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Essay on time travel in fiction
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“But where was Rufus? If he was in trouble inside the house, why had I arrived outside?” (198) When Dana was sent back in time, she was confused why she was outside. Dana knew that she would go back in time whenever Rufus needed her. Since Rufus was nowhere to be seen, she wondered why she was sent back in time. Dana was also didn’t know why she was sent outside if Rufus is in trouble inside. There is always a reason why Dana was sent there. This would mean that something terrible would happen to Rufus outside and Dana would be the one to help him. Even though Dana didn’t like how Rufus was treating her, she would still have to help him out because he is one of her ancestors and without him, Dana wouldn’t have been alive. Rufus was lucky since
Erasmus was led to the marble stair, and up to the palace dome. Everyone always wondered what was in that room but now one ever got the chance to know. To Erasmus surprise all there was in the room was an old
How far would someone go to survive? All through life people go through various challenges, but when someone is facing death, how far would someone will they go to save oneself? Survival can mean many different things; such as making it through highschool without getting into trouble, fighting off a predator, or standing up for what is right to help others. In Kindred, Octavia Butler uses many different situations to show what survival means to her. For example, Dana, the main character, travels through time to save her ancestor Rufus thus experiencing times of near death predicaments. In Kindred, Octavia Butler uses the conflicts Dana experiences in her time travels to suggest the idea that people do things they wouldn’t normally
Dana later discovered that Rufus had told Alice that he had sold Alice's children. She also discovered that everything was a lie. Rufus used the idea of the children's sale as a way to manipulate Alice. This time everyone, including Alice, believed that he had sold them.
In Octavia Butler’s novel, Parable of the Sower, a common theme carried throughout the story is the differentiating people based on their race. In this story, society views white people as wealthier, safer, and the owners of colored people and are seen treating them horribly, where as people of color are poorer, more commonly used as slaves, not as trusted, and over all have it harder in Butler’s dystopian setting. Butler thinks this topic of racism is common, and society is more prejudice to black people rather then white. I can deduce this by the financial and social status she depicts white people to be versus people of color. After Lauren’s neighborhood is destroyed and has to flee with Zahra and Harry, Lauren pretends to be a boy so her and Zahra can pretend to be a couple rather than Zahra and Harry, which would be a mixed race couple. A couple of white and African-American did not mix because “…[he’ll] piss of all the blacks and [she’ll] piss off all the whites” (pg. 172). Butler does not let these two races mix
Kindred by Octavia Butler has been a respected novel since its publication in 1979. In Kindred Butler provides readers with suspense until the last page. It provides readers with two definitions of a home. Home is a place where you feel safe where you have a family to come to when you are having a horrible day at work or at school. Home is a place where you share good and bad times with family and friends. A home is place of stability in your life. A home isn’t a place that you are scared to go to. A home isn’t a place filled with only negative thoughts and hopes. A home is not a place that you endured physical and mental abuse. Dana had a home of stability and a home filled with physical and mental abuse. Dana and her husband Kevin just moved into a new home that they just bought in Los Angeles, California. This is the best birthday gift she could ever receive because before she was living in a congested apartment. This is also the first day she starts to travel back into time to visit her plantation home in the early 1800s in Maryland. The distinctions between Los Angeles and Maryland present the differences in what makes a home.
When Dana first meets Rufus during her time travel, he was just a young kid growing up in an extremely racist period of time. Rufus’ initial innocence is exemplified after Dana saves him, as he begins to insist that she call him her master: “The boy gripped my arm. ‘Yes!’ he whispered. ‘You’ll get into trouble if you don’t, if Daddy hears you” (Butler 30). Notably, Rufus’s immediate response was not to harm Dana when she refused to comply with his demands. Instead, he’s emphasizing that she will be harmed by Tom Weylin if she doesn’t call him master. With his young age, this mannerism displays how Rufus is innately innocent. Although Rufus puts Dana in a demeaning position, he follows through these social norms because he believes it is for the
In her novel, Kindred, author Octavia Butler addresses the challenges of interracial relationships. She touches on both consenting and non-consenting relationships. While Dana and Kevin are in a consenting relationship, their experiences and difficulties are similar to that of Rufus and Alice. Conversely, there are also many aspects of the two relationships that are very different.
In the slave narrative “Kindred” written by Octavia Butler, social inequality plays a vital role in the development of conflicts regarding the equality of access to pivotal resources among classes. When deciphering social classes in the novel, Butler highlights the character’s differences in norms, values, beliefs, attitudes, and access to resources; they can then be used to categorize a characters place within the socioeconomic ladder ranging from lower to upper class. Identifying the extent of the effects of unequal access to resources on the Weylin plantation during the 1800’s can be used as a model in explaining the
Do you not believe we need more compassion and tolerance in the world? Why can we not be like Atticus, Jem or Scout from To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee? These characters show great compassion and tolerance throughout the novel despite the society they live in. They have the courage to stand up for what they believe in.
Blinding hate is more destructive to an individual than the act of being apathetic to their actions. A relationship is not affected by one's apathy unless you choose it to be, yet one that is bound by sheer hatred is oppressive. It is vital to not let mutual hate stem off hatred projected upon one, which in the end is more destructive. Markus Zusak sees a world revolves around the fact that outright dislike is more dangerous than one being indifferent to the unfortunate as shown in his book The Book Thief. Through the character Liesel, Zusak shows this through her relationship with her mum. Zusak also shows how being disliked is destructive through Max’s obsessive hatred towards his oppressed; the nazis. Zusak uses WW2 as the setting for his
Racism presents itself in many ways in the town of Maycomb. Some are blatant and open, but others are more insidious. One obvious way that racism presents itself is in the result of Tom Robinson’s trial. Another apparent example is the bullying Jem and Scout had to endure as a result of Atticus’s appointment as Tom Robinson’s defense attorney. A less easily discernible case is the persecution of Mr. Dolphus Raymond, who chose to live his life in close relation with the colored community.
Pierce by James Cain, may be a good role model for an entrepreneur or a
In Octavia Butler’s Fledgling, the protagonist, Shori Matthews, is viewed as different. Shori is the product of an experiment that mixes Ina (vampire) and human DNA in order to let the Ina be awake during the day. This alienates Shori from other Ina, some Ina accept this alteration but others do not. Those Ina that do not accept Shori show prejudice towards her; this is not unlike what happens in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. In Frankenstein the prejudice is amplified in that everyone but the blind father of the De Lacey family is frightened of the creature. Prejudice is a major theme of both Fledgling and Frankenstein, the former through Shori’s mixed race/species and the latter through the creature’s origin and appearance.
“Yet when we was finally permitted entry all my attention were taken not by the blazing fire but by a huge red jowled creature the Englishman who sat behind the desk. I knew not his name only that he were the most powerful man I ever saw and he might destroy my mother if he so desired. Approach says he as if he was an altar.”
In the beginning of the novel, Octavia Butler writes; “Prodigy is, at its essence, adaptability and persistent, positive obsession. Without persistence, what remains is an enthusiasm of the moment. Without adaptability, what remains may be channeled into destructive fanaticism. Without positive obsession, there is nothing at all.” In my own words, I believe what the author is saying is a prodigy is a young person with exceptional qualities, in particular she is referring to essence, adaptability, persistent and positive obsession. A prodigy without persistence, is someone with intense enjoyment. A prodigy without adaptability, is someone who is unwilling to accept opposing points of view. A prodigy without positive obsession, is just nothing.