Butler and Okorafor's posthuman allegories

Dawn and the Binti trilogy of novellas are extremely similar stories, and due to Okorafor’s connection to Butler, this is not a coincidence. They both embody a posthuman figure through their main characters which lead to individual focuses on identity and what makes someone human. These unique focuses are born from a divergence in how the authors manage culture within their narratives, with Okorafor basing her story on African cultures and Butler writing in a cultural void due to the death of most of humanity. This difference allows Okorafor to delve deeper into the nuances of identity, moving past the limited, heterosexual, scope that Butler writes within, and provides a greater acceptance of diversity in Binti. To analyze the importance of these differences, we must turn to the authors’ allegories, which provide comfort to characters and readers. This comfort can disguise textual meaning, allowing moments of discomfort to provide truths about reality. Where Dawn and Binti’s comfort dissolves, or where their allegories drop, is where the differences in their textual significance lie. Allegorical analysis locates a textual message in places where it may not be as clearly tied to authorial statements and may help reveal that while narratives may appear extremely similar, how their meanings are mapped onto reality are distinct. This relates to Butler and Okorafor’s posthuman characters, revealing their novels’ differing messages about humanity’s transition into a partially unrecognizable figure and how adapting to becoming this posthuman, specifically biological androids, allows for development past human hierarchies and violences.