Imago

Throughout Jodahs’s worrisome transformation and adaptation, Nikanj offers guidance and encouragement, highlighting its role as a figure of diversity and acceptance. Nikanj confirms to Jodahs that newness does not mean flawed. Nikanj acknowledges that Jodahs may make mistakes but learning improves understanding. It tells Jodahs, “You can make mistakes, but you can also perceive them. And you can correct them. I’ll help you” (26). The older ooloi is supportive and offers Jodahs a much-desired sense of security and belonging. Nikanj insists, “Find out what’s comfortable for you. Do what your bodies tell you is right” (45). Nikanj’s reaction to Jodahs’s unique and unexpected transformation is a lesson in tolerance and acceptance.

Nikanj connects the role of self-discovery in Jodahs’s metamorphosis to the positive consequences for the community. Nikanj asserts, “This is a new relationship. You’ll be finding the way for others as well as for yourselves” (45). The Oankali value the connection between individual identity and communal welfare, as demonstrated in the family’s decision to accompany Jodahs during its exile. Nikanj’s assertion emphasizes Jodahs’s importance to future generations and compares the community to the cosmos. The Oankali treasure change—they explore new life forms throughout the universe and regard themselves as members of an infinite community. When Nikanj reluctantly approves of violence to protect its family, it feels physically sick. Jodahs explains, “To kill was not simply wasteful to the Oankali. It was as unacceptable as slicing off their own healthy limbs” (42). To the Oankali, all living things are part of its community, and to harm one organism is akin to harming the self. Individualism connotes isolation and stasis, whereas the collective connotes unity and diversity.

In contrast, humans appear hostile to change and lacking in communal support. Unlike the Oankali who treasure merging with other life forms, the resisters reject the Oankali’s gene trade to retain their species’ purity. Humans who accept the Oankali are called “betrayers” and dehumanized as “animals,” drawing parallels with racist attitudes about integration and interracial relationships. Although the resisters purport to defend their collective identity as humans and preserve the species, their abuse of Marina Rivas stands in stark contrast to the Oankali’s collective unity. The men assault her and the women ostracize her, revealing the utter lack of human compassion and female solidarity. The resisters are depicted as contradictory humans who value the integrity of their species yet perpetrate the most violent crimes against each other.

However, not all humans are violent and hostile to the Oankali, and these instances provide insights into The Nature of Autonomy and Consent in Alien/Human Relationships. Marina Rivas demonstrates tolerance and consent, and her character is a human counterpart to Nikanj. Marina is an informed human who comprehends Oankali customs without prejudice. She accepts the Oankali’s bodies and practices and allows Aaor and Jodahs to sleep by her side. She tells them, “Come and lie here. I know your kind like to touch everyone. If you want to, you can touch me” (59). When Jodahs explains that it wears clothes to make humans feel comfortable, Marina retorts, “But take your clothes off if you want to. What difference does it make?” (62). Marina is an open-minded and hospitable person who defies the Oankali’s characterization of humans as hierarchical. The irony of Marina’s character is that in her friendliness and comfort with the Oankali, she offers a persuasive argument for humans to be left alone.

To Jodahs, Marina explains two reasons why resisters oppose the Oankali. The first is that the Oankali heal physical wounds but neglect to understand human psychic trauma. The ambiguities of the Oankali’s genetic skills highlight The Ethics of Genetic Engineering and Posthumanism. After Jodahs treats Marina, she proclaims, “There’s more to healing than just closing wounds” (63). The Oankali may be all-knowing in their genetic expertise, but they are ignorant of the emotional and psychological mechanisms of humankind. Secondly, Marina does not fear the Oankali themselves, but rather the feelings of pleasure that the ooloi offer, highlighting the theme of Reproductive and Sexual Freedom as Forms of Female Agency. Marina sees the pleasure as a loss of self-control, and the stimulations of the ooloi as a type of addiction. She explains, “I feel drugged—as though they could make me do anything” (63). Marina’s comment highlights the connection between sexual pleasure and autonomy and gestures toward feminist sexual politics. Jodahs’s genetic reading through its tentacles cannot illuminate the complex relationship between human sexuality and power. Marina’s comment highlights the social construction of sex, gender, and sexuality, and by implication, she demonstrates how limited the Oankali’s understanding of humans truly is.