Kindred Quotes

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

     Dana is brought back for the fourth time and this time five years has passed. The Rufus she sets eyes on is now 19 and was beaten badly by Alice’s husband Isaac. Rufus tells Dana, with anger in his voice, that Isaac and Alice will be

This thought, however, ignores the insecurities she has and the decision she has already made in her mind. After all, Connie did know that Arnold Friend was dangerous, she was wary of him when he first showed up and when she makes out his age she gets put on her guard even more and eventually threatens to call the police on them. Then, Arnold says words that ring through the mind of Connie: “…I promise it won’t last long and you’ll like me the way you get to like people you’re close to. You will. It’s all over for you here…”. These short sentences echo through her mind as they remind her of the relationships she has in her life. Connie realizes that will never be intimate with Arnold Friend because she cannot have a relationship like that with anybody. Because of her insecurities, Connie thinks she deserves this ending. She will go with Arnold not because she wants to, but because nothing can hold her, back she wanted to explore and have an adventure, but the adventure was thrust upon her too

Once Rufus tells Dana that it is eighteen-fifteen, Dana is not at all surprised. She had already accepted the fact that something paranormal was happening to her, so time travel didn 't seem out of the question. It explained why Rufus thought it was okay to refer to black people as “Niggers” (Butler, 25). Dana needed to learn basic skills of that time in order to survive, like cooking on an open stove, sewing, having no medication, not to mention the strength needed to survive as a slave, where black people are physically brutalized on a daily basis and it raises question as to if a modern black woman, could handle the brutality and savageness of living in the south during slavery.

Kindred takes place in two different time periods, on two different sides of America. This makes the differences in the place and time very different. Not only has Dana’s home of California not yet been discovered, but she ends up in the antebellum south, in the early 17th century. When Dana does go back to the early 17th century, she must save Rufus from whatever danger he is in, and then can leave when she is in danger. This often leaves her stranded in Rufus’ time, unable to leave. During this time, she had to either do slave labor, or help Rufus with whatever he needed her to do. However, Dana often bends to what Rufus wants, even if it is bad for others around her. In Kindred, Dana is usually more harmful than she is helpful, as she almost always bends to Rufus' will.

Bellingham does this by somehow hurting Isabel. Like after Isabel tried to run away, Bellingham made her wear a collar that beeped every time she crossed a certain part of the property. Curzon thinks that it is not fair to have Isabel wear the collar. Also after Bellingham recaptured Curzon and tried to make him his slave once more. When Bellingham tried to pull Curzon to his house, Curzon refused to move, saying that he was free. Bellingham then ordered the guard to beat up Curzon. Each time Bellingham does something Curzon doesn't like, it gets Curzon angrier. Until finally Bellingham draws the line with Curzon. Bellingham hears about how Curzon and Isabel are planning to run away. So he consults Curzon about it and tells him how he will deal with his mischief. He says that every time Curzon messes up or does something wrong, Bellingham will inflict the pain on Isabel. So the more trouble Curzon causes, the more pain that will be inflicted on Isabel. After all of this Curzon decides that he has had enough of Bellingham and thinks, “I will kill Bellingham”(168). These are harsh words and readers would never imagine that Curzon would go to such lengths. Curzon must really be deeply affected by what is going on to think of such things. Bellingham continues to be cruel while he enjoys seeing Curzon suffer multiple

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.

“She backed away from the door but did not want to go into another part of the house, as if it would give him permission to come through the door” (Oates 7-8). Arnold Friend has a mental hold of Connie. Connie felt as if any action she made would cause a negative reaction from Arnold, letting him get closer. Connie felt as if she was being taken over. “She felt her breath start jerking back and forth in her lungs as if it were something Arnold Friend was stabbing her with again and again with no tenderness” (Oates 8).

In Octavia Butler’s novel, Kindred, she challenges humanity, moralities, and racism. By sending Dana through time, it highlighted the similarities and differences between characters and symbolic meanings. The theme of this novel is answering the question to “what if” a black woman, raised with rights, had to endure slavery? What tactics would she use in order to survive? Many people cannot imagine the agonies slavery has caused, not only to blacks, but everyone including loss of freedom, family, loved ones and self. The interracial couples in the novel, Dana and Kevin; Alice and Rufus, symbolize a larger issue of segregation that divides of our nation. The antagonist, Rufus, changed throughout his life as Dana tried to teach him

Today's children learn and are influenced by their surrounding and environment. Children do not know any better; for them, it’s monkey see, monkey do. Today’s youth are taught to respect everyone of every race. However, back in the time of slaves, children were taught to despise blacks, and that's what most of them did. In the book Kindred, Dana Franklin journeys back and forth to the Antebellum South multiple times to see her past family who are slaves and the owner Rufus Weylin. On multiple occasions, Dana voyages back to the past to help Rufus when he is in danger, so her life does not become corrupt. Each time she goes back, different levels of danger await her. As Dana travels home and back to the past, she witnesses Rufus grow from

As per usual dana saves Rufus from death but this time Rufus is much older. Rufus informs Dana that She must burn what will give any suspicion of her being educated such as a history book which represents her knowledge and a map which is her freedom. With sly manipulation by Rufus Dana complies and thus this gives Rufus control over Dana as she gives up her education and freedom plays the role of a submissive women to Rufus word. Though as time passes a turn for Dana character when she finds that her letters to Kevin have not been delivered and betrayed by Rufus. Dana Claims she has decided to become a boy and plans to escape. Is powerful symbol as Dana takes matters into her own hands and takes her authority back to her life, this is done by her posing as a boy and seeking the strength of a male figure just as Kalpakia had done in her memoir My life as

Octavia E. Butler uses her novel Kindred, to communicate how influential one’s environment can be in shaping their thoughts and actions. One’s environment is composed of their conditions and surroundings, and the most significant of these is language. The society in which Dana lives differs greatly from Rufus’s society; therefore, the way these characters use and view language differ. Language dictates the way one thinks, and whether or not they think critically. How one thinks is directly related to how one perceives the world and one’s perception is their reality. Even Dana and Kevin, who live in the same time period, perceive the world differently. They may live in the same time period, but their realities differ because of who they are, a black woman and a white man. Butler makes Dana and Rufus’s impact on one another central to story. Rufus sometimes deviates from the societal norms of his time because his environment has been influenced by Dana, who is also affected by her new surroundings. She begins to lose the ability to stand up for herself. Ultimately, however, Rufus does not change his prejudice, bigotry way of thinking, and Dana does not allow herself to succumb to complacency. Butler consciously made these decisions; she wants readers to recognize that while these characters influence one another, they do not do so enough to overpower the more significant aspects of their respective environments, such as language. One’s environment determines how much

George’s scared I’ll get in trouble.” (87) In this conversation it is showing that Curley’s wife feels very alone, and that she has nobody to talk to. She feels this way because she knows that if she does Curley will become upset. This is a strong point in the book that proves women were not treated the same as men, she cannot talk to anyone but all the men.

Drusilla allowed Virgil to continue speaking, seeing as though it would be rude of her to interrupt him. “From my childhood years, because of the way my biological family acted, I started to look down on myself and the world around me. I began to believe that the world itself was evil–that it could not have been created by someone who sees Himself as a benevolent father figure. The stuff I saw on TV when I was younger didn’t help to improve my disposition, either; in actuality, I think it only served to worsen my outlook on world and life. And I suppose you could say that, after I ran away from home back in Jersey, I could hardly give a damn as to whether I live or die. Or more correctly: whether I was willing to kill myself

Octavia Butler’s Kindred focuses on the perspective of a black female within two drastically different societies ranging from the ideals of colonialism to a society of change and acceptance. Butler utilizes Dana’s position in society to portray the cruelty of slavery and the power that society can have on the ideals and morals of individuals, such as the developing character of Rufus. Throughout the book, the issue of slavery is addressed through a multitude of different themes that span across Dana’s different experiences and struggles. Butler aims to reveal the aspects of slavery from the perspective of Dana in order to emphasize the widespread effects of prejudice upon human rights. In addition, the contrast of societies also