Octavia Butler Summary

Throughout American literary history, nearly every form of literature has covered the topic of slavery and black oppression in America. From William Lloyd Garrison’s abolitionist papers to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s controversial Uncle Tom’s Cabin to Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, the exploration of the black position in America has been a theme that engrossed generations. In the past century, as science fiction has established its place in the literary genre, authors such as Octavia Butler have become increasingly popular. In her short story "Bloodchild", Butler extends the discussion of oppression in America into the science fiction genre. In this manner her story, "…like almost all science

In Kindred Octavia Butler highlights how Dana’s fear of the past will interfere with the present. Butler demonstrates how Dana tries to fit into the 1800s to accomplish her goals and not have consequences in the present. The patriarchy is shown in both time periods although it grows or manifests differently. In kindred Dana travels back in time to save Rufus her ancestor who always seems to get himself in trouble. Dana is trying to make a difference in the past but it is very hard when all she does is cause more trouble than anything else. Her husband is then left behind in the past for five years and that changes him and ultimately leaves a mark on him. Dana tries to make a difference and education the slaves in the past so that they can protect themselves but it backfires and Dana gets punished. This shows the patriarchy in both periods that a man is viewed as more powerful than women and is considered the man of the House. The past shapes the future. The past ultimately makes the future.

As a black man, Samuel Delany has experienced discrimination and racism in a number of settings. However, as a Science Fiction writer he mostly explores racism in that community. Samuel Delany’s, “Racism and Science Fiction” explores how “Racism is a system. As such, it is fueled as much by chance as by hostile intentions and equally the best intentions as well. It is whatever systematically acclimates people, of all colors, to become comfortable with the isolation and segregation of the races, on a visual, social, or economic level”(31). Delany blames social traditions, and material and economic conditions for supporting the system. And not actual individuals. Delany supports his argument by giving three examples of when he has experienced racism in science fiction. The issue of racism in science fiction is presented by Delany when he tells his readers of an encounter with Isaac Asimov, his convention book signing partner, and his habitual panel placement with a fellow writer.

Science fiction can be defined as stories of different possible futures in where technology, space travel and futuristic elements all play a large role. These stories are found to be captivating, but most of all eye opening on the possibilities for our future. Afrofuturism uses these elements to make more than a story. Afrofuturistic writers, all being black, write these stories from experience which make their underlying reason more powerful and real. Afrofuturistic works fall well beyond the category of Science fiction because they have a purpose in exposing the black “communities past [that] has been deliberately rubbed out” (Dery 180). These works do more than merely entertain, but rather, create sci-fi parallels for a communities lasting trauma while further depicting the

Many people are not aware about the struggles slaves faced back in the day. In the 1800s slaves only knew a couple things like don’t talk back to your master, don’t run away, and don’t disobey your master. Many older slaves did know better, they kept to themselves, and they did their work. Watching beatings go on was a normal thing to some slaves. What happens when a child is not born into slavery, suddenly becomes a slave? Octavia Butler explores this question by using Dana in the novel, Kindred. Dana isn’t born into slavery, but she is sent back in time to the Antebellum South back in the 1800s where slavery was still a thing. Dana is sent back in time to many points of one of her relatives life, Rufus Weylin. Dana sees Rufus at an older age each time she is sent back to him, but each time he is in some trouble. In the novel Kindred, by Octavia Butler, Dana’s many scary explorations in the South the idea portray the idea that risky and scary decisions often must be made in order to survive.

Octavia Butler’s indirect use of characterization creates a Motif of protection in 1815 and in 1976. By characterizing Kevin, Dana, and Nigel as Protective according to their personality. Octavia Butler reveals the element of protection needed both in the past and the present, which helps create the cause of white supremacy and results in violence because of the abuse and conflict as it follows. Susan Elizabeth Phillips says: “I finally figured out that not every crisis can be managed. As much as we want to keep ourselves safe, we can't protect ourselves from everything. If we want to embrace life, we also have to embrace chaos.”(Phillips). Knowing protection cannot be given in both the past and the present but can be prevented and prepared for. Susan says “we can’t protect yourself from everything” and this shows the relationship in both Dana, Kevin, Nigel, and Rufus that everything cannot be predicted or foreseen without context clues.

4. The paper must logically develop the thesis in a way that leads to the conclusion, and that development must be supported by facts, fully

How can a young white boy not loved by his own father grow up to be just a corrupt as him? In Kindred, I read about the life of a young boy who is neglected by his slave-owning father. He grows up to his father's awful treatment of slaves and his mother. When his father dies, he takes over the plantation. Now that sweet and innocent little Rufus is long gone.

Octavia Butler’s Kindred is initially set in the middle of the 1970’s - a time where the Civil Rights movement is coming to a close, and black and white people are starting to learn how to coexist with each other. A black woman named Dana is the main protagonist in this story, and she was just an ordinary, opinionated person married to a white man who shared her love for writing. That is, until she is literally transported into the past by a cruel twist of fate. The Antebellum South, in the early 19th century, is where Dana finds herself thrusted into: dirty, alone most of the time, and scared out of her wits. Not only does she not have the faintest idea of what has happened to her, she quickly comes to realize this is not a one-time trip.

Octavia Butler’s Dawn explores a world of the unknown after humans nearly destroy their kind along with Earth, causing an extraterrestrial species to intervene. The protagonist, Lilith, finds herself in a predicament as she is captured and locked in solidarity for a long. The extraterrestrial species that intervenes, Oankali, strip her of her clothes, mysteriously cut her and then tell her it is her role to mother a group of humans and prepare them for a return to Earth. In the novel Lilith is conflicted, she knows she has no control of her body and that humans have been “enslaved” by the Oankali but begins to trust and connect with them, especially Nikanj. Through the relationship of Lilith and Nikanj side by side with Humans and the Oankali, Octavia Butler explores the monstrous aspects of people and acts within the cultures.

This paper will be broken into nine paragraphs including the opening and concluding paragraph. My opening paragraph will consist of a thesis sentence that sets the stage for

The introductory line of Harriet Jacob’s preface to Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, “Reader, be assured this narrative is no fiction”, is short yet serving (Jacobs 224). Although brief in its nature, this statement manages to encompass two major aspects that characterize African-American literature: audience and truth. In all writing, understanding the target audience and how to arrange an argument or essay to appeal to that specific crowd is paramount. However, it is especially important for African-American authors, who typically need to expose injustices or call for social change in their works. In particular, two African-American authors who understood their audience and how to manipulate that understanding were Charles W. Chesnutt and Marcus Garvey. Although they were born only twenty-nine years apart, Chesnutt and Garvey technically wrote for different time periods. While Chesnutt’s work is associated with “Literature of the Reconstruction”, Garvey was grouped with authors and activists from the Harlem Renaissance (Gates and Smith 580 ). The separation of their literary epochs drove Chesnutt and Garvey to write for contradistinctive audiences that demanded unique written techniques and rhetorical strategies, but that both asked for utmost honesty.

Mitchell, Angelyn. “Not Enough of the Past: Feminist Revisions of Slavery in Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred.” The Journal of the Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States, vol. 26, no. 3, 2001, pp. 51-75

“It’s taken the fantasy genre decades to grow out of its image as a juvenile boys’ club obsessed with cleavage and crossbows” (Griner). Though science fiction has attempted to break the gender stereotypes against female characters, the genre still has a long way to go. Currently, the majority of female characters are still portrayed as over-sexualized, and dependent on male characters. When women are shown in heroic female roles, they are still belittled for not being a man. Seiter claims that “Many of the more stereotyped features of the portrayal of women…are also accurate reflections of the sexist reality of our society” (21). It is unfortunate that this claim is accurate, but it is. Science fiction is a fictional genre, providing an opportunity to break all stereotypes and create a world from scratch. But gender stereotypes have been ingrained into the world, making them difficult to break when producing fictional stories. Sexism has created a gender bias in science fiction that needs to be changed.

Through a number of important essays, Marleen Barr’s “Afro-Futurism” opens up a conversation about racial autonomy and collective agency in a literary space that seems to have been reluctant to even whisper about such things: namely, Science Fiction. Maybe that is not all that surprising given the genre’s predominantly white(ned?) literary categorization that, while it has no outright barred people-of-color, has not in turn seemed to make any meaningful space for them, either . Indeed, there is such an implicit racial claim of science fiction by White Culture that when a person-of-color is cast in one of the starring roles of a major Science Fiction production – oh, let’s say “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” – that there is a massive outcry and calls for boycott and existential fears of white erasure.