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Analysis of kindred by octavia butler
Analysis of kindred by octavia butler
Analysis of kindred by octavia butler
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What is the appropriate feeling to describe be a perfect opportunity, especially when it involves with going back in time and to be there to save the family tree? Would the feeling be honor or it could be regret? Honor is for when you, yourself have the opportunity to make a change to be able to save your family tree. Regret is for when you start to open your eyes and notice that every family has some sort of dark secret. Dana, the main character of the book Kindred, is confused of what is going on, but then she makes a connection and searches up her own family to understand why was she kept going back to an unknown place. Everything takes place on June 9th in the year of 1976 the date of when Dana turns twenty six years old. Both her and …show more content…
He tries to hurt her, but Dana is quick enough to get a sharp object and stab him. She then grows scared because once rufus fell. Nigel was there and saw it, though it did help her go back to her own time period. Once she is back, she hugs Kevin and then does research of what exactly happened to the house. Both learn that the house has burned down and that the owner, which was Rufus, died inside. Dana believes that Nigel has started the fire so that no one would know what exactly happened to Rufus. Upon learning that, both her and Kevin start to breathe more comfortably now. No one really knows what true genre Kindred falls under. Some think that the author, Octavia Butler, has not fully grasp the ideal of slavery and just mix it with some fantasy of the main character, Dana, that can time travel back in the era. One person, Harriet Jacobs wrote, “what tangled skeins are the genealogies of slavery!” because herself grew up being as a slave and when she read the book thought that it was not the true ideal. Octavia Butler on the other hand argued that the whole book, Kindred is based upon when modern time meets the past times; That the main character, Dana is from modern times and that she apparently was sent back in time so that she can save her ancestor and that she would still exist later on. Also,, that even though Dana has tried so many things to change the past, the past would still be the same because of the traumatizing drama that has happened, for example slavery. No one can change what has happened to the people that were enslaved their whole lives so that other person can live off that. Robertson wrote, “ Bodies forge and maintain- in fact are- connections with the past;” that the people in the past have children and then their children have
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
In the 1930’s, turmoil has erupted in Maycomb, Alabama all because the young lady Mayella Ewell has accused African-American Tom Robinson of raping and sexually assaulting her. Yet, Mayella Ewell has no power because of her race, class, and gender. At the time, Maycomb, Alabama was at the peak of segregation against African-Americans. Mayella Ewell may be white, but that does not mean her class, gender, nor her race give her power.
When Dana experienced her first dizzy spell she is appalled at what just happen and she was not even gone for two minutes. As she tells Kevin he cannot believe his eyes because she comes back wet and muddy. Dana has gone back in time to rescue a boy named Rufus. At this point in time she does not understand why she was called back into time to save this four year old boy from drowning. When she does save him she is awaken by the gun that his father points at her and she fades back into 1976. This has been a weird birthday for Dana.
Throughout the book The Good Earth written by Pearl S. Buck, it shows the evolvement of the main character Wang Lung and how owning or not owning land in the 1920s is affected by peasants in China. It also shows the struggles of a peasant’s life, going through poverty and what happens when wealth enters their lives. Owning land as a peasant is an important aspect of their living style, simply because they live off of what they are able to grow that season. They depend on their land for resources to provide for themselves and family; and also selling crops or trading crops in order to make money. The peasants of China exemplify how important their crops and land are to them throughout the whole book by showing love and compassion for them; but,
The first novel, Kindred involves the main character Dana, a young black woman, travelling through time to explore the antebellum south in the 1800’s. The author uses this novel to reveal the horrific events and discrimination correlated with the slaves of the south at the time. Dana, who is a black woman of modern day, has both slave and white ancestry, and she develops a strong connection to her ancestor Rufus, who was a slave owner at the time. This connection to Rufus indirectly causes Dana to travel into the past where she helps many people suffering in the time period. Butler effectively uses this novel to portray the harshness of slavery in history, and the impa...
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.
A door opened, and Katherine Genefilles fell out of the house, landing into the debris flow, Frank Genefilles tried to grab his wife, but failed. The family mourned the loss of their mom, who was 8 months pregnant at the time. The neighbor Hallie, Nathan Genefilles girlfriend could see the mom and called 911, and explained that a friend’s house was being destroyed with them inside.
Octavia Butler’s novel Kindred is categorized as science fiction because of the existence of time travel. However, the novel does not center on the schematics of this type of journey. Instead, the novel deals with the relationships forged between a Los Angeles woman from the 20th century, and slaves from the 19th century. Therefore, the mechanism of time travel allows the author a sort of freedom when writing this "slavery narrative" apart from her counterparts. Butler is able to judge the slavery from the point of view of a truly "free" black woman, as opposed to an enslaved one describing memories.
Law and Literature encompasses the power of literature and they way it presented the law in a light that allows its readers to interpret it from different directions. The law is a system of rules, which are enforced with authority by institutions. Often literature has contributed significantly in shaping the law. Slavery is one of the unfortunate practices in America that has been engraved in American history. In early centuries, people who favored or opposed slavery expressed it through literature. Frederick Douglass in his narrative, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,” discusses the role of religion, Christianity in particular, which was written in literature known as the bible had two versions: true Christianity and the white Christianity that helped in strengthening slavery.
HaoHui Xie Waverly meets her mother's expectations that she master "the art of invisible strength" over the course of the chapter by playing chess, being wise, and staying silent and calm. During chess she learns to control her emotions whether she loses or not and stay calm and have self control. Waverly uses invisible strength when she plays chess and she uses that to help gain respect from other players. Waverly meets her mother's expectations by playing chess. For example, when Waverly plays chess and whether she wins or loses she will use the art of invisible strength to help her stay calm to win and gain respect from other players.
Home Scene - Corinne goes home from school. She heads for the bathroom. When she gets to the bathroom she sees blood all over. There is a bloody towel on the floor and a knife in the sink. She checks brothers room to try and find him. He’s not there. Corinne is shaken by what she has seen. She looks at family picture, longing for simpler times. She calls her mother to tell her what happened. Her mother promises to come home quickly. Corinne attempts self-care to deal with stress. Corbin comes in the house. He looks fine, except for a bit of blood on one sleeve of his shirt. Corinne is confused
In the speculative historical novel Kindred, author Octavia E. Butler writes a story of an African American woman named Dana, who is married to a white man named Kevin, during the 1970s and their time traveling journey back to the 1800s. The novel is written in first person narrative through Dana, but involves a large variety of supporting characters each with a pivotal and emotional role in the story which is a direct representation of the title itself. The plot is developed as Dana is called back to the past to save the life of a white man named Rufus Weylin who is revealed to be Dana’s ancestor and shockingly a future slave holder. Due to this circumstance, dependency is a theme ironically weaved throughout the novel as she attempts to conform to a time in society when race, gender inequality, and lack of education ultimately cause tribulation.
Events in history have influenced writers’ style, genre, and emphasis in their stories. 1 Alice Walker was greatly influenced by the time period of the 1940’s. There was much racism and oppression during that time, especially for black women. Women were beaten and abused simply because of their color and gender. Celie, a young black woman, endured many hardships reflective of the time period including racism, oppression, and sexism but remained strong in her faith in God and overcame these obstacles to show the quiet strength of a woman. The oppression of black women is very evident in The Color Purple (Ryan 3062). It is especially shown in the relationship between father and daughter, Alphonso and Celie(Fulmer 1). From the time Celie is very young she is subject to oppression. She is raped repeatedly by her stepfather and is told to keep quiet about it (Walker 1). This is very demeaning to Celie and it causes her to fear men for a good portion of her life (Walker 6). Celie gets pregnant twice with her stepfather. He takes the first baby and “ kilt it out there in the woods.” The other he sells to a family in a nearby town (Walker 3-4). Celie is oppressed all throughout her life, but she learns to overcome it and support herself (Ryan 3062).
Mike and Dana had a nice relationship which came to a brink as they started to disagree about the future of their only robot son. They did not take their time to logically think and investigate Cole’s issue and were influenced by outside people to come to a split decision. Even though Mike did his part best supporting Cole mentally, he failed to consider Cole’s future and did not foresee that he might lose him forever. Dana lacked the sympathy toward Cole’s present condition which did nothing more than worsening Cole’s condition by making him depress and feel guilty. Thus, the parents’ indecisive and rushing manner toward their son covered both their relationship and their son’s future with darkness.
Gaines, his novel full of descriptive language and intriguing story line gives the reader an opportunity to grasp the main theme and evoke the feelings and emotions that the reader can relate to. Although Gaines was raised being introduced to the civil rights movement spreaded to the south he writes more about the maintenance of white supremacy and the characters having the opportunity to face the oppression of slavery they have been going through for their whole entire lives(Tucker, 2011). In each paragraph Gaines shifts narrators that represent different man collectively telling their claims of racism as being individual acceptances instead of a systematic design of the states. Figurative language Gaines uses in his writings is symbolism as he portrays the characters with similar characteristics to the states principles and what he has seen in his lifetime. Gaines likes to describe his writing of being more like African-American history that has not been told sharing the registries of the African American perspective. With the little reading and research that I have done I am very fond of Gaines writings and his chosen genres, many African American children forget