Abolutionist, Fredrick Douglass once stated, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” Kindred by Octavia Butler is incredible book that leaves the reader hypnotized as she depicts the antebellum period that left a deep and unremovable scar in United States history. This story educates people who might be ignorant …show more content…
First, these works attest to the frequency of trauma and its importance as a multicontextual social issue, as it is a consequence of political ideologies, colonization, war, domestic violence, poverty, and so forth”(Vikory). Rufus is a representation of the white male system and having control over not just the slaves body but their mind and as any white save owner he thrives off that power.He has a desire to be loved and tries to control everything and everyone around him with out getting his hands dirty. Rufus morally knew it was wrong to force himself upon Alice, but instead he asks Dana to get Alice and persuade her to come to his bed. "Go to her. Send her to me. I'll have her whether you help or not. All I want you to do is fix it so I don't have to beat her. You're no friend of hers if you won't do that much!” (Butler 164). Rufus as a character feels remorse after he commits rape, divides families, and beat slaves. In all reallity he is just submitting to the cultural and social norms that are expected of any white slave …show more content…
Forshadowing is yet again seen when Dana is contemplating how being in a foreign time will not only effect her but also Kevin. “If he was stranded here for years, some part of this place would rub off on him... The place, the time would either kill him outright or mark him somehow” (Butler 77). Kevin was stuck in the antebellum period for five long years, he had no choice but to adapt to the time period. When he was on the Wielyn plantation he completely adapted to being in the role of a slave owner. Which is why I believe he moved to the north because he was transforming into something he did not want to be. As he lived and carried on life in the north he completely immersed himself in the role of being a abolitionist and trying to help free other slaves on the run. As a survivor the “painful connection to past trauma is also displayed and replayed through the body, even branded into their flesh” (Vikory). "There was a jagged scar across his forehead—the remnant of what must have been a bad wound. This place, this time, hadn't been any kinder to him than it had been to me" (). The scar on Kevins forhead acts as a symbol that signifies a part of that traumatic experience will always remain with him as he moves forward in
A large message Kindred sends to the reader is how one individual with a large amount of power can destroy other people's lives solely on their own whim. Rufus is the character who exemplifies this theme the most, especially with Alice. When Rufus begins to pester Dana to speak with Alice, she begins to worry that Rufus will exhibit his power on her: “I had thought that eventually, he would just rape her again” (Butler 110). The most disturbing part of this sentence is the casual tone used towards it. Dana already knows the type of power Rufus takes against Alice, which is constantly sexually violating her. Since he already put her through the abuse once, Dana knows he will do it again. In Dana’s last time travel, she begins to truly reflect
Initially, because she underestimates her own courage, which has never been properly tested, Dana doubts that she has sufficient fortitude to survive in the nineteenth century. As Kindred unfolds, it becomes clear that she does, indeed, have abundant courage and stamina. Butler effectively utilizes a common technique in fiction whereby an individual becomes heroic by transcending his or her base humanity by drawing on hidden inner resources. Dana is tested in her second trip to the past when she is nearly raped by a white man who is part of a patrol—the forerunner to the Ku Klux Klan. Never before having experienced physical abuse, initially Dana is reluctant to act. She fails to disable him by gouging his eyes, thereby losing her only chance
struggle for the power of freedom might be just to be allowed to exist at all.
Freedom is defined as “the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action.” Freedom is something that millions take for granted everyday and billions have died throughout history fighting for it. One group whose freedom was unjustly stripped from them were African Americans who were kidnapped from their homes in Africa and shipped to throughout the world to serve as Slaves. Two men who understood what it is like to have their freedom stripped away from them were Nat Turner and Fredrick Douglass. These two men grew up as slaves on southern plantations in the 1800’s, and spent their adulthood fighting for freedom through very different methods. This paper will examine the tactics, effectiveness, and impact of Turner and Douglass
Persuasion Throughout history there have been many struggles for freedom and equality. There was the civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King Jr. There was the fight against government censorship in Argentina, spoken against by Luisa Valenzuela. And there was the struggle for women's equality in politics, aided by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.
Throughout modern American culture certain laws passed by the majority have been considered unjust by a wise minority. However, with the logical and emotional appeal of hard fought battles, voices have been heard, and the minds of the majority can sometimes be converted to see the truth. Thoreau, after spending a night in jail and seeing the truth hidden behind the propaganda of the majority, became convinced that he could no longer accept his government’s behavior of passing laws that benefit the majority with degrading the minority. It’s quite ironic that by the government imprisoning Thoreau he became freer then ever before. He was able to see how the government turned peaceably inclined men into controllable machines. Thoreau saw how the government dealt with its citizens as only a body, while completely disregarding the sense, intellect, and moral beliefs of its people. In his essay “Civil Disobedience,” Thoreau stated that “a government ruled by majority in all cases cannot be based on justice.” He further believed that “under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also prison.” This point made by Thoreau can be seen as the truth throughout history. A just man never sits by quietly watching the majority degrade the minority to suit their own immoral purposes. Like Thoreau, another just man who stood out from the quiet minority was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. King was, as well, willing to suffer for his views to put an end to racial segregation, and was arrested on numerous occasions for holding strong in his believes and spreading his message throughout the minds of all God’s children. King often cited conscience as a guide to obeying just laws and disobeying unjust ones. In an essay written by King titled “A letter from Birmingham Jail,” King clearly defines the interpretation of the differerence between the two kinds of laws. “An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This is a difference made legal. By the same token, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal.” To further understand this King quotes from St. Augustine himself who once stated “any law that uplifts human personality is just.
In the novel Kindred by Octavia E. Butler, Butler tells a story of an African- American woman named Dana who travels from 1976 in California to the 1800’s in Maryland. Dana goes back in time to save Rufus, her ancestor, every time he is faced with life threatening situations. Throughout her journey in Maryland she gets life experience of what being a slave was like in the past. In the novel we learn of two slaves, Sarah and Alice, who live on the Weylin plantation. Sarah, an older slave, is the cook on the plantation who seems to make herself adjust to life as a slave. Alice who is owned by Rufus struggles to make their relationship work. Through the characters of Dana, Alice, and Sarah the reader is able to understand the emotional endurance of the psychological toll of slavery.
...hat rape is a horrifying act, but instead of stopping himself from raping women, he lessen his guilt by forcing his victims to fake enthusiasm. He seen the pain he put on his victims, but rather than changing his behavior, he continues to do harm and then expresses genuine regret after the damage has been done. This is a very ironic action. When he is getting his way, Rufus can be a kind and gentle man. But despite the regret Rufus show, and other personality, Rufus is, in the end, a brutal man. He thinks nothing of beating and continually raping women, selling men, and breaking up families. He is selfish and brutal, and his selfishness and brutality only gets worse as he get older.
It may appear that in today’s America, slavery is looked down upon, and we’ve developed a long way from the past. However, before and during the Abolitionists Movement there were strong arguments for both sides of the subject. ("Arguments and Justifications: The Abolition of Slavery Project.") The gradual dominance in anti-slavery would not have been possible if people had not risked their lives and social standings to fight for the racial, social, legal, and political liberation for slaves. William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, and the Grimke sisters are all prime examples of people who challenged pro-slavery, and protested the idea that one race was superior to another. Although abolitionists fought for their beliefs during this movement in the 1830s up to the year 1870 for the immediate emancipation of slaves, the ending of racial prejudice and segregation would not be possible if not by the influence of those courageous people, and should continue to be reinforced in today’s society. ("Civil Rights Movement.")
Thoreau explains “There are thousands who are in opinion opposed to slavery and to the war, who yet in effect do nothing to put an end to them; who, esteeming themselves children of Washington and Franklin” (Thoreau 3). George Washington and Benjamin Franklin are two prominent figures of American nationalism and independence, and many American citizens regard them as idols. Thoreau exploits their credential to motivate people to take actions against an ineffective government and oppose the war and slavery in the U.S. Thoreau also questions citizens by explaining what is ethical as a citizen. Thoreau states “but they do nothing in earnest and with effect. They will wait, well disposed, for others to remedy the evil, that they may no longer have it to regret” (Thoreau 4). Thoreau explains that people of the U.S. do not put in their efforts to change such as voting or protesting, yet they still expect other people to discard evils such as corruption, slavery, and government tyranny. Thoreau justifies the uselessness as unethical and condemns the citizens. By using the word such as evil, Thoreau wants people to fight against the evil, government tyranny, and express the true American nationalism. The author employs ethos throughout Civil Disobedience to make the people of the U.S. ethical and become more involved with the problems about the
He believes that he has a place in this disaster, and he accuses himself for causing a person's death and he doesn’t stop thinking about it as he says here “half a year has passed since I returned from Nepal, and on any given day during those six months, no more than two or three hours has gone by in which Everest has monopolized my thoughts” (296) .The experience has in many ways, affected him very deeply, which influenced him to write this book. The character development in "Kindred" by Octavia E. Butler is not as strong as "Into Thin Air", in this novel Dana, a young black woman who is a writer living at the end of the Twenty-first century, she is sucked into the south during the 19th century. Dana must go's through struggles so that she is able to establish her own identity and have
Literary critic Thelma Shinn Richard has said that “colonialism has inscribed its history on every African-American body and mind.” This is certainly evident in the science fiction slave narrative Kindred by Octavia E. Butler. One of Butler’s primary reasons for writing Kindred, perhaps subconsciously, may have been to try to receive closure about any white slave-owning ancestors she possibly had in her family tree. Creating the story of Dana Franklin, a modern black woman traveling through time to save her lineage from extinction, allows Butler to illustrate the ways in which some of the oppression that took place during the period of American slavery has carried over into later years, and the fact that many parallels can be drawn between
Tibeats refused to treat the slave with the same respect as Ford did. Chaos stirred on the plantation which had Northup’s life in danger after an altercation with Tibeats. In fact Ford knew Northup was no ordinary man so before Tibeates can have his way, he trade Northup in hope to save his life. “There may be humane masters, as there certainly are inhuman ones - there may be slaves well-clothed, well-fed, and happy, as there surely are those half-clad, half-starved and miserable; nevertheless, the institution that tolerates such wrong and inhumanity as I have witnessed, is a cruel, unjust, and barbarous one. Men may write fictions portraying lowly life as it is, or as it is not - may expatiate with owlish gravity upon the bliss of ignorance - discourse flippantly from arm chairs of the pleasures of slave life; but let them toil with him in the field - sleep with him in the cabin - feed with him on husks; let them behold him scourged, hunted, trampled on, and they will come back with another story in their mouths. Let them know the heart of the poor slave - learn his secret thoughts - thoughts he dare not utter in the hearing of the white man; let them sit by him in the silent watches of the night - converse with him in trustful confidence,
Nothing in life is guaranteed, but the one thing that humans demand is freedom. Throughout history, there are countless cases where groups of people fought for their freedom. They fought their battles in strongly heated debates, protests, and at its worst, war. Under the assumption that the oppressors live in complete power, the oppressed continuously try to escape from their oppressors in order to claim what is rightfully theirs: the freedom of choice. In Emily Dickinson’s poems #280, #435, and #732 and Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, freedom is represented by an individual’s ability to make their own decisions without the guidance, consultation, or outside opinion of others in order to find their true sense of self. Once an individual is physically and spiritually free, they can find their true sense of self.
Power is commonly maintained and distributed through violent actions. Often the combat to violence is violence or self harm. In Bloodchild Octavia Butler discusses how an influx of collective power affects an individual's power. Collective power is defined as choices or decisions impacted or initiated by a group. Contrastingly, individual power is defined as choices made by an individual. In both "Bloodchild" and "Amnesty" individual power is limited by a community of people which often leads to feelings of fear, anger, and despair, which leads to attempted self-harm. People who lack individual power as a result of institutional or communal power often respond with self harm; in "Bloodchild" and "Amnesty" Gan and Noah use suicide as a way