Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

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Political philosopher and social theorist Thomas Sowell has once said, “It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.” It is inevitable to meet an ignorant person around each corner that one turns. It is up to the victim to either let the ignorant person corrupt him or to let the victim become smarter. One of America’s greatest activists, Martin Luther King, believed that “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” With this in mind, “The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all” (Kennedy).
In the novel, Kindred, written by Octavia E. Butler, many characters throughout the book displays ignorance versus knowledge which, like MLK has said, is dangerous. The main character, Dana, time travels from 1976 back to the early nineteenth century. When she time travels, she pops in and out of places at random times; most of the time, it happens when people are around. In this novel, many different characters show their ignorance by displaying their emotions as if they did not see anything happen at all. This act can be easily associated with society today. Hypothetically, if a person sees a ghost, they tell themselves that it would never happen again, and this, most of the time, is not the case. Therefore, it is a fact that ignorance and knowledge will always be a problem that society will have due to people’s refusal to accept what they see happen right in front of them.
There are many things that can happen when something unbelievable happens. Each person reacts differently to the unusual phenomenon. One way that a person reacts when encountered with an unusual event is by ignoring it. In the second chapter of the novel, Margare...

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...sked, “‘Well … it happened once. What if it happens again?’ ‘No. No, I don’t think …’” (17). In this case, Kevin displays even more ignorance by displaying his rational knowledge.
Ignorance played a big role throughout the book. It was believed that it was better for a slave to have ignorance than knowledge because with ignorance, the slaves have no reasons to leave. However, with knowledge, the slaves would be able to write their own passes. In addition, they would try to escape because they know they could do better. “It was dangerous to educate slaves, they warned. Education made blacks dissatisfied with slavery. It spoiled them for field work” (236). Leaving a black person ignorant of education and such will prevent slaves from developing self-worth and wanting to leave for a better life. For this reason, leaving the slave ignorant is what many slaveholders do.

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