preview

Kindred : An Impressive Woman Life Essay

Good Essays

Sinuo Yan
Thomas Healy
English 102
Nov 8, 2016
Kindred: An impressive woman life I have a heart for books that can transport the reader back through time, but much like the main character, Dana, such time travel is masochist to experience. I 'm not talking about the realistic depiction of slavery. I think this book was read in every American Literature class in America. First of all, the main character of this novel as follows is Dana. She is my favorite character. Dana is the narrator and heroine of the novel. A young black woman writer living in the end of the twentieth century, she finds herself plunged into the antebellum South of the nineteenth century, an alien world in which she must struggle to establish an identity and to maintain her freedom. Dana must also battle her conscience. Only if Rufus, her forebear, survives will she herself live, so she must constantly save him. At the same time, she wonders if she is morally bound to let him die, thereby helping dozens of slaves. Further complicating matters are her feelings of genuine affection for Rufus. She likes him, despite his cruelty to her and her friends. Each time Dana saves Rufus’s life, he strips her of another piece of her dignity, which forces her to think about her own limits. By the end of the novel, she discovers that she is willing to kill to defend herself against rape. Dana claims that her marriage to Kevin is sound, and that as a couple they have not been harmed by their travels to the South.

Get Access