Dana Payne
Seminar in Composition
Dr. Adam Johns
November 5, 2008
One of the many things that keeps humans from falling to the state of primitive beasts is morality. There are many definitions and applications of morality. The application to which we have been exposed most is the morality of altering genetics in order to make the average homo sapiens something improved--an upgraded model, if you will. Applying this to Octavia Butler’s Lilith’s Brood, we are bound to question the morality of the Oankali’s actions. The more prudent question to ask is, does this application of morality exist in face of extinction? I would answer this question with a doubtless, “No.” Another application of morality is the division between right and wrong, good and evil, moral and immoral. In my opinion, morality is stronger among humans because of the Oankali, or at least it is stronger among the humans that accepted the Oankali. The situation in Lilith’s Brood is certainly a situation “beyond morality” in some cases, but not in all.
The novel starts with Lilith awaking in a windowless, colorless room in which she has been trapped for an undefinable period of time. We learn that there was a war of a large scale on Earth--a war so violent and terrible that it destroyed much of the Northern hemisphere and many of the centers of human civilization. Humans as they once were would not be able to survive on post-war Earth. Elements of the Earth had been biologically changed, also most of the people saved would not have known how to survive because they had had the comforts of technology to aid them. Extinction would have been the inevitable fate for the human species if not for the Oankali. This alien species saved what was left of the Earth. Though the Oankali saved the humans for their own biological purposes, they saved them regardless. Lilith may have been altered genetically, but only for her own survival. Nothing more than the necessary was done. I do not believe that it’s immoral to save a dying species by altering their genetics. If I were in the situation, I would rather live with slight alterations than die.
Though the sense of morality concerning may have changed because of the situation, the basic sense of human morality was maintained if not improved by Oankali and the people who did not resist them. Morality has been improved because of the Oankali’s lack of hierarchical ambitions. Life among the Oankali is harmonious and happy. When Tino arrives the village, it is filled with children and a feeling of community as they ate. “People brought food, shared it along themselves and with Lilith as they accepted what she offered. They fed their own children and each other’s children...” (Butler). The lesson we were taught as toddlers applies in the Oankali village more than ever before: sharing is caring. Not only is it caring, but it is proficient and best for the community as a whole. Since the people of the village are not busy trying to earn dominance in some form, they can focus on surviving together. Their reliance on each other and desire to see to it that all of them survive create a morality greater than that of the resisters.
The morality, or lack thereof, of the resisters is made most evident in the instance of two deaths in the novel: one certain, while the other has yet to be ascertained, but is probable. Curt, so consumed with xenophobia, kills Joseph when he sees that Joseph had been given the ability to heal remarkably fast. The immorality of the situation is obviously murder, but humans are so blinded by their fear of the unknown that the morality of their actions escapes them. In the second instant, Tino is killed so that Akin can be taken for trading. The morality of the human resisters has regressed into a primitive state: a state in which the strongest survive, a state in which killing a man and taking the child that was supposedly his son for trading. The Oankali were right when they found the hierarchical nature of humans to be their greatest downfall. In the novel, the resisters serve as a comparison to the Oankali village. While the Oankali village is peaceful, reliant on each other, and sharing, the various resisters are violent, hierarchial, and are making to marked progress.
I apologize to whoever is commenting on this essay. I wasn't on my game when I wrote it.
2 comments:
I don’t really know if this is the blog I’m supposed to comment on but there are no comments yet and I didn’t see a post from Brian who commented on mine last week…
Dana, you have a lot of good ideas in your essay, but it needs some work. I think the main problem is your argument. Three are a lot of things going on and I think a stronger thesis and conclusion would help the reader focus on the important points.
Morality is a really broad argument. I would try to narrow it down to something more specific. The morality of the resisters versus the constructs might be an interesting approach. This would be pretty easy to get to because the ideas are already in your paper. Just expand on them and make them more concrete. I think the paragraph about the two deaths needs to be more significant to the paper.
I have some questions that came up while I was reading; I think that they might help you expand your ideas:
Do you think what the Oankali did was right? Should they even get credit for saving the species if it was an act to help themselves? Does saving the species give them a right to make humans extinct, leaving only constructs, sterilizing humans and preventing them from mating with each other?
Were the Oankali really trying to only save the humans or are they always trying to help themselves more?
What makes the humans in the trade villages like Lo more moral than the resisters?
Lastly I have some side notes that aren’t hugely important but I wanted to point out:
-re-read your second to last paragraph, first sentence “Through the sense of morality concerning may..” I think this is a typo.
-Sharing is caring is a huge cliché, try to stay away from this phrase, it’s a distraction.
Overall I think that you are at a good starting place. You have interesting and novel things to talk about. Expanding on your ideas and presenting them more clearly to the reader will improve your paper a lot.
One of the many things that keeps humans from falling to the state of primitive beasts is morality. There are many definitions and applications of morality. The application to which we have been exposed most is the morality of altering genetics in order to make the average homo sapiens something improved--an upgraded model, if you will. Applying this to Octavia Butler’s Lilith’s Brood, we are bound to question the morality of the Oankali’s actions. The more prudent question to ask is, does this application of morality exist in face of extinction? I would answer this question with a doubtless, “No.” Another application of morality is the division between right and wrong, good and evil, moral and immoral. In my opinion, morality is stronger among humans because of the Oankali, or at least it is stronger among the humans that accepted the Oankali. The situation in Lilith’s Brood is certainly a situation “beyond morality” in some cases, but not in all.
The novel starts with Lilith awaking in a windowless, colorless room in which she has been trapped for an undefinable period of time. We learn that there was a war of a large scale on Earth--a war so violent and terrible that it destroyed much of the Northern hemisphere and many of the centers of human civilization. Humans as they once were would not be able to survive on post-war Earth. Elements of the Earth had been biologically changed, also most of the people saved would not have known how to survive because they had had the comforts of technology to aid them. Extinction would have been the inevitable fate for the human species if not for the Oankali. This alien species saved what was left of the Earth. Though the Oankali saved the humans for their own biological purposes, they saved them regardless. Lilith may have been altered genetically, but only for her own survival. Nothing more than the necessary was done. I do not believe that it’s immoral to save a dying species by altering their genetics. If I were in the situation, I would rather live with slight alterations than die. Necessity outweighs the morals which the resisters hold onto so strongly that they have practically chosen total extinction over becoming integrated with the Oankali. Frankly, this hardheaded adherence to outdated ideals is stupidity, especially in the face of extinction. In my opinion, the human species that existed before the war is mostly extinct already in the novel, but human traits will live on through the combined species of Oankali and human.
Though the sense of morality concerning genetic engineering may have changed because of the situation, the basic sense of human morality was maintained if not improved by Oankali and the people who did not resist them. Morality has been improved because of the Oankali’s lack of hierarchical ambitions. Life among the Oankali is harmonious and happy. When Tino arrives the village, it is filled with children and a feeling of community as they ate. “People brought food, shared it among themselves and with Lilith as they accepted what she offered. They fed their own children and each other’s children...” (Butler). The lesson we were taught as toddlers applies in the Oankali village more than ever before: sharing. It is proficient and best for the community as a whole. Since the people of the village are not busy trying to earn dominance in some form, they can focus on surviving together. Their reliance on each other and desire to see to it that all of them survive create a morality greater than that of the resisters.
The morality, or lack thereof, of the resisters is made most evident in the instance of two deaths in the novel: one certain, while the other has yet to be ascertained, but is probable. Curt, so consumed with xenophobia, kills Joseph when he sees that Joseph had been given the ability to heal remarkably fast. The immorality of the situation is obviously murder, but humans are so blinded by their fear of the unknown that the morality of their actions escapes them. In the second instant, Tino is killed so that Akin can be taken for trading. The morality of the human resisters has regressed into a primitive state: a state in which the strongest survive, a state in which killing a man and taking the child that was supposedly his son for trading. The Oankali were right when they found the hierarchical nature of humans to be their greatest downfall. In the novel, the resisters serve as a comparison to the Oankali village. While the Oankali village is peaceful, reliant on each other, and sharing, the various resisters are violent, hierarchial, and are making to marked progress.
Post a Comment