Dawn Study Guide

Octavia Butler was born in Pasadena, California, and raised primarily by her mother after her father died when she was three. In childhood, she was shy and struggled in school, in part due to dyslexia, but she enjoyed reading science fiction and fantasy stories. After publishing her first stories in college in the 1960s, Butler eventually began her first series of novels, the Patternist series, in 1975. Butler continued this series into the 1980s, taking a break in the middle to write the standalone novel Kindred. In 1987, Butler published Dawn, which would become the first novel in the Xenogenesis trilogy (which was later reprinted as the Lilith’s Brood trilogy). In the 1990s, Butler published Parable of the Sower. It was intended to be the first novel of a multi-part series, but Butler completed only its sequel (Parable of the Talents) and an unrelated standalone novel (Fledgling) before her death in 2006. She was one of the first Black science fiction writers, and her work remains influential.

Octavia Butler wrote Dawn during the Cold War, when tensions between the United States, the Soviet Union, and their allies around the world threatened to lead to nuclear war. In particular, Butler mentions being alarmed by the Ronald Reagan administration’s comments in the 1980s about “limited” or “winnable” nuclear wars, which Butler believed were impossible. Although the Cold War involved several “proxy wars” between countries supported by the United States and countries supported by the Soviet Union, there was never open, full-scale warfare between the two superpowers. Nevertheless, fears that a conflict could break out and end in nuclear Armageddon were common, with a period of escalation called the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 being one of the most notable examples. Dawn came out shortly after the coining of the term “nuclear winter,” which describes the catastrophic effects that nuclear warfare would have on the planet, and the novel similarly explores themes of ecological destruction. One of the scientists who helped popularize the term “nuclear winter” was Carl Sagan, whose own novel about contact between humans and aliens (Contact) came out just a couple years before Dawn.

Dawn fits in the science fiction tradition of first-contact stories between humans and aliens. One of the first and most notable examples of this genre is The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, which portrays relations between humans and aliens as hostile. Other first-contact science fiction novels include Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke and The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. Another important influence on Dawn is The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, which also deals with anthropological themes and an alien species with different traditions around sex and relationships than humans. Dawn, like Butler’s other work, has had a lasting impact on the science fiction genre and particularly the subgenre of post-apocalyptic fiction. Some examples of post-apocalyptic novels that came after it include Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood and Station 11 by Emily St. John Mandel. As one of the first Black women to write science fiction and receive critical acclaim for it, Butler is often cited as an inspiration and career influence by writers who came after her, including N.K. Jemison (Broken Earth series), Nnedi Okorafur (Binti), and adrienne marie brown (Grievers).