Analysis of Octavia E. Butler's Kindred

The book follows Dana who is thrown back in time to live in a plantation during the height of slavery. The story in part explores slavery through the eye of an observer. Dana and even Kevin may have been living in the past, but they were not active members. Initially, they were just strangers who seemed to have just landed in to an ongoing play. As Dana puts it, they "were observers watching a show. We were watching history happen around us. And we were actors." (Page 98). The author creates a scenario where a woman from modern times finds herself thrust into slavery by account of her being in a period where blacks could never be anything else but slaves. The author draws a picture of two parallel times. From this parallel setting based on what Dana goes through as a slave and her experiences in the present times, readers can be able to make comparison between the two times. The reader can be able to trace how far perceptions towards women, blacks and family relations have come. The book therefore shows that even as time goes by, mankind still faces the same challenges, but takes on a reflection based on the prevailing period.

There is still slavery in modern times, Dana used to get work through an labor agency that the "regulars it a called a slave market." (Page 53). At this agency, the workers would wait to be sent for menial work that was tedious but paid little. It was work that had to be done by insignificant people in the eyes of the employer; mindless work that was done by mindless people. The people who signed up for work at the agency "were winos trying to work themselves into a few more bottles, poor women with children trying to supplement their welfare checks, kids trying to get a first job, older people...

... middle of paper ...

...ion. Also, it was expected that if she was to move in together with Kevin, it was her who had to give up her books. She clung to her job at the agency so as not to lose her independence to Kevin who offered to get her a better job and take care of her in the meantime.

From the novel, it can then be concluded that issues that may seem to have disappeared from the world still thrive no matter the period of time. There is still some sort of oppression that takes place even if not necessarily by one race over another. Slavery, racism and gender abuses are still very much a part of the modern world. No matter how they seem to be removed from the world, there is still a little part of them that thrives within the very fabric of society.

Works Cited

Octavia. Kindred (Bluestreak). Beacon Press; 25th Anniversary edition (February 1, 2004).