...Octavia Butler’s novel, Kindred, describes the impossible life of Dana Franklin. Dana and her husband, Kevin, go through a series of events that include time travelling and ensuring her birth by helping her ancestors, Rufus Weylin and Alice Greenwood. Throughout the novel, the reader is introduced to slavery through a progressive black female’s perspective. Dana is forced into slavery again and again, ultimately and unfortunately learning the ways of the South in the pre-Civil War era. She acts the part of slave for the sake of survival and adjusts quickly while trying to alter the thinking of Rufus with little success. Although slaves had similar jobs and enslaved women worked mostly in the domestic sphere, black women tolerated harsher labor...
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...In life, people always have decisions to make, and behind those choices, there are motivations whether it be for survival, acceptance, love, or for revenge. This is demonstrated through the novel, Kindred by Octavia Butler when one of the main characters, Dana, travels back in time to meet her ancestor, Rufus Weylin, who calls for her when he is in danger. Everytime she goes back to Rufus's time, she has to make decisions that are essential to her survival. In Kindred, Octavia Butler uses the decisions each character makes to suggest the idea that his/her fate and the fate of those around them are affected by their choices. During Dana’s fourth trip, in a conversation between Dana and Alice, Butler suggests the idea that Liza, the sewing...
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...Racism is defined as prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior. Racism is still very evident in today’s society and is the cause of much controversy. The use of language has always played a large role in racism by playing on stereotypes and the use of offensive terms. In the books, Kindred, by Octavia E. Butler, and, Forge, by Laurie Anderson, language is used to, both create and define relationships. Both books feature both the use of words to encourage and oppress others. In my opinion, a healthy relationship is built around mutual respect for one another and language is a powerful tool in building relationships. This is shown in the book Forge,...
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...All throughout time many people have been discriminated; from the Holocaust, to the Japanese Americans internment camps, to the segregation between African Americans and caucasians. America has never fully collaborated throughout time. Many have been treated differently, not only based on how they look but their gender as well. This is an issue that most are aware of but not to the full extent of seeing the true gory. In Octavia Butler’s Kindred and Jessica Viñas-Nelson’s ‘Post-Racial’ America”, they both encompass that gory through their thematic message; many people encounter mishaps such as discrimination due to their gender and race solely based on their identity and societal expectations. In Butler’s novel, Kindred, Dana travels back...
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