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Book 4, 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
Just after dawn, Curt’s group, which includes Victor and Gregory, finds Lilith’s shelter. As soon as Curt sees her, he hits her with the flat of a machete. She hears people screaming but passes out. When she wakes up, she seems to be alone. She doesn’t think Joseph would leave her and wonders if Curt did anything to him.
Despite Lilith’s efforts to be an effective leader, everything falls apart in an instant when Curt surprises her group and uses violence to subdue her. This passage shows how despite everything Lilith and the other humans have been through, violence remains an inescapable part of being human.
Themes
Lilith heads back to the original camp. She asks Nikanj if it knows where the others went. Nikanj knows but doesn’t say whether or not Joseph is OK. It and some other ooloi lead Lilith through the forest to the body of Joseph, who has been attacked with an ax and nearly decapitated. Nikanj confirms that it was Curt who did it. After a fight in which Joseph was only injured, Curt saw Joseph’s flesh healing, due to the procedure he went through with Nikanj and Lilith. This made Curt think Joseph wasn’t human and start attacking him with an ax.
Curt killed Joseph due to his racism (he disliked Joseph even when he was just a normal, fully human man with an accent) and also due to his fear of the unknown in general, as his panicked reaction to the sight of Joseph’s self-healing flesh symbolizes. But similar to Paul Titus, Curt’s situation also raises the question of to what extent the Oankali are responsible for this action. The Oankali, after all, are the ones who provided the humans with the murder weapons. Moreover, it’s arguable that Joseph did not want the procedure that made him seem alien and that made Curt suspect him of being alien.
Themes
Nikanj asks if Joseph’s body should be sent back to Earth for burial and Lilith agrees. Still, she is angry at Nikanj for not being able to protect Joseph and wants to be alone. Nikanj doesn’t want to leave Lilith alone and unprotected anymore. It also mourns the death of Joseph. Lilith says that it feels like her trades with the Oankali have been one-sided, and she wants Nikanj to give Lilith something personal to itself. Nikanj touches the back of Lilith’s neck and tries to convey how it’s feeling. Lilith feels like she’s seeing a new color. Lilith doesn’t fully understand but decides that grief is grief and hugs Nikanj.
While Nikanj has flaws as a character and the Oankali in general are often oppressive toward humans, the novel is not totally unsympathetic toward them. In this passage, the grief that Nikanj expresses in response to Joseph’s death seems genuine. When Lilith gets a glimpse into Nikanj’s emotions, she better grasps how truly alien Nikanj is and why it might be difficult for a creature like Nikanj to understand human behavior.
Themes
