9/21 The Somewhat Supernatural Superwoman

Done with the first part of Dawn and left class on 9/15 with the following thoughts about why Lillith is a superwoman:
- She didn’t kill herself during the nuclear war
- She didn’t crack during isolation
- She has a powerful survival instinct
- She can open walls (the only supernatural power of this list)
What I brought up to the class is that I see Lillith as a rat in a cage being experimented on; she didn’t seem to rebel against this treatment of her as an animal – she was almost too okay with it, I felt. This I took as a joke on the United States. This is what the U.S. would do with foreign, alien creatures – put them in a cage and observe. Lillith represents that fear of the other and how usually when we are afraid of the other, we isolate them. To me, this was clear social commentary about humans, or Americans, and the unknown.
I did leave class with one question, making it difficult for me not to read this book during my other classes. Are the “aliens” helping the human race? Are they in a saving mode? Should their actions produce gratefulness from Lillith? I’m not so sure if they are attempting to be a rescue team in the long run because they reference themselves as traders; a trader is a neutral term but we as readers see it as bad because there is no true consent on Lillith’s part. Also, The Oankali are extremely secretive and I’m going to suggest that this mysteriousness is not a good thing.

No comments:

Post a Comment