Why Is Dana A Slave Of Time

Slave of Time

Kindred is a novel of many themes. Time travel and slavery are two of the most important themes throughout the book. The protagonist Edana is a smart black independent woman of her time. She is married to Kevin a white man. One day, Dana travels from her life in L.A. in 1976 to the Antebellum South; to a plantation in Maryland 1815. She journeys back in time several occasions to ensure the survival of Rufus Weylin, a white child that throughout the novel becomes an explosive slaveholder and who, in fact, turns out to be one of Dana’s ancestors. Across the novel she has no choice but to help his relative, because without his existence she and her family would never come to be. Dana takes both the psychological and physical burden

There are various literary moments in the novel that suggest that Dana is a slave to time travel. First of all, the most obvious and important notion that she was taken back in time “ to [not only] insure the survival of one accident-prone small boy, but to ensure my family’s survival, my own birth.” (p. 29). Dana is responsible for the existence of her family and herself and she can’t do anything about it. She never chose or asked to save everybody, it just happened. Time travel made her a slave to her future and the future of her family. Additionally, Butler shows Rufus as Dana’s slaveholder through time. In fact, Dana is called to the past by Rufus as a slave would be called to his or her master. She has no choice but to go and help him. Also, Butler illuminates Dana’s enslavement further by making Rufus able to see and hear Dana before she actually travels in time. Earlier in the book when Rufus is just a child he “saw you [Dana] inside a room. I could see part of the room, and there were books all around - more than daddy’s library” (p.22). This last quote can be linked to the idea that the master always knows what the slaves are saying or doing, and if he doesn’t, the overseer or other slaves do. Liza, the slave that tells on Dana is a clear example. Even though she is also a slave she “betrays” Dana by telling Weylin that she has escaped. Furthermore, Rufus

She states that Rufus’s life seems much more real than her life back home. At one point she says that Kevin is the only one that is connecting her to her time. Butler suggests that Kevin is a “safe house” from time travel and social slavery. Kevin assumes this role when he goes back in time with Dana. He then assumes the role of Dana’s slaveholder, which proves to be conflicting and confronting for Dana. She says that he is a “safe house” for her; he protects her from the other slaveholders in the plantation as well as other slaves in the plantation. Also, his room works as a sort of sanctuary from the nightmare that they are both living. Likewise, Kevin works as a reassurance of the time Dana comes from. Dana says “He had become my anchor, suddenly, my tie to my own world. He couldn’t have known how much I needed him firmly on my side” (p.47). He helps her remember where home really is. He is the anchor to their reality. He not only helps Dana escape, but he acts as a safe house for slaves when Dana is gone. He tells Dana that he spent the time while she was gone helping slaves escape to freedom. He becomes a rebel to the