Stability at Home vs. Fear in "Kindred" by Octavia Butler

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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 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. Dana second dizzy spell happens a few minutes later in the presen... ... middle of paper ... ...eing freed. The definition of a home to Dana and Kevin has the definition of a love hate relationship. Throughout the novel there is a roller coaster ride of emotions and how they are expressed in each time period. The book beings in suspense which makes you want to read more and more into the novel. In the first section of the book Dana is happy she no longer lives in her cramped apartment filled with books from the floor to the ceiling. The day of Dana birthday she and her husband Kevin move into a house in Los Angeles, California. They are both excited and filled with joy because they have a home which means stability is established in their lives. Since they have stability they can share meaningful and wonderful experiences in their home. When Dana travels back into time she finds out that the home her ancestors are accustomed does not have as much stability.

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