Kindred by Octavia E. Butler, is a novel about an African American woman named Dana (born in 1950) who lives in 1976 California. She experiences weird headaches and dizziness one day and gets teleported to a river in the woods. She sees a boy drowning and rushes into the river to save him. The boy’s mother comes out yelling at Dana and then the father comes out with a shotgun just as Dana is sent back to her house. Dana kinda sees it as a hallucination and goes on shocked. Later she experiences the dizziness again and is sent back to a house this time. Then she finds out she is being sent to the past to help her relative Rufus from dying. Every time Rufus gets in trouble to the point of dying Dana is flung back in time to save him. But she is sent to the 1800s …show more content…
antebellum south at a plantation in Maryland as an African American woman.
Octavia E. Butler writes Kindred to teach the importance of freedom, Independence, and trust.
Butler teaches the importance of freedom by having Dana fight to try to free or help the other slaves in the 1800s. Rufus falls out of a tree and breaks his leg when Dana is sent back to him but this time with her husband (Kevin). Rufus asks Dana to come to the manor with him so she goes to help his leg heal. Dana is living in Rufus's house in 1819 pretending to be her husband’s slave. Dana chooses she will fight to help all of the slaves of the plantation get their freedom or write their own way to freedom, so she starts secretly teaching a young slave boy by the name of Nigel to read and write. Kevin responds to this by saying “‘Do a good job with Nigel… Maybe when you’re gone, he’ll be able to teach others.”’ (Butler, 101). This shows her dedication to freeing the other slaves by risking her life to teach Nigel to read and write. A mute slave girl by the name of Carrie, sees Dana teaching Nigel and she points to the book, Dana sees that Carrie wants to read and write as well. She sees this as another oppurtinity of them writing their own freedom. Dana will risk anything to help the slaves learn to
read and write so maybe one day they can write passes out of the plantation. Dana says “‘ I was afraid to teach her for both her sake and for mine, her mother wasn’t a woman I wanted to offend or to hurt, but my conscience wouldn’t let me refuse her if she wanted to learn.”’ (Butler, 105). Dana risks herself of getting whipped or even killed by teaching as many slaves to read and write as possible. Dana finds out she has the choice of when she can leave the past. All she has to do is be harmed physically and she gets teleported back to her time so Dana tries to stay in the past as long as possible so she can help as many slaves as she can. Dana says “‘ Well, they’re not the only ones who have to do things they don’t like to stay alive and whole.”’ (Butler, 237). Dana does lots of things she doesn't want to to try and help the slaves as best she can. Octavia E. Butler writes about freedom to teach it isn’t won easily or even at all. Butler teaches the importance of independence by having Dana do anything to defend herself in the Antebellum south from being sold, raped or killed. Dana needs a “safe” role to have during this timeline so she starts helping Rufus with his reading and writing skills by reading to him every day. Rufus’s father, Mr Weylin, catches Dana walking out with a book and asks her some questions. He sees that she is better at him than reading and writing and asks her to be Rufus’s teacher. “‘How’d you like to be the one to do the teaching?”’ (Butler, 91) Dana sees this as an important role so she can stay close to her ancestor Rufus and takes the opportunity. Now Dana has a safe role for her for when she returns to the manor later in time. Dana goes to walk to Alice’s house (A free slaves house) late in the night in 1815. A patroller catches her and thinks she’s a slave so he attempts to rape her. “He was going to display some stupidity of his own. He was going to give me another chance to destroy him. I was almost relieved.” (Butler, 42-43). Dana sees his distraction on her as a weakness and grabs a branch to knock the patroller out. As soon as she knocks him out she gets sent back to 1976. Dana relies on her independence to save herself from being harmed in any way. In 1836, Alice becomes Rufus’s wife. Alice didn’t want to marry Rufus and is miserable with him. Alice decides to hang herself because due to the fact that she was miserable with Rufus and that Rufus wasn’t freeing their kids. Rufus mourns the death of his wife Alice and decides he is going to shoot himself. Rufus becomes endangered due to his suicidal thoughts and Dana is sent back in time to stop Rufus. Dana is related to Rufus’s and Dana’s daughter and Rufus sees Alice’s similarities in Dana and starts getting feelings for her. Rufus starts to hold Dana down and attempts to rape her. “I was aware of him trying not to hurt me even as I raised the knife. Even as I sank it into his side.”(Butler,260). She stabs Rufus to defend herself from being raped. Butler teaches the importance of independence in Dana’s self defence and survival. Octavia E. Butler teaches the importance of trust by having a special bond between the characters in the novel. Dana figures out that since she is sent back in time when Rufus was endangered that she was going to be with him for a very long time, so decides she’s going to have to trust him. Rufus demands on knowing the truth about Dana since she keeps appearing in different times and then just disappears. “‘This boy and I are liable to have a long association whether we like it or not. I want him to know.”’(Butler,61). She explains to Rufus that she comes from 1976 and she only comes back when he’s near death. This teaches the importance of trust that Dana must have with Rufus. In 1824 Rufus is attacked by Isaac (Alice’s husband). Rufus was raping Alice and her husband beats Rufus up. Dana is sent back to breaks up the fight. While Rufus lays unconscious Dana tells Alice and Isaac to run away. She turns to Rufus and tells him “‘The men you were drinking with… They were strangers-white men. They got you drinking, then they tried to rob you.”’(Butler,122). She told Rufus to make up a story and trust her so Alice and Isaac could have time to run and to try to get Rufus to see slavery as horrible act. But person she trusts the most is her husband. Dana trusts Kevin to help her while she is going through all this time traveling she doesn't understand. Kevin tells dana “‘If we told anyone else about this, anyone at all. They wouldn’t think we were so sane.”’(Butler, 264). Kevin helps Dana as much as possible with preparing her for being sent unexpectedly to the past and by keeping her out of harm’s way in the past. Butler teaches the importance of trust through the bonds Dana makes in the past and in the present, and that you might trust people who can turn on you. In the end Dana survives living in the past for a year of her life during the antebellum south of the 1800s. She returns to her timeline a year older and decides to return to Maryland to see what happened to the plantation to end her curiosity of what happened after she killed Rufus. She found out Nigel burned down the mansion to hide Dana’s murder of Rufus but only a couple of the slaves of the manor got freed. Dana is happy that she did what she could to free as many slaves as she could and that she is free of time traveling again. Octavia E. Butler writes Kindred to teach the importance of freedom, Independence, and trust to show that in the toughest times, you can get by with these factors.
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
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
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
In kindred Octavia Butler writes about how a modern day black woman, Dana, is traveling back to the past to save a man that would become her ancestor. Whenever Rufus faces danger he calls upon Dana to save his life. Each time Dana goes back she finds out the brutal reality of the slave trade in America. She finds out the true meaning of freedom when she compared her life to the slaves in Tom Weylin’s plantation. She discovers that being a slave is not as easy as the books show it; instead it is a complicated relationship between master and slaves. Most of the slave masters depend on slaves for economic survivals. Throughout the novel Butler compared and contrasted Rufus and his father. She compared the way they cared for power and money and she contrasted their attitudes about education for their slaves and relationships with slaves. His father was a man who only cared about money and his power, but on the other hand Rufus is a man with feelings for his slaves.
In the short stories “A Rose for Emily” written by William Faulkner and “The Yellow Wallpaper”” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the protagonists experience mental illness, loneliness, feelings of being in control of their lives, and feelings of being insane. Both main characters struggle against male domination and control. The two stories take place in the late 1800’s - early 1900’s, a time where men’s place in society was superior to that of women. Each story was written from a different perspective and life experiences. “A Rose for Emily” was written by a man and told in third personal narration, while “The Yellow Wallpaper” was written by a female and told in first person.
Butler alludes to the significance of the problem by choosing the adjective kindred as a title for her work. Throughout this novel, familial bonds are built up, and at the very end get a perverse form because of gender and racial mistreatments. Throughout time, Dana witnesses families clinging to each other while they are treated unjustly. The veracity of this assertion is confirmed by examining scenes where the heroes stick together with their family because they are put in circumstances where it is impossible to escape racial violation. An example of such a case is the incident between the slave called Tess and Dana. After Weilyn sells the man for attempting to flirt with Dana, other slaves try their best to not displease their masters because they do not want to be separated from their family. This scene suggests that racial violation was so horrifying that African Americans could not even choose to live with their family, and it made them even more dependent on each
Parable of the Sower is a very well-written science fiction novel by Octavia Butler. The setting is California in the year 2025. The world is no longer prosperous and has turned into a very poor place. There are countless people homeless, jobs are scarce and hard to come by, and very few communities of homes. The few communities that are still occupied have huge walls with barbed wire and laser wire surrounding them.
According to Charmaine Mosby, “A Rose for Emily,” by William Faulkner, accentuates one of his primary themes: “change and decay.” The reader clearly acknowledges Emily’s denial to change as Faulkner describes how she refused to accept her father’s death. Hence, this foreshadowed why Emily kept Homer Barron’s corpse. Her inability to let go and accept the changing reality forced her “combine life and death in her own person.” Mosby further emphasizes Faulkner’s theme by mentioning that the gray long hair found next to Homer’s corpse symbolized Emily’s interaction between them even after his death. In addition to this theme, Mosby also reveals that another theme: the erosion of the social structure of the 20th century by the industrialized South. Mosby claims that Faulkner emphasized the acceptance of Homer and Emily’s relationship from the Jefferson’s community to enable the reader to realize how the change of views to modern ideals.
In an Amazon.co.uk interview titled “Magic, Mystery and Mayhem: An Interview with J.K. Rowling,” when asked about the way she came up with the names of characters in her books, she replied, “I invented some of the names in the Harry books, but I also collect strange names. I've gotten them from medieval saints, maps, dictionaries, plants, war memorials, and people I've met!” J.K. Rowling chose these names for a reason based on the deeper meanings behind every character's name and the way they relate to their roles and personalities. In Octavia E. Butler's short story “Speech Sounds”, Rye and Obsidian were the names she chose for her characters. Rye, the name of the main protagonist which symbolizes home and earth yearns to reconnect with her family and to rebuild a family of her own while Obsidian, the supporting character, is named after a type of lava stone, which is believed to contain magical properties that “absorbs and destroys negative energy such as anger, criticism, and fear” (Zagata). The names of the characters have two purposes: to describe the character's role and personality, and to give them an identity.
Veronica Roth was born in New York City on August 19th, 1988 and is the youngest of two other siblings. They all were raised in Barrington, Illinois where she went to High School. After she graduated, she went to Carleton College, then transferred to Northwestern University. She later married Nelson Fitch in 2011 to present day. Some of the activities that she likes are: cooking, psychology, biology, theology, fashion, contemporary art, and poetry. Roth is known as an American novelist and short-story writer, as well as young adult fantasy and science fiction. She has already written the Divergent Trilogy, and Four: The Divergent Collection.
In the featured article, “Beside Oneself: On the Limits of Sexual Autonomy,” the author, Judith Butler, writes about her views on what it means to be considered human in society. Butler describes to us the importance of connecting with others helps us obtain the faculties to feel, and become intimate through our will to become vulnerable. Butler contends that with the power of vulnerability, the rolls pertaining to humanity, grief, and violence, are what allows us to be acknowledged as worthy.
Many people think that reading more can help them to think and develop before writing something. Others might think that they don’t need to read and or write that it can really help them to brainstorm things a lot quicker and to develop their own ideas immediately (right away). The author’s purpose of Stephen King’s essay, Reading to Write, is to understand the concepts, strategies and understandings of how to always read first and then start something. The importance of this essay is to understand and comprehend our reading and writing skills by brainstorming our ideas and thoughts a lot quicker. In other words, we must always try to read first before we can brainstorm some ideas and to think before we write something. There are many reasons why I chose Stephen King’s essay, Reading to Write, by many ways that reading can help you to comprehend, writing, can help you to evaluate and summarize things after reading a passage, if you read, it can help you to write things better and as you read, it can help you to think and evaluate of what to write about.
The book is a first person point of view about slavery on a plantation in the antebellum south. The author gives detailed and vividly explains the beatings, attempted rape, and constant verbal abuse. “Instead he stopped me with one hand, while he held me with the other. He spoke very softly. ‘You got no manners nigger, I’ll teach you some.’”(Butler, Kindred 41). The cause of the trauma originates from the brutality of slavery. The site of the trauma is adaptation. The audience sees a dynamic change in having to adapt not only in Dana, but also Rufus and Kevin. While traveling back in time, Dana begins to discover her roots and the origins of her ansestors. Before time traveling back to 1815 Dana takes her freedom for granted. Traviling back in time she has to adapt and find her identity in a foreign place. Marie Varsam argues that the “past should be, even must be, retained and manipulated in order to formulate a cohesive identity in the present” (Varsam). Every time Danan returns to
In Edgar Allan Poe’s story The Fall of the House of Usher, the character Roderick Usher exhibits severe mental illness. Most of Poe’s writings are psychological in nature. The Fall of the House of Usher is a great example of this. Poe’s life was filled with many tragic events. The unpleasant outcome of his early years resulted in a great Gothic Romantic writer. He is a master of writing psychological thrillers, adding suspense and mystery in his stories. The topics of his writings are a concoction of unpleasant, austere, and grotesque things, thus the reader can be left feeling squeamish and susceptible. We are drawn into Poe’s stories by our intrinsic human nature of curiosity and intrigue. This paper gives examples of Poe’s literary style as we examine Roderick’s metal state through his words and appearance.
“He is a gentleman, and I am a gentleman 's daughter. So far we are equal” (Austen 51). Jane Austen was an acute observer of the Georgian era society that she lived in, through her observations, she began to notice many flaws, especially in the treatment of women. With her love of writing and social awareness, Austen decided to combine both together to create some of the most famous works of literature. As seen in Austen’s novel, Pride and Prejudice and others, Austen uses realism, an upper class voice, and an ironic tone to deliver her underlying message of feminism to the gentry of the Georgian era.