Freedom In Octavia Butler's Kindred

Dana finds out the Alice killed herself because Rufus sent their kids to live with their aunt. Since Alice has been gone, Rufus has felt as lonely as ever. Since Dana is back, Rufus feels better and is starting to give the feelings he had for Alice to Dana, only Dana does not feel the same to Rufus. When Dana and Rufus get into a heated argument in the library about why Rufus sold Sam. Rufus grabs Dana’s arms and that when Rufus feeling of loneliness shoes. “You were one woman, you and her. One woman. Two halves of a whole.” Rufus tells Dana. Dana then runs up stairs and grabbed her knife from her bag opened it but put it back as soon as she hear Rufus coming up the stairs. “He opened the door, came in, looked around the bif hot empty room. He saw me at once, but still, he looked around-to see whether we were alone? We were.” Rufus kept inching closer to Dana. Rufus ends up on top of Dana with his left arm around her, his head on her shoulder, and her right arm still at her side as Rufus was holding it down. “ I twisted sharply, broke away from him. He caught me, trying not to hurt me, I was aware of him trying not to hurt me even as I raised the knife, even as I sank it into his side. He screamed.”.….”I pulled the knife free of him somehow, raised it, and brought it down again into his back.” (249-260). Dana never wanted to hurt Rufus. She always was there for Rufus when he needed

As Dana soon discovers, the reality of slavery is even more disturbing than its portrayal in books, movies, and television programs. Before her journey into the past, Dana called the temp agency where she worked a "slave market," even though "the people who ran it couldn't have cared less whether or not you showed up to do the work they offered."

Character’s relationships with power change a lot over the course of Octavia Butler’s Kindred. One of the most important character changes in the book is Kevin Franklin and Dana’s relationship, and how is changed after living in the 1800’s. Kevin is introduced in the book as Dana’s middle aged husband who she met while working in a “slave market”. Both of them are inspiring writers looking to make a life out of their passion. Before both Kevin and Dana are sent back into slavery time their relationship is very normal. Their marriage is very stable, although they go through different problems surrounding power. Kevin is very dominant towards Dana and at times believes he is better than her. Kevin constantly asks Dana to type out drafts of his

The novel under the title Kindred is a magnificent literary piece created by renowned African-American fantasy writer and novelist of contemporary times Octavia Butler. This superb piece encompasses the most burning issues and problems faced by the African-American community. The novel throws light on the pathetic condition of the black slaves and vehemently condemns domestic violence and slavery inflicted and imposed upon the black stratum of the American society. The novel also discusses atrocities and hatred exercised upon the African Americans on the basis of racial and ethnic discrimination prevailing in the society. Butler points out the communication gap between spouses and family members, which adds to the misery of the black

Freedom and Liberty are explained in many ways and in “Chains” by Laurie Halse Anderson it is explained in the American Revolution by different types of people like Patriots, the rebels that are fighting against the king to become independent, the Loyalists that want to stay with the king of Great Britain, and the slaves. The slaves are working for both Patriots and Loyalists and they chose different sides but still have their own opinion like Isabel who is more on the Patriots side but still has here opinion on freedom. They all have their own interpretation of the words, “Freedom and Liberty” but they're all different. In the book Isabel is a slave with her sister Ruth, and is with a kind woman until she dies then she is sold to the

Only the best tactics and the quickest decisions can insure a win in a fight for survival. Dana Franklin, the main character in the novel Kindred, has what it takes to take on the cruel South and use those qualities to ensure survival. Due to a mysterious and confusing power she acquires, Dana can miraculously travel through time and reach her ancestors during the slavery period. With that power alone, she has to work hard to survive against the strongest, meanest, and craziest people she’s ever dreamed of to ensure the safety of herself and whom she cares. In addition to working hard, Dana has to witness and carry out what horrors fighting and struggling in the antebellum South was like. In Octavia Butler’s Kindred, Dana is seen fighting,

Dana does not have absolute power or absolute vulnerability to power in the novel. She has less power than Rufus and slave owners, but she has more

Lily’s first meeting with the black Mary occurs when she meets the Boatwright sisters: August, June, and May. At that moment Lily feels the nurturing of a mother and a deluge of emotions rain down on her. She could feel all sides of her, favorable and detrimental because “that’s what the black Mary did to me, made me feel my glory and my shame at the same time,” (Kidd 71). Lily, for being barely an adolescent, at first is not capable of grasping the concept of people being both angelic and corrupt. At the beginning of the story she sees T. Ray as the human embodiment of evil. Counter to her initial beliefs, Lily learns that people are not as simple as she wants them to be. This is largely the result of the mothering force of August, which is a more physical representation of what the black Mary embodies. The black Mary illustrates Lily starting to see the world from a multidimensional perspective. In the same manner as the black Mary representing a mother for Lily, she represents a mother-like figure to all the Daughters of Mary. While the other Daughters may not have been missing mothers, the black Mary creates a family-like binding between them, keeping them together throughout even them most poignant times. The black Mary is a mother to all and all Lily wants in the Boatwright house is to be seen as one of them. Ultimately, “they didn’t even think of me being different,” (Kidd 209). This acceptance

Many conflicts has emerged during the time when Dana was transported back into 1776, the period where slaves thrived in the South. Dana was considered a slave due to her slightly dark skin, and therefore she struggled to play the part of a slave, even though her only motive for traveling back in time was to assure the existence of her family lineage by helping Rufus, her white ancestor, survive as he recklessly gets injured, nearing death’s door several times. With the help of her white husband, Kevin, who accidentally gets transported to the past with her, Dana’s life becomes more safe, stable, and secure, until a deadly whip from Tom Weylin caused her to teleport back into her own time, leaving her husband in the traumatic period of history

This also illustrates how Dana believes she can have a lasting effect on Rufus, to steer him away from the ways of his father. However, she only has a limited period of time to shed her 20th century mentality on him. And, Rufus’ change is not gradual relative to Dana, because every time she returns, she finds Rufus years older, and acting that much more like his father.

Authors of fiction often write about the human condition as a way to connect with a broad range of readers. Unlike factual textbooks, fiction gives characters feeling and emotion, allowing us to see the story behind the basic details. In many cases, readers gain a new perspective on a period of time by examining a fiction novel. In Kindred, by Octavia Butler, the near death experiences of Rufus Weylin transports a 20th century African American woman named Dana to the ante bellum South to experience exactly what it’s like to be a slave. Through her day-to-day life on the Weylin plantation, the reader begins to understand just how complex slavery is and how it affects both the slaves and the plantation owners; thus, giving new

After many trips back to the 1800’s, Rufus eventually takes his father’s place when he deceases. Dana believed this would make her time in the Weylin household less taxing, but she quickly realized that Rufus made her want freedom more than Tom Weylin did. Soon after Tom Weylin passed, Rufus sent Evan Fowler, the slave overseer, to send Dana to work in the fields. He believed Dana let his father die and

The novel Kindred by Octavia Butler, presents history in a way that shows whose history was remembered, reimagined, and sadly forgotten. Dana who lives in Southern California in the late 1900s learns about the sad truths of history firsthand. Dana has the ability, which seems like a curse, to time-travel to the 1800s. This is where she is unknowingly introduced to her ancestors. Being a freed African American women Dana is frightened each time she is taken back to 1800s Maryland. As she puts the pieces together, she begins learning the quieted side of her family’s history.. Dana observes the alternate versions when she time- travels. Dana already lives a life that people look differently upon because she is married to a white man, Kevin. While

The book follows Dana who is thrown back in time to live in a plantation during the height of slavery. The story in part explores slavery through the eye of an observer. Dana and even Kevin may have been living in the past, but they were not active members. Initially, they were just strangers who seemed to have just landed in to an ongoing play. As Dana puts it, they "were observers watching a show. We were watching history happen around us. And we were actors." (Page 98). The author creates a scenario where a woman from modern times finds herself thrust into slavery by account of her being in a period where blacks could never be anything else but slaves. The author draws a picture of two parallel times. From this parallel setting based

15) The intensity of such a dramatic scene is impeccably encapsulated by sensory, a reaffirmation of societal roles, and ultimate justification before Dana succumbs to her fear. In context, Rufus had just sexually approached a frightened Dana, prompting her to rush to the attic and get a knife. Rufus followed her to apologize, then proceeded to wrap his arm around her, when Dana suddenly contemplated loving him. “[She] could feel the knife in [her] hand, still slippery with perspiration.”— a major denotation of nervousness, as sweat glands moisten hands under such circumstances. Then her mind raced toward the other end of not stabbing him, as “A slave was a slave. Anything could be done to her. And Rufus was Rufus— erratic, alternately