Theme Of Manipulation In Dawn By Octavia Butler

Science is defined as “knowledge about or study of the natural world based on facts learned through experiments and observation (1).” In other words, science is the study of the world through the manipulation of it. It is then no surprise that Science Fiction, better known as Sci-fi, is thoroughly driven by manipulation. This can be clearly witnessed through both film and literature. Manipulation is found in many aspects of such works. From political, to cultural, to psychological, to physical, to technological and to even microscopic. Even more fascinating is the fact that this mirrors life outside of literature. A work of literature that displays manipulation in multiple facets is Dawn by Octavia Butler (2). Dawn is the story of Lilith,
a human woman, that is saved from an Earth in which humanity has caved in on itself and self destructed by an alien race that lives in a organic and sentient ship that travels throughout space. Throughout the beginning of Lilith's story we find her naked and alone in a completely bare room unwilling to cooperate with her captors. Throughout this time period the reader finds out the Lilith is ever so often waking up from a deep slumber. After one such waking Lilith finds a scar on herself, which is later revealed to be due to an extraction of a cancer that was prevalent in her family. This cancer is later used by the aliens to reattach body parts after they are cut off. Through these many examples, genetic manipulation is clearly and evidently occurring. Lilith's life is completely altered by this manipulation as well. After being taken in the aliens her body is healed of the wounds she had sustained on Earth along with her genetic predisposition for cancer. Her very being is later altered, through means of altering her DNA. She is given by the aliens superior strength and the ability to manipulate the ship to bend to her will, which otherwise she was unable to. Furthermore, the long periods of slumber Lilith goes through in the beginning of the book is later found out to be induced by worm like creatures genetically modified to keep their captives a sustained slumber for long periods of time.
Moreover, one of the most prevalent cases of genetic modification is one chased after by the aliens that saved Lilith. The aliens refer to themselves as traders. As traders, they saved the humans which survived the destruction imposed by their own species for one such trade. The most fair question that can be asked is, what would a race of aliens get from humans who lost their homes with nothing but a desolate Earth to their names? The answer is, their genetic makeup something that they cannot have lost. These traders throughout the story often say that the trade had begun. And in fact it did, whilst some of the humans were left to assimilate into the aliens society, others were lefts to slumber or get ready to return to their home. The aliens however, got more than they could dream of, this came in the form of cancer. While to humans it is a deadly disease, a death sentence. To the aliens it is a boon, with their ability to modify genetics and themselves, they used cancer as a means of surviving injuries they otherwise could not have. Furthermore, the trade in particular is in particular much more intimate than just a sample of cancer. The trade is how the aliens survived and continued their species and its prevalence. It is through offspring that a species may continue and it is through offspring that the trade occurs. As a result of the trade, no true humans would remain, all offspring born would be neither completely human nor completely alien, they would be something new, something other. It is in this way that it becomes clear, the aliens are much like scientist working to prolong life and to further knowledge. In essence, the aliens would be creating hybrids. Beings that “...display traits and characteristics of both parents.(3)”