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Book 4, Chapter 2
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 teaches the other humans how to build shelters, harvest resources, and plant crops. The ooloi occasionally provide aid with some tasks, but in general aren’t much help. The settlement is going relatively smoothly until one day, Tate announces that Curt and Celene have left, believing that they are on the real Earth and can escape. Lilith isn’t surprised about this, but she is when Tate says that she, Gabriel, and two others are planning to also run away. Tate invites Lilith, saying Gabriel has already convinced Joseph. Lilith is angry but gives them advice about the best time to escape and says she’ll talk to Joseph.
The fact that the ooloi don’t help with constructing the settlement once again raises questions about how equal this supposed partnership between the two species will be. Humans doing all the work for the Oankali could also raise the issue of whether the humans are enslaved. The splintering of Lilith’s group shows that there are limits to what a leader can accomplish, even one with Lilith’s enhanced strength and knowledge.
Themes
Lilith tells Tate that she believes the Oankali, and if they build a boat to cross the river, they’ll just find a wall on the other side, in spite of how it looks from their current vantage point. Tate presses for an answer, but Lilith just says that if she and Joseph are joining, they’ll meet Tate by a specific tree after breakfast. Later, Lilith discusses leaving with Joseph. He is so convinced that the training room reminds him of Earth that he feels he has to go out to see for certain. Reluctantly, Lilith agrees to go with Joseph, Gabriel, and Tate.
Lilith faces a complicated moral question in this passage. She seems to trust the fellow humans more than she trusts the Oankali on most issues, and yet, she nevertheless believes that the Oankali are telling the truth about the training room being an enclosed location with walls. The way that the training room seems to drive some humans almost mad with a desire to escape shows how strong the pull back toward Earth is for many humans.
Themes
