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Book 3, Chapter 5
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
At one point, while Lilith is in bed with Joseph, Nikanj opens up a hole and enters the room. Lilith fears how Joseph will react to seeing an Oankali for the first time. Joseph does indeed cower until he hears Nikanj speak in English and realizes that Lilith knows it. Lilith tells Nikanj of the difficulties she’s been having as a leader, but Nikanj warns that getting discouraged will make her job more difficult.
The name Joseph is likely after the Joseph who was the father of Jesus in the Bible. While Biblical Joseph plays an important role, he is less important than Mary and not the biological father of Jesus. This reinforces to the idea of Lilith as a mother to the new society, with Joseph playing a supporting role as her most trusted advisor.
Themes
Joseph asks Nikanj about the Oankali capacity to clone humans, and Nikanj admits that they can and have done it, although they’re careful not to damage “partner-species.” Still, the Oankali are also interested in human culture, which artificially created clones can’t capture. Nikanj explains that any humans that kill or severely injure another during training won’t be allowed to go back to Earth, with the exception of Lilith, who is in charge. Lilith, who remains skeptical about many aspects of the Oankali plan, asks if Joseph can get an exemption to be able to kill also, but Nikanj denies it, saying it’s outside his power.
Nikanj refers to humans as a “partner-species,” but many of the actions of the Oankali make it clear that they regard humans as something closer to subordinates than partners. Lilith’s power to kill without consequences reinforces the idea that she is not just a leader to her group but something like a religious figure—particularly since she’s the only one aside from Joseph now who can communicate with the “higher power” of the Oankali.
Themes
Lilith asks Nikanj if Joseph can at least have the same powers as Lilith, to open walls and Awaken people. Nikanj is potentially open to this. They have been speaking in Oankali, so Lilith now explains to Joseph what she’s trying to get for him. Joseph is cautious about anything that might involve changing his cells but eventually consents to the procedure.
Joseph’s decision to go through with the procedure seems to result from his trust in Lilith more so than his trust in the Oankali. Whether she wants to or not, Lilith has played a role in getting humans to go along with the Oankali plans for the future, and she will have to reckon with this later.
Themes
Joseph is still a little fearful, so Nikanj offers its sensory arm for Joseph to see and learn more. Joseph touches the arm and seems fine at first before crying out and fainting—Joseph passed out because Nikanj drugged him, although he seemed to be close to the breaking point of what humans can endure when it comes to witnessing the Oankali. Lilith is worried, but Nikanj says that Joseph has done more than any undrugged human they’ve met before. Nikanj says that other humans have been gossiping and turning against Joseph, angry at how he’s allied himself with Lilith, and so he will need extra strength and ability to heal injuries, like Lilith herself received.
Nikanj tries to frame his meeting with Joseph in a positive way, noting Joseph’s endurance of the Oankali’s strangeness. But when Lilith witnesses Joseph’s reaction and sees Nikanj drug him, she gets a clearer picture of how the Oankali are manipulating the humans, even if their intentions are supposedly benevolent. Lilith also better understands what’s going on in her new society of humans, and she understand better than Nikanj how Joseph’s new status will further isolate him from some of the other humans.
Themes
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As Nikanj is modifying Joseph, they have a neural link, and when Nikanj speaks, Joseph unconsciously does too. This unnerves Lilith, and eventually Nikanj stops this connection. Nikanj invites Lilith to lie down with it and Joseph. Lilith agrees. She lies on one side with Nikanj in the middle and Joseph on the other. Nikanj wraps its sensory arm around Lilith. Lilith thinks about how this is the same position she might be in if she ever gets pregnant with a part-Oankali child. She feels Nikanj plug into her nervous system with its sensory arm.
Although the procedure to modify Joseph’s genes is in some ways a scientific or medical one, this passage suggests that it is also a sexual one. This passage suggests that sex need not always be about physical but is also about mental connections, as embodied in this passage by the neural link connecting Nikanj, Lilith, and Joseph. Lilith’s fears of pregnancy—how the Oankali might take advantage of her ability to be a mother—show how even though she engages in this sexual activity with Nikanj, she still isn’t sure whom she can trust.
Themes
