Butler on Humans

Nick Lubic
Dr. Adam Johns
Seminar in Composition
28 October 2008

Humans for Change

A famous American writer and futurist, Alvin Toffler, once said, “Change is the process by which future invades our lives”. This is the very essence of change that Lilith fears but also embraces in Octavia Butler’s book, Lilith’s Brood. Lilith often has trouble in dealing with change that the Oankali present to her, whether it is a change in location or a physical change. However, often times she finds herself loathing for change in any way that she can find it. It is this view on change that Butler tries to portray as a key characteristic which sets humans apart from any other species. Adapting and fearing change is one characteristic of humans that Butler believes is the essence of human nature.

Butler introduces Lilith as a human longing for freedom and change. The Oankali give her little answers as far as where she is and why she is there. This frustrates her and adds to her overall sense of confinement. Butler stresses her inability to deal with being locked away, a trait she feels is exclusive to humans alone. Oankali have no problem with being change or not being changed. They seem numb to the ideas of familiarity or change from the very beginning.

This theme becomes apparent in Lilith’s case, mostly because she is manipulated so much by the Oankali. Towards the beginning of the novel, Lilith is kept in a room with no contact with the outside world. She begs and pleads for answers as to why she is there and when she can leave. When the time comes for her to leave her prison-like confinement, she fears the thought of change and clings to the place she once hated. She expresses her fear of a change in scenery when saying, “This isn’t working. Just put me down on Earth with other human’s. I can’t do this” (Butler 21). Shortly after getting used to being outside of her cage, she is confronted with a situation involving Nikanj and its friend. They begin to sample her by prodding and poking her, which makes her uncomfortable. She tells Nikanj, “I want to go back” (Butler 57). The room that she once wanted to escape from had become her new home and was the only thing familiar to her. Nikanj does not understand why Lilith is acting this way because this is a human characteristic that is unique to humans alone. It is this conflicting relationship between wanting change and wanting familiarity that makes humans unique according to Butler.

Not only does Butler portray the fear of change in scenery, she also tries to focus on physical change as something that humans both embrace and fear. The initial thought of physical change greatly fears Lilith. Just before Nikanj performs the operation which will change Lilith’s brain chemistry forever, she expresses her fear when saying, “What frightening is the idea of being tampered with. Listen, no part of me is more definitive of who I am than my brain” (Butler 76). Physical changes like these are hard for humans to grasp, mostly because we see change as irreversible and different, which scares us. The Oankali have no fear in making these changes, in fact they want to make them in order to better others and themselves. Nakanj expresses this alien idea when saying, “Would it be so bade to remember better? To remember the way Sharad did- the way I do?” (76). Oankali feel that physically changing the body is progress and should be welcomed. This idea can be connected to Silver’s views on bettering the human race. He would agree that changes to the human body should be made in order for our race to progress. This idea is terrifying to humans, perhaps even to Silver, which is why his writing seems so alien and difficult to grasp. McKibben takes a more human like approach when discussing physical change on the human body because he fears permanent changes, such a germline therapy, much like Lilith does. Fear of physical change is yet another asset of humans that Butler feels is unique.

Octavia Butler’s book uses the interactions between humans and aliens as proof that change and the fear of change is a key aspect which separates the two species. Humans, she feels, act uniquely to changes is setting or physicality and add to her overall idea of what it is to be human. She uses Oankali to contrast their personalities to those of humans, using their numbness towards change as a spotlight for the fear that humans feel. In any case, Butler’s views on the essence of human nature are truly unique