100 pages • 3 hours read
Octavia E. ButlerA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
The title of the book, Dawn, is itself a symbol. Humanity has self-destructed and was only saved through the intervention of the Oankali, so this is the dawn of a new era, a new way of life for humans, a new way of thought about what makes human beings human. It is even the dawn of a new version of humanity, as humans are genetically altered to create a hybrid species with the Oankali.
The title of the first section of the book, “Womb,” symbolizes Lilith’s new life. She is Awakened from her suspended animation plant, wet and naked, just as she was born from her mother’s womb. She is also ignorant everything in this new world, just like a newborn baby.
The title of the third section of the book, “Nursery,” symbolizes the large room where Lilith Awakens the other humans, the place where she cares for them and teaches them how to live in this new world, as she would babies in a nursery.
The banana that Jdahya brings to Lilith in her isolation room is the first recognizable human food that Lilith has seen since the beginning of her captivity. For her, it symbolizes home and the familiar.
By Octavia E. Butler
Adulthood Rites
Adulthood Rites
Octavia E. Butler
Bloodchild and Other Stories
Bloodchild and Other Stories
Octavia E. Butler
Fledgling
Fledgling
Octavia E. Butler
Kindred
Kindred
Octavia E. Butler
Parable of the Sower
Parable of the Sower
Octavia E. Butler
Parable of the Talents
Parable of the Talents
Octavia E. Butler
Speech Sounds
Speech Sounds
Octavia E. Butler
The Evening and the Morning and the Night
The Evening and the Morning and the Night
Octavia E. Butler
Wild Seed
Wild Seed
Octavia E. Butler