Pattern: Information is constantly being hidden from Lilith by the Oankali.

-Example one comes from the top of page sixty two where Lilith is unable to consult books or write anything down. Not only does this stop her from reading about what other humans have done since she was abducted, but also what she has done. Even though she has apparently been given the ability to remember everything, I’m skeptical. If the aliens don’t want her to know something, they obviously have the power to keep it from her.

-Example two comes from page fifty six where Lilith is shown to children. this made me the most uncomfortable of all the interaction she has had with the Oankali up tot this point. This seems to be an indication to me that Lilith is really just kind of a science project for the Oankali and nothing more. To go with the retaining of information trend, she had just been told before that the alien child would keep information from her if it wanted to. I think this supports the idea that the Oankali just don’t value her as anything more than a piece of information or a tool.

-Example three comes from page fifty four when the environment for controlling gases and giving nutrients to the Indian child is explained. The Oankali say that he is given all the necessities he needs via the room but will not tell Lilith whether or not she was kept in one. I think this is highly suspicious. it isn’t really necessary to explain all of this and would have been very easy to lie so why doesn’t he just tell Lilith if she was in one? This made me cautious of the Oankali and their real motives for keeping the humans around.

Hypothesis 1: I think that the Oankali hide information from Lilith because they have a superior knowledge of the human race and understand what will help her become more comfortable/productive/beneficial for them and what will not so they keep the information that will stunt her progress in achieving these things.

Hypothesis 2: Liltith mentions that she can’t catch any of the Oankali in a lie but I don’t think this actually matters. Why would she assume she could interpret the moral code of a race of highly evolved aliens? The Oankali lack the level of emotion felt by humans and I think that they are playing Lilith in one way or another. Maybe keeping her to multiply or some other kind of tool for their purposes.