Octavia Butler’s speculative sci-fi novel Dawn is a fantastical, wildly entertaining, and deeply philosophical piece of writing. Butler has mastered the art of asking only the best and hardest questions of humanity. But there are dozens of aspects of Butler’s work that are troublesome and deeply disturbing. I would honestly be concerned if someone read this text and didn’t feel uncomfortable by any of it. The questions Butler asks of us in her writing wouldn’t be so profound if the narrative in which she set them up wasn’t unsettling in any way. Her technique is just as important as her content. While preparing to write this, I found it hard to pick just one topic to discuss, there was just so much to think about. I was troubled by many of the themes brought up in Dawn; surveillance, consent, isolation, etc. But after re-reading, debating over and over in my head, and talking to my peers there was one thing that I kept coming back to… The Oankali’s lie and why Butler chose to write about it in the way she did.
Throughout the novel, Lilith is always looking to “catch the Oankali in a lie”. Up until this moment, it’s assumed by both Lilith and the reader that the Oankali never lied to her. There was certainly deception, half-truths, and censorship of information but there were never any outright lies. But then right at the end, there it was, a lie. A blatant, screaming inescapable lie. The Oankali told Lilith again and again that she was going back to Earth, and when the time came they didn’t send her. When reading the passage where Nikanj reveals to Lilith that the Oankali have sent the very humans she awakened and trained to Earth without her and worse they did it behind her back without telling or warning her my heart ached for Lilith. The poor thing has endured so much tragedy, her family has died, she has survived a nuclear winter, she was subjected to isolation and sexual violence, and her lover Joseph was murdered. But to me, this lie (or rather the revelation that it was a lie) was by far the biggest heartbreak of the entire book. The Oankali betrayed Lilith in the biggest and nastiest way possible. The idea of going back to Earth, escaping the Oankali, connecting with humanity again, and having a fresh start was the only thing that kept Lilith going. She had countless doubts about the morals of the Oankali but she always came back to the fact that they said they would bring her home. I can only imagine the anguish and grief that Lilith would have felt with this new information that she would not in fact be going home. If I were Lilith I don’t think I would have survived it. The realization that I would never go back to Earth would destroy me. Also, the realization that these beings who I put all my trust in and swore would never lie to me did in fact lie would probably drive me to insanity.
The way that Butler chose to write about this event only raised more questions for me. Out of a 283 page novel, this lie is only revealed on the 278th page and really only discussed for about a page and a half. After reading the last page and then subsequently realizing that it was indeed the last page, I found myself wanting more and frantically flipping through the back of the book scrounging around for more information. If this revelation of the lie that the Oankali have continued to tell Lilith was as devastating as I thought it was, why didn’t Butler spend more time on it? This seems like a vital event of Lilith’s actions and thought processes as a person so wouldn’t Butler want to write lots about such an important event? I think my scrounging was what actually provided me with one possible answer. This is what Bulter wants us to feel. The sudden confusion, frustration and panic that sets in after the audience learns that the Oankali have been lying this entire time with only six pages left was absolutely intentional. This is how Lilith feels. Lilith feels the exact emotions that the readers do for the exact same reasons. The Oankali have dropped this absolutely massive bomb on Lilith and left her to rush through the acceptance process alone. Just like the readers, Lilith is not given any time to come to terms with the realization that it has all been a lie. She is hurried along to another problem the Oankali are requiring her to solve.
Another answer to why Butler left the biggest tragedy of the book for the last couple of pages I actually learned from my Horror Film Studies class. We’ve been talking about the impact of indirect horror, subtlety, and letting the audience guess what is happening beyond what the camera is showing. Perhaps this is what Builder is trying to get at. We as readers don’t see much of how Lilith reacts to the realization that she has been lied to. We see her initial response of shock and confusion but we don’t get much more than that. What I’ve learned from my Film Studies class is that true terror comes from what the audience makes up in their mind when they are not given direct answers. Dawn doesn’t give us answers about Lilith’s reaction, so readers are forced to make something up in their heads based on their own individual interpretations of the text. This is where the real disturbance of the Oankali’s lie can start to creep in. A reader could imagine Lilith’s reaction going any which way, from violent, to peaceful, to ignoring it, or to fighting back. The majority of the trouble comes not from what Butler gives us, but what she doesn’t give us.
Of course, with all of this comes the fact that Dawn is only the first book of a trilogy. I think a definite reason that Butler did not explore the Oankali’s life very much in this book is because she planned to discuss it more in the following books. She left us as readers very much on a cliffhanger and jonesing for more. She needed her readers to want to read the next installment and of course, we wouldn’t do that if all of our questions were answered immediately. All good things come to those who wait.