Slonczewski, Joan. "Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis Trilogy: A Biologist's Response" . Retrieved 24 November 2013. The two main motifs for Dawn are death and internal struggle. In war, death surrounds everyone, there is no escaping it. Elisha and the movement's objective was to, "...kill the greatest number of soldiers possible. It was that simple." The death of John Dawson and David B. Moshe played a significant role in the writing of Dawn. Internal struggle is seen many times during the story. Elisha, being the main character of the book, has the most internal struggle of anyone. He always hears a child crying, even though no one is actually crying. This suggests that Elisha is that child who wants to cry but cannot. Elisha is given the job of executing John Dawson, but he debates whether he should get to know him before killing him. Gad tells Elisha, "Don't torture yourself, this is war." This quote implies that Elisha is making his task more of an issue than it's supposed to be, according to Gad. When I first read Dawn, I found it a very compelling story that encased a perhaps insoluble moral dilemma; upon rereading it, I now find Elie Wiesel's novella a kind of parable attempting to relate the sometimes incalculable difference between good & evil. The brief book hadn't changed & I doubt that I had appreciably changed as well but sometimes (often) taking a 2nd glance at anything reveals aspects that seemed previously less than apparent.

Wiesel looks hard at the mindset of the group of young Jewish fighters against british occupation gathered in a house near Tel Aviv, their motivations for the violence they are inflicting on the occupiers.Bonner, Frances. "Difference and Desire, Slavery and Seduction: Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis." Contemporary Literary Criticism, edited by Jeffrey W. Hunter, vol. 230. Gale, 2007. Originally published in Foundation 48 (Spring 1990): 50–62. White, Ted. "Love with the Proper Stranger." (Review of Imago). The Washington Post. 25 June 1989, p.X8. The next symbol is Elisha's name, which alludes to the prophet Elisha, mentioned in the Old Testament's Book of Kings. Lastly, dawn is a symbol which represents death. Dawn is generally the time that the Jews and hostages get executed, so throughout the book, the repetition of Elisha mentioning dawn refers to the death of Jews and hostages. Lilith's Brood is a collection of three works by Octavia E. Butler. The three volumes of this science fiction series ( Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago) were previously collected in the now out-of-print omnibus edition Xenogenesis. The collection was first published under the current title of Lilith's Brood in 2000. [1] Synopsis [ edit ] Dawn (1987) [ edit ]

John Dawson is kept in a house with a jail in the basement. Elisha and a group of "brothers" from the Movement, sat and waited for the confirmation that Moshe was to be hanged. The radio confirmed that night the execution of David Ben Moshe is to happen at dawn. When the announcement was finished, "The Voice of Freedom" came on. This underground station is used by the Movement to get information out to the people. The "Voice of Freedom" is a woman named Ilana, who happens to be in love with Gad. Later in the night when the broadcast is finished, Ilana came to the house where John Dawson was being kept. The group of people at the house were sitting and talking about how they have escaped death and about Dawson's execution. I don't want to reveal anything that happens in this book, so I'll only say that I now consider Dawn to be one of my three favorite Octavia Butler novels along with Kindred and Fledgling. Dawn is a novel by Elie Wiesel, published in 1961. It is the second in a trilogy — Night, Dawn, and Day — describing Wiesel's experiences and thoughts during and after the Holocaust. [1]a b "Negotiating Difference in Octavia Butler's Adulthood Rites". Tor.com. 2009-10-12 . Retrieved 2017-05-29.