lilith that the

name of his race means traders. The Oankali trades genetics, which is what they plan to do with

the humans. Jdahya tells Lilith that the next human children will be DifferentNot quite like

you. A little like us (Butler 40). The Oankali are, like with the Ekumen, seeking to trade. They

see trading as a way to enhance both parties. However, the Oankali give little choice to the

humans. While Ai insists that entering the Ekumen is voluntary, in Dawn the trade is viewed as
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more of a price for being saved from the destruction on Earth. Regardless of Liliths objections,

the Oankali are as committed to the trade as [the human] body is to breathing (Butler 41). The

Oankali think that the human race will benefit from the manipulations, but they dont worry

about consent from the humans. This aspect can also been seen in real world history, for

example with treatment of Indigenous peoples that settlers attempt to civilize without consent.

Dawn and The Left Hand of Darkness both deal with interactions of alien peoples. There

is tension, fear, and racism, but there is also a goal of trade. The groups seek to alter each others

lives to enhance all lives. In The Left Hand of Darkness Ai is interested in the prophesy-telling

tradition of Foretelling and has mindspeech to offer. In Dawn the Oankali take diseases such as

cancer, which they experiment with for new abilities, and they seek to leave future humans with

different physical characteristics, such as their sensory arms. With the novels you can see how

interacting with others can be beneficial and cooperation can lead to better lives. But you can

also see coercion and arrogance come into play, for instance with the forced alterations in Dawn.

Reactions toward beings that are different can be both positive and negative, as shown through

these speculative fiction novels.

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Works Cited

Butler, Octavia E. Dawn. New York: Warner, 1997. Print.

Le Guin, Ursula K. The Left Hand of Darkness. New York: Ace, 1987. Print.