Kindred By Octavia E. Butler: Literary Analysis

America has not always been great, it has a dark history of slavery and racial discrimination, that are still present in the modern day. From the novel, Kindred by Octavia E. Butler, Dana is constantly summoned to travel back in time from 1976 to 1800s, to save and protect Rufus, a white son of a plantation owner, who later becomes the father who bores the child who later become Dana’s ancestor. Both the characters, Dana and Rufus struggle to accept each other’s differences of thought because of the difference in the timeline. The novel shows the problem of racial discrimination in both the timeline of 1800s and 1970s.

Since Rufus is white and born from the 1800s, his race and gender alone gives him authority over others. Throughout Rufus’s

Dana grew up in a world that was still plagued by the same problems as the world during the slavery era. Even if there were no more people owning other people, African Americans still didn’t have all the privileges that white Americans had. In the modern times of 1970s, although societal taboos in interracial relationships still existed, it was much less harsh than those in the nineteenth century. Dana’s society of interracial relationships was accepted more than it was in the nineteenth century. Although it is more accepted compared to the nineteenth century, they still experience judgements from the societal values surrounding their culture. From the beginning of Dana’s and Kevin’s relationship, a woman told Dana that with “typical slave- market candor”, Kevin and Dana were “‘the weirdest- looking couple’ she had ever seen” (57). Even if there were some degree to which people object to interracial relationships decreasing, there still is a disliking for them. For Dana, when the woman defined their relationship has “weird” it felt more like an objection to Kevin and Dana’s relationship. There was also experienced judgement from both their families when they wanted to get married. Dana’s uncle had disapproved of the marriage greatly and had “sort of taken this personally” because he wanted Dana to “marry someone who looks like him. A black man” (111). Kevin’s sister also

However, there are still those who are racist and discriminate against people of different color. Even if slavery had ended and people may not talk about it much openly, racial caste and discrimination still goes on in the modern times. From the article, The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander states how America has entered the era of “post- racialism” which is said to be the colorblindness era. Alexander states how racial caste is still alive in America and just merely redesigned it. It is those who are poor and colored that “amount to a new caste system- one specifically tailored to the political, economic, and social challenges of our time. It is the moral equivalent to Jim Crow”. The problems with police brutality, drug war, and the expansion of the America’s prison system all got to deal with those who are poor and colored. People of color are more likely to get the racial profile and abused by the police, even if they didn’t do anything wrong. They become labeled as “criminals” and then become part of the practice America has left behind towards slaves. The person of color labelled as a criminal have all their rights taken away from them like a slave. This interferes with their employment, housing, denial of having the right to vote, and excluded from jury