Power Exposed In Kindred By Octavia Butler

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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

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