Brrood By Octavia Butler Character Analysis

500 years ago in another time and place, da Vinci’s words rang true: “Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.” Throughout the various eras, philosophers, scientists, artists, and even politicians have warned against the influence of authority upon masses, urging the voiceless to find a voice and establish resiliency in a society that seeks to exploit the unwary. In the past and present, authority and authoritarian roles have proven themselves to be timeless ethical issues that raise unwanted provocative inquiries, but what of the future? In Octavia Butler’s Lilith’s Brood, Butler manipulates her characters in order to explore an eternal conflict in a contemporary setting; her audacious heroine Lilith is presented with adversity and

Lilith’s rebellion is catalyzed by the encroachment of her morals, leading to an unfavorable apprehension in the presence of undecipherable beings. However, while it was her unrelenting inquiries that initially separated her from being a truly devoid individual, Lilith is slowly reconstructed into an emotionally drained and passive individual as a result of her deprivation of knowledge to the benefit of the Oankali, whom use her in a “leadership” role to “guide” the other humans. Thus, she is forced to fulfill the perfect representation of a Judas goat, leaving Lilith uncertain with her loyalties, confused with her ambitions, and perpetually at war with the woman she used to

Interestingly, Nikanj states, “we know her”, but fails to address whether Lilith truly knows them in an equivalent manner, displaying a power division between the Oankali and the humans that makes one inferior to the other, despite the rejection of a hierarchal and progressive society. Lilith herself fluctuates between tumultuous periods of metaphorical blindness and realization; her confliction is apparent through her own eyes: “She had known for a long time that she might be doomed” (147). Ultimately, this basic human wish to maintain her existence and remain alive has caused Lilith to feel as if she has betrayed her own by agreeing to conform to the wishes of the Oankali, the beings she attempted so bitterly to resist. In consequence, she begins to identify as a Judas goat, a term that has involuntarily compelled her into decisions she would not have usually allowed to have been made. Cycles of self-resentment, oscillating emotions, and violent hatred plague Lilith’s heart and mind, distracting her from her humanity and deliberately isolating her from her species in an attempt to establish unwavering control over her. She is weakened and left with no choice at the