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Literary Devices
Definition of Allusion
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals, historical events, or philosophical ideas... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to... read full definition
Book 2, Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—Judas Goat:
After learning of her assigned role in the rebirth of humanity, Lilith is desperate to find another human being, someone with whom to share the burden and communicate unabashedly. With an allusive metaphor, Lilith describes her sacrificial role that the Oankali give her:
This trip, she felt, would be worthwhile if she could just catch a glimpse of Fukumoto—of any human Awake and aware. Anyone at all.
She had not realized until she actually began looking how important it was for her to find someone. The Oankali had removed her so completely from her own people—only to tell her they planned to use her as a Judas goat. And they had done it all so softly, without brutality, and with patience and gentleness so corrosive of any resolve on her part.
The Oankali intend for Lilith to learn the Oankali ways, Awaken a group of humans, and then lead these humans through training and eventually back to Earth. They also might use her body to create new crossbreeds of human and Oankali. In these ways, Lilith feels she will be used as a "Judas goat" and become an enemy to her own people. Typically, a Judas goat refers to a trained goat used to herd animals into enclosed spaces, but most commonly into slaughterhouses. The term itself is an allusion to the disciple who betrayed Jesus in the Bible, Judas Iscariot. In betraying Jesus, he betrayed his own, much as goats betray their own kind by submitting them to human will, even to be killed.
Lilith feels that by leading a group of humans at the behest of the Oankali, she will betray her own kind. More importantly, people will perceive her actions as betrayal, thus sparking the potential for strife and violence. Worse yet, the Oankali reveal Lilith’s future with such “patience and gentleness” that her resolve to refuse simply fades away. In this way, the novel’s savage ending of murder and betrayal is inevitable — Lilith knew the dangers of playing the Judas goat from the start.
Related Themes:
Book 4, Chapter 7
Explanation and Analysis—Cassandra:
In a confrontation between the humans and ooloi, Nikanj becomes gravely injured, its sensory arm almost completely severed from its body. Lilith attempts to convince Nikanj to do things differently with the next group of humans to avoid such injury, but uses an allusive metaphor to describe her helplessness:
She looked at Nikanj’s still-healing sensory arm. “Listen to me,” she said. “Let me help you learn about us, or there’ll be more injuries, more deaths.”
“Will you walk through the forest,” Nikanj asked, “or shall we go the shorter way beneath the training room?”
She sighed. She was Cassandra, warning and predicting to people who went deaf whenever she began to warn and predict. “Let’s walk through the forest,” she said.
When Lilith warns Nikanj about the dangers of withholding information from fearful humans, it ignores her warning and swiftly changes the subject. Lilith, feeling helpless, compares herself to Cassandra, a princess of Troy in Greek mythology. Cassandra is simultaneously blessed and cursed: she has the gift of prophecy, yet no one ever believes her prophecies. With this mythological allusion, the novel establishes Lilith’s unique powerlessness in knowing the failings of humankind and not being able to stop them. Yet in reality, it is not Lilith who is afflicted, but the Oankali, for they are so confident in their knowledge and abilities that they refuse to heed Lilith’s sound advice.
Related Themes:
