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Book 3, Chapter 14
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
Lilith is now in the training room, which mimics a tropical forest. It looks like an island surrounded by a river and has realistic weather, sun, moon, and stars. This is where the humans and their ooloi will live until it’s time to go to Earth itself. Speaking with Nikanj, Lilith warns it that the humans might try to cut down the tree-like structures, believing they might try to use them to make boats or rafts for the river. Nikanj says they’re in an enclosed room and have nowhere to go in a boat—they will only get out when they prove they’re ready to survive on the real Earth.
The final book of the novel shows the extremes that the Oankali have gone through to simulate a habitat like Earth on their ship. The lush environment of the training room seems idyllic at first—almost like a Garden of Eden. But as Nikanj points out, the freedom that this forest environment seems to offer is just an illusion, with walls making sure that the humans can’t actually escape. Lilith begins to realize that Oankali have little intention to free her, intending instead to simply move her to larger and large prisons.
Themes
Lilith notices that the room is full of mosquitos, snakes, and other creatures that are potentially dangerous to humans but not Oankali. She asks Nikanj what will happen to humans who can’t adapt. Nikanj says that if they’re not violent, they will probably be sent to Earth anyway because there are so few humans left.
Lilith notes that time in the training room will be more dangerous for the humans than it will for any of the Oankali that accompany them, due to mosquitos, snakes, and other potentially deadly creatures in the environment. The presence of these dangerous creatures seems to go against Nikanj’s claim that they have to be careful with humans because there are so few left, once again hinting at the Oankali’s potential hypocrisy.
Themes
