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Book 3, Chapter 13
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Dawn, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Humanity, Evolution, and Genetics
Motherhood and Leadership
Consent and Autonomy
Sexuality and Gender
Summary
Analysis
Peter gladly accepts a union with an ooloi while drugged but later gets angry and feels that he was manipulated into denying his own humanity. Lilith believes that Peter’s ooloi made a mistake and didn’t properly listen to Peter’s body, being less perceptive than Nikanj. Peter starts attacking the ooloi, hitting an area that triggers a defensive reflex, and it gives Peter a lethal sting.
Peter’s reaction to sex with an ooloi is a more extreme version of Joseph’s, again suggesting something like latent homophobia or just a general fear of the unknown. Lilith blames that specific ooloi for reading the situation incorrectly, but the fact that the ooloi made a mistake about Peter’s willingness for sex raises the question of whether any ooloi, even Nikanj, might make a similar error.
Themes
Jean, still drugged, witnesses them taking away Peter’s body. Nikanj goes over and tries to reassure her that things will be OK and that the Oankali will take care of her now that Peter is gone until the drug wears off. Curt, also drugged, angrily butts in that only humans should be taking care of Jean. Curt’s ooloi incapacitates him, then Nikanj leads Jean to a male and female Oankali that take her away. As Jean leaves, Lilith is surprised to hear Joseph say that perhaps Peter had the right idea by trying to hold on to his humanity.
The death of Peter marks a turning point in the story, where even Joseph starts to turn against the Oankali vision for humanity’s future that Lilith has been tasked with engineering. Although Peter and Joseph were enemies, they have common ground in their seeming repulsion toward sex with ooloi. While Lilith initially takes Joseph’s claim about holding on to humanity as a potential betrayal of her and her mission, later, she will come to wonder whether Joseph was right about Peter and humanity’s importance.
Themes
