Imago

“Lo took care of the Humans’ wastes, keeping their area clean, though they tended to be careless about where they threw or dumped things in this temporary place.”

Humans visiting Lo are housed in a guest area where they can wait for a ship to Mars. Jodahs describes human behavior as irresponsible and polluting, an indication that on a larger scale, these same habits damaged the environment and led to Earth’s destruction. The litter is a sign that humankind is short-sighted; they treat the temporary housing as if there are no long-term consequences for their consumption and waste. They likewise show no grace or consideration as guests. Jodahs’s passing comment serves as an environmental message in which Lo’s guest area is a metaphor for nature. Lo, the living village, is personified as the host that must clean up after humans’ negligence of their environment.

“Eventually we would have to begin the long, long search for a new species to combine with to construct new life-forms. Much of Oankali existence was spent in such searches.”

Jodahs describes the Oankali’s impetus to live nomadic lives in continual search for new species. Even though their time on Earth will last a few centuries, the planet is still only a temporary home. The Oankali’s nomadic ways are best illustrated by the fact that their villages are shuttles that will detach from the Earth when the time comes. Jodahs’s identity, like the species as a whole, is also not stagnant and not restricted to one form or static worldview. The description serves as a contrast to the hierarchical and parochial nature of humankind.

“Now I discovered a little of the Human hunger to touch where I could not.”

As Jodahs develops into an ooloi, its ability to physically touch its human parents becomes more difficult because of Oankali biology. Once humans mate with an ooloi, they feel repulsion when they touch their human partners. For Lilith and Tino, touch is only tolerable through Nikanj, and humans must tolerate this side effect as part of being in Oankali families. For the first time with its human parents, Jodahs is denied the experience of physical comfort, one that does not involve the exchange of genes or sexual pleasure that foreground Oankali touch. Jodahs’s feelings of longing and loss serve as a reminder of the sacrifices humans have made to adapt to a new way of living and showing love and affection.

“New tissue gone obscenely wrong. Humans called this condition cancer. To them, it was a hated disease. To the Oankali, it was treasure. It was beauty beyond Human comprehension.”

The dichotomy between human and Oankali perspectives is further emphasized in their interpretation of cancer. To humans, the disease is a curse, whereas the Oankali consider it a blessing. Butler’s fiction is influenced by the story of Henrietta Lacks, a Black woman who died of cancer in 1951. Doctors collected her tumor cells without her consent or knowledge, and these cells, referred to as HeLa cells, have been foundational in medical breakthroughs such as polio and COVID-19 vaccines and studies on leukemia and AIDS. The connection to Lilith’s experience in Dawn is profound, and in Imago, Butler continues to explore issues of consent and genetic engineering in the Oankali’s use of Lilith’s cancer cells to create a new posthumanist species.

“And all that I did to Lo, I also did to myself. […] Lo was parent, sibling, home. […] I would have done anything to avoid giving Lo pain.”

Lo is many things at once: a village, a spaceship, and a kinship organism that has as much significance as a family member and the self. Lo is a symbol of nature, symbiosis, and empathy. The entity challenges the individualism and anthropocentrism of humankind, to whom nature is a backdrop to be used and exploited. To the Oankali, Lo’s welfare is intrinsically bound to their own, and their relationship represents an ethical perspective of ecology.

“I had seen Oankali make the mistake of treating Humans like children. […] The Oankali tried to take care of them. The Humans reacted with anger, resentment, and withdrawal. Nikanj’s way was better.”

One of the central objections the humans have against the Oankali is the aliens’ patronizing treatment of humans. This objection informs Nikanj’s decision to allow its human mates to kill resisters to protect themselves, a directive completely antithetical to Oankali beliefs. This scene illustrates that the Oankali have also made compromises to improve their relationship with humans. The Oankali can detect the “Human Conflict” of intelligence and hierarchy, and now they must also confront their own contradiction of caring for humans by controlling them.

“Give yourself time. You’re a new kind of being. There’s never been anyone like you before. But there’s no flaw in you. You just need time to find out more about yourself.”

Nikanj instills in Jodahs a strong sense of self-worth by accepting its newness as simply that— something that is unique and hasn’t existed before. Nikanj’s emphasis on time and self-discovery is a similar lesson for humans who fear the Oankali for being so radically new and different. As Jodahs’s parent, Nikanj gives its child patience and affirmation. The scene models expressions of filial and communal support for anyone who is perceived as transgressing social dictates of what it means to be “normal” and acceptable, particularly regarding gender and sexuality.

“She was like the fire—desirable and dangerous, beautiful and lethal. Humans never understood why Oankali found them so interesting.”

Marina Rivas is the first human that Jodahs touches as an ooloi. Jodahs compares her to fire, which symbolizes passion, destruction, and renewal and reflects humanity’s complexity and contradictions. The plot of Imago reverses the human-Oankali dynamic from the previous novels where humans were dependent on the aliens for their survival. For Jodahs and Aaor, the quality of their lives depends on finding human mates and necessitates a new approach to humans that respects their autonomy and ensures their cooperation.

“Your kind and your Human whores are the cause of all our trouble! You treat all mankind as your woman!”

João accuses Jodahs and other ooloi of emasculating men and uses a misogynistic and heterosexist rationale that alludes to the trope of La Malinche as the traitor and “whore.” Human males in particular are hostile to the ooloi’s method of touch and giving pleasure, as they feel having the tentacles attached to their bodies feminizes them. The scene demonstrates the fragility of masculinity and the ways men João react with hatred and revulsion to uphold cultural stereotypes about passive women and active men. Jodahs is both insulted and perplexed by João’s hostile reaction and reminds itself to ask Tino to explain this irrational fear. Jodahs’s confusion over human male behavior draws attention to the social construction of masculinity and critiques the conflation that gender determines sexuality.

“I repeated the words in Spanish, Portuguese, and Swahili. Those, together with French and English, were the most widely known languages. […] Most survivors were from Africa, Australia, and South America.”

Jodahs speaks a variety of human languages that reflect the colonial history of the planet. The survivors are mostly from formerly colonized nations and the Global South, and their use of these languages demonstrates the ways different cultures have survived and negotiated their postcolonial identities and complex relationships with the colonizer’s language and their native tongue. For some, their native tongue may be extinct, and expressing themselves in a colonizer’s language is their only option. Butler invokes this linguistic colonial history to explore how humanity will negotiate its identity after merging with the Oankali, including what elements will become extinct and what alien forms of expression may still reflect their own culture. The survivors’ origins also implies that these survivors were not responsible for nuclear destruction. In Dawn, Lilith references the wars between America and Russia, likely those who caused the destruction.

“I couldn’t let him go. I don’t think any ooloi could have let him go. No living being should be left to wander without care in his condition.”

When Jodahs sees Tomás for the first time, Jodahs admits that it cannot leave him alone. The statement illustrates the central ethical ambiguity of the Oankali’s behavior with humans. Jodahs believes it is showing compassion, as to ignore Tomás is equivalent to indifference and neglect. Yet, to the humans, the Oankali violate their autonomy and interfere with their lives, even if it is to heal them.

“And only ooloi needed to heal. […] Ooloi had no choice. We exist to make the people and to unite them and to maintain them.”

Jodahs’s assertion that it has “no choice” adheres to the logic of biological determinism. As an ooloi, Jodahs is compelled to treat genetic conditions and eventually reproduce with its mates. Yet, at the same time, Jodahs must also prove that the fact that it has human DNA does not mean that it is flawed or dangerous. Throughout the novel, Jodahs both upholds and challenges the argument that one’s genes determine one’s behavior. Butler has stated in interviews that although some behaviors are controlled by biology, she does not believe in “classical sociobiology.” She contends, “Sometimes we can work around our programming if we understand it” (Potts, Stephen W. “We Keep Playing the Same Record.” Science Fiction Studies, February 1996). Butler’s assertion recalls Nikanj’s insistence that Jodahs learn about itself.

“A resister had said to me years before that we constructs and Oankali were supposed to be superior beings, but we insisted on acting like animals. Oddly both ideas seemed to disturb him.”

Jodahs recalls a human’s perspective of the Oankali’s central contradiction, closely mirroring what the aliens call the “Human Contradiction.” Oankali are highly advanced yet behave like “animals,” a term that can connote brutality or lack of control. The irony of calling the Oankali animals is that the term also means non-human. The designation suits the Oankali and is not a contradiction at all.

“Then before he could get up, before he could shout, I was down beside him, one hand over his mouth, the other grasping his hand and forcing it to maintain its hold on the machete, but to be still.”

Jodahs realizes how Oankali behavior is threatening to humans and makes concerted efforts to avoid scaring or offending them. When Jodahs confronts Tomás at their campsite, Jodahs covers his mouth but keeps Tomás’s hand on his weapon. The gesture assures Tomás that Jodahs has no intention of making him vulnerable or without defense. The scene demonstrates Jodahs’s growing ability to ensure that humans feel safe around it.

“You’re not afraid of me now. And you don’t want to hurt me again.’ […]

She sat up abruptly, very much against her own will. My scent was at work on her. She would probably have difficulty resisting it because she was not consciously aware of it.”

Although Jodahs has learned to interact with humans in verbally consensual ways, Butler creates another layer of complexity by highlighting the role pheromones play. One interpretation is that the scent is another coercive Oankali technique that lulls humans without their knowledge and deprives them of autonomy. Another interpretation suggests that pheromones are the only way Oankali can break through humans’ reactionary and hostile behavior. The scent is not to make the humans more compliant but to make them less afraid and less likely to kill.

“She looked at me with anger—almost with hatred. ‘I won’t tell you where my people are. I would drown myself before I would tell you.’”

Jesusa defends humanity’s right to autonomy, even after being exposed to Jodahs’s scent. Jesusa’s insistence on protecting her village and challenging Jodahs illustrates that the ooloi does not control or coerce humans through its scent or touch. Jesusa is no more resistant to Jodahs than other humans, and Jodahs does not cloud her convictions to make her more agreeable. Rather, the two engage in an extended debate and present both sides of the argument. Jesusa’s anger and hatred are not rooted in a reactionary or xenophobic basis, but in her compassionate belief that the Oankali deprive humans of their autonomy.

“Have I done so much good? Then how is it that my people would kill me if they found out?”

Jesusa questions her loyalty to her people after spending time with Jodahs and learning about the option for human independence on Mars. Jesusa bases her ethical decisions on her community’s wellbeing rather than the interests of herself and her brother. Instead of blaming her people for being willing to kill her, she feels guilty and wonders if her actions are “good.” The scene reveals Jesusa’s internal conflict—she has been taught to resist the Oankali but was never allowed to reflect upon and address her own community’s violations of autonomy.

“This is an alien thing Jodahs wants of us. Certainly it’s an un-Christian thing, an un-Human thing. It’s the thing we’ve been taught against all our lives. How can we be accepting it or even considering it so easily?”

Jesusa struggles to comprehend how easily she is persuaded to become Jodahs’s mate. She is suspicious that the ooloi has done something to make her comply, yet the emphasis on her unlearning what she has been taught offers an argument about religious indoctrination and the social construction of gender and sexuality. Jesusa has been taught that the Oankali go against God and human nature, but her fear and hesitation indicate a shift in her consciousness that begins to question naturalized ideologies.

“‘Oankali and constructs love new things.’

’Jodahs says it had to go into exile because it was a new thing.’”

During a conversation with Lilith, Jesusa remarks on the contradiction in Oankali culture. Lilith describes the species as devoted to change and transformation, yet Jesusa points out that Jodahs’s newness is the reason for its exile. The Oankali never address this inconsistency and merely argue that because an ooloi construct has never existed before, they must take precautions to ensure it doesn’t cause any harm. Jesusa’s comment criticizes the Oankali as beings who only love new things that they can control.

“It needs you more than Nikanj ever needed me.”

Lilith explains to Jesusa how human-Oankali interactions have changed since her time. Jodahs’s need for Jesusa and Tomás is a dependency that re-evaluates the Oankali’s assessment of humans as flawed. In Imago, humans become the key to ooloi constructs’ survival and ability to thrive.

“‘The elders tell us who we must marry,’ he said. ‘But they can’t tell us who we must love.’”

Tomás tells Jodahs that Aaor can find potential mates among the clandestine lovers who meet outside the village boundaries. People have become disillusioned with the village customs and insularity and find ways to express their sexual desires and emotional needs outside of the elders’ dictates. The irony of Tomás’s statement is that Jodahs finds human non-monogamy an “alien” concept. Nevertheless, Jodahs accepts that the behavior should not be considered wrong since nothing in human biology prohibits it. Jodahs demonstrates a more tolerant and contextualized understanding of sexuality by not reducing it to biology alone.

“‘Of course I want hair. And I want skin, not scales. I want hair, and I want height. I want to be a man!’

My first impulse was to point out that he was a man. His male organs were well developed. But I understood him.”

Santos’s claim that hair and height define manhood illustrates the social norms of gender. For Santos, masculinity means adhering to expected appearances, and he experiences ostracization as a bald man of short stature. Jodahs resists the impulse to point to Santos’s genitals to confirm his sex, and the scene emphasizes the ways humans conflate sex, gender, and sexuality. Jodahs assumes “being a man” simply means being male, but for humans, “being a man” entails enforcing rigid binary expectations of sex, gender, and sexuality without acknowledging them as social constructions.

“The whole business was like Lilith’s rounded black cloud of hair. Every strand seemed to go its own different way, bending, twisting, spiraling, angling. Yet together they formed a symmetrical, recognizable shape, and all were attached to the same head.”

Jodahs describes Lilith’s hair as a metaphor for the diversity and unity of the Oankali species. As the Oankali and constructs decide on Jodahs and Aaor’s fate, Jodahs recognizes the consensus drawn from multiple perspectives. The imagery of individual strands represents diversity not as chaotic but as a unity of differences that shares the same vision or “head.” The imagery also relates to the creation of a posthuman species, which does not mean the erasure of differences, specifically the problematic erasure of race and distinct histories and cultural identities. The use of Lilith’s hair as a symbol of consensus is an expression of Black pride and suggests a future where cultural differences are formative rather than obsolete.