The novel “Kindred” by Octavia E. Butler covers the topic of the strengths of the black women and the suffering of African Americans. In the narration, the author enlightens several vital social aspects as racism, gender discrimination, and slavery. The aim of the following paper is to analyze the ways Butler expresses the topic of slavery regarding concepts of past and present, the distinguishing of slavery and freedom, and the principle of social unawareness which are utilized to enhance the impact of the book on the target reader.
The book involves real historical background and fantastic elements which make it exceptional among the same genre novels. The protagonist is Dana, a black young woman, who experiences time traveling. The …show more content…
The point is that the author puts the main character into the situation in which she has to suffer due to the rules established by the time and at the same time feel freedom when she comes back to the reality (Emara, 131). Due to the fact that the slavery has already been abolished, people has only the stories of how it was to be a slave and the difficulties the blacks faced. The narration shows both the pain of the past and the relief that black population had received through the years of the fight. The novel is written in the mix of modern and past events for the audience not to forget them and to interpret in an original manner. “Kindred, differs from Butler’s other books in that it is placed more in the past rather than the future.” (Manju and Nalini, 273). Indeed, the writer is more oriented on the heritage as there is no future without the past. The idea considers reminding people which the past was in order to prevent the repetition of the same in the future. Even with the abolishment of the slavery, the history has the tendency to repeat. The progenies are not to forget through which troubles their ancestors went and for what they fought …show more content…
“He wasn’t a monster at all. Just an ordinary man who sometimes did the monstrous things his society said were legal and proper.” (Butler, 134). Octavia Butler shows that the slavery and the laws occurred at the time were not recognized to the full extent. Social unawareness is the additional inner context the author implements into the plot. People follow the rules of the leaders without perceiving whether they are for good or not. The thought that black population is the dirty one and deserves similar attitude was the decisive one that led the white mass resort to cruel actions. The population was engaged into the moral pressure as being against meant being bullied. The society did not comprehend the flow of events differed from the established by the government. The leaders convinced the inhabitants that black slavery is advantageous for the whites. Nevertheless, the most crucial point is that African Americans believed the implemented “truth” as well. Indeed, the mix of fear and rules made most of the slaves recognize the actions towards them as the fair ones. The problem considers the impact of the government which worked on the both sides. The ideology formated confirms the theory of mass thinking. People follow the ordered without making own conclusions, visions and a step