Octavia Butler's Kindred is a unique, science fictional approach to the ante bellum slavery of the South. Dana, the protagonist, physically travels back in time from urban 1976 California to the rural Weylin plantation in early 1800's Maryland. She is involuntarily summoned to the past whenever her distant white "ancestor," Rufus, is endangered. Time itself in the past moves exponentially faster than time in the present day, so Dana (and her husband) witness decades upon decades of development on the Weylin plantation within a very short period of time, around 2 weeks by the end of the book.
Because Dana is African American, she experiences first hand the cruelties (cruelty being a terrible understatement) of ante bellum slavery. Yet she realizes within a short period of time that Rufus is necessary for her own existence. He, being the son of Tom Weylin (the plantation's master), elopes with Alice, a slave. Alice then eventually gives birth to Hagar, Dana's direct ancestor. Without Rufus, Hagar would have never been born, and Dana could not possibly have been conceived.
I believe in order to understand Dana more thoroughly, we must compare her with Alice. We first see Alice as a little child witnessing white violence against her mother and father. As she grows up, she becomes stubborn, at one point attempting to run away from the plantation with her lover, Isaac. Towards the end, Dana tries to convince Alice to elope with Rufus or face the whip. Alice initially refuses, calling Dana a "white nig*er," but eventually gives in. This shows that Dana's relationship with Rufus is in fact empowering Rufus to act the way he is. Dana gives Rufus affection to a certain degree, giving Rufus the confidence to approach Alice as a sexual object. Rufus' relationships with Dana and Alice therefore exhibit the stark contrast between compassionate and passionate love.
There are, of course, many other themes that need to be discussed regarding this novel, and I will try my best to allude to these themes in subsequent posts.
About Me
- Ameesh Dara
- I'm currently a rising junior at St. Louis University, pursuing a pre-medical degree in Investigative Medical Sciences with a minor in Biology. I've lived in many parts of the country, including rural South Carolina, Baltimore, MD, West Virginia, Manhattan, NY, Cape Girardeau, MO, and St. Louis, where I've lived since 1997. I recently transferred to SLU from the University of Rochester in New York. I am a Pakistani Hindu and proficiently speak English and Sindhi (a Pakistani provincial language). I am also well versed in Hindi, Latin and Spanish. I have three dreams: to become a doctor, to have a huge family, and to travel the world...not necessarily in that order. Enough about me...enjoy my blog!
3 comments:
Ameesh,
The way that you have analyzed Kindred is great! I feel that from your insight, it made me view certain events in the novel differently! The thought of comparing both Alice and Dana together never really crossed my mind. As you said there are many other themes that are present in the text, and I feel as if we discussed them in class! On the other hand, even though we had a long discussion the other day in class about the time changes, I still feel as if even though this novel was science-fiction, it would be impossible to travel in time as Dana did :)
-Lauren
Ameesh, your analysis is quite astounding, WOW, honestly i could not have written it better myself, however, i must add that for me, the beginning of the book was so strange that it took me till page 50 fro me to actually believe that it would continue with science fiction. it is a book i really enjoyed and i hope ou did too, Dana is quite unique in her time traveling ability. I would say Survival is alos another theme along with family, time travel, the suspension of disbelief and many others, i do hope we could discuss in class.
Considering the point about the relationship between Alice and Dana. It is interesting how Dana is seen as essentially a traitor as she tries to play both sides of the fence so to speak. Her survival is heavily based on her protection from Rufus, but she must also be able to fit in with the slaves on the plantation, otherwise her life there would be made miserable. The fact that Alice considers her a "white ni**er" is very revealing about ALice's character and Dana's position on the plantation. She is in reality an outsider on all accounts. She is black, she is educated, she is physically weak compared to others, she is from a different culture/time/place. It is a huge challenge for her to try to build community and to do so she attempts to live in solidarity; eventually, she is accepted and cared for by most, though, perhaps, she shows that she can never be one of them by killing Rufus and turning everyone's lives upside down.
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