Butler's Kindred Satire

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Butler’s Kindred induced a personal understanding of slavery that is relevant, as much as it is unique, to the modern views of African-Americans and society. The largest and most frequent theme of the novel is the underlying notion of society influencing behavior. Butler shows her readers the influence behavior has on society, by literally sending Dana back the source of the behavior. By portraying societal influence in her novel, Butler was able to craftily instill a sense of empathy, understanding, and even sympathy for events of the past. If these attitudes may be developed toward slavery, the most grotesque of all behaviors, they are surely applicable to lesser behaviors of today. First and foremost, Butler establishes two very common attitudes …show more content…

While this attitude is seemingly the correct response to any given event, Butler is heartily argues against the notion of blame. One of the marks of a great writer is the ability to make a reader feel sympathy for a character of ill doing. This often involves unlikely misfortunes developed in a somewhat believable way, such as in Walter White from Breaking Bad. Butler does not use unlikely or unrealistic situations for her villainous characters. Instead, Butler directs her readers to realistic events to explain the real sources of mal doing. One such is example, is the power of values instilled by family. “Don’t argue with white folks, ‘Don’t tell them ‘no.’ Don’t let them see you mad. Just say ‘yes, sir.’ Then go ’head and do what you want to do. Might have to take a whippin’ for it later on, but if you want it bad enough, the whippin’ won’t matter much.” (96) Another example of this is Butler’s commitment to realistic events, even for characters that it seems very hard to make a reader understand. If Butler had wanted to make the reader sympathize with Rufus for the simple notion of a good book, she could have done in many ways. Yet, Rofus did not lose his wife and children in a tragic fire; rather, he was subjected to misfortunes that are realistic and common, especially during the time. “Tom Weylin had probably marked his son more than he knew with that whip.” (39) By doing so,

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