ON the Dawn of Knowing

KNOWLEDGE Knowledge… Human nature seems to be to always ask the questions; Who, What, Where, When, and most of all Why. Throughout Octavia E. Butler’s book, Dawn, the concept of knowledge is very present. From pages 166-191, the theme of Knowledge is still very evident.

Lilith is having a great deal of trouble trying to keep the awakened together. She tries to teach them to be happy and stay together, but many question her and can not, mentally, except the ideas she teaches. The awakened as a whole have seemed to split into two groups, those who try and follow Lilith and the rebels who continue to challenge Lilith’s every teaching. Peter Van Weerden is the leader of those opposed to Lilith’s teachings. He believes the is not human and that she is keeping information from them. He has been able to influence Jean Pelerin, Curt Loehr, and Celene Ivers. Those who followed Lilith were Obviously Joseph (her partner) and then Tate, Gabriel, Leah. But even these few would question her from time to time.

One day Peter and some of his followers forced Lilith down to the ground, she could have gotten free but chose not to hurt anyone, once Peter and his friends got her down Derrick went to the cabinet and took a dozen or so biscuits and ended up going in himself. Once the door shut, he was never seen again. When Lilith asked why he had done it and found that others think someone refills the cabinet and they wanted to see who did it.

Later in the section, A man Gregory Sebastes and some of Peter’s group took a hold of Allison Zeigler. They took her and with the intensions of rape, walked towards the bedrooms. Luckily Lilith was able to stop them. She truly took control of the situation and began throwing the captures off of Allison, Lilith broke Peter’s arm and hurt many others. This brought up two important things. One, being Allison after being saved by Lilith, asking her if she was human. Lilith replied “Think about it. If I weren’t human, why the hell would I care whether you got raped?” (180). The second important thing was that after two terribly painful days with a broken arm Peter went to sleep, when he awoke the pain was gone as well as the bruising. From that day on Peter questioned Lilith’s knowledge a little more but he did believe that there must be something out there rather than humans.

The last big event in the section happens with all the forty-three awaken humans. The Oankali come to finally reveal themselves to the humans. There is one ooloi for each pair of humans. Many of the humans try to get away from the ugly and very scared first sight of the Oankali, by running or attacking them. They are dealt with quite easily.

When Allison asks Lilith if she is human this truly shows the need for knowledge/ intelligence. “There isn’t any nice way of saying this, but I’ve got to ask. Are you really human?” (180). “I’ve got to ask” Allison says. This strive for knowledge is very powerful. This is not the only time people question Lilith and her teachings. Earlier in the section when Lilith is being held down so that Derrick could go in the cabinet, she asks why they were doing this. Curt answers her with the quote, “ Finding out what’s really going on… we intend to find out who they are” (172). This action of force was being done in the names of What and Who.

Knowledge is defined as “the fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience” for one to gain experience they must ask “ Who, What, Why, When, and How”. As children we are taught to ask “why”, this then transforms into the rest of the questions. I believe that this theme of Knowledge is apparent in the book and as well in the era that this book was made. The 80s were the time for the Cold War, and many people were asking these vary questions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcNujMV-2iQ

This video is dedicated to asking why. People ask “why” for knowledge.

Food for Thought

How do you feel when you don’t understand something?

And to what lengths is it necessary to go to find out the meaning of things?