Octavia Butler's Bloodchild As A Slave

Slavery is a condition in which individuals are owned by others, who control where they work and live. Slavery has been around since the 1600’s. Jacobs a young female who recounts her life in the book “Incident’s in the life of a slave girl”, gives us an in depth look into her life and how she overcame slavery and gained herself the title of freedom. Now life was not easy for Jacobs. She struggled for much of her life and the kids she had out of wedlock had to suffer because she was a slave. Slavery is not a status that anyone wants to have especially if you are a woman and a slave.

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

“Incidents in the Life of a Slave” by Harriet Jacobs is an autobiographical narrative. It gives us a look inside in how the lives of slave women were, the troubles they faced and how they met them, especially the sexual abuses they suffered by their masters. She tells us how her master had the “right” to impregnate the slave and then that child would have to follow in its mother’s life as a slave. It took a lot of courage to stand

Octavia Butler's story "Bloodchild" was written with the intention of being a love story between two different beings; a human and a Tlic, which is an insect-like species. Although, this was written to be a love story, throughout the story there is prominent evidence of slavery and manipulation used by the Tlic on the humans. Bloodchild is a story about the complicated relationship between two characters Gan, the human, and T'Gatoi, the Tlic, but the actions made by T'Gatoi make it hard to believe that this her intentions are pure and that she truly cares about Gan. This story is considered to be a love story about Gan and T'Gatoi because throughout their lives they have built a strong relationship, which leads to T'Gatoi implanting her eggs in Gan in order to

Slavery is an institution that repetitively separates family members and close friends from each other, without any regard to those people. This aids in disrupting the heteronormative nuclear family relationship greatly. Frederick Douglass said that “My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant…” and that “It is a common custom…to part children from their mothers at a very early age.”(pg. 1). This showing that most children that were born into slavery would grow up having no relationship at all with their own mothers. Also, a lot of slaves were born into slavery by the fact that “children of slave women shall in all cases follow the condition of their mothers,” (pg. 2) and the slaveholder now holds the title of father and master. With being torn from their mother at a young age and having your own father be your master, completely takes away the chance of a child that is born into slavery from having the “normal” nuclear family relationship.

In this essay, Stampp argues that slaves are the victims to a cruel system designed to take advantage of them. He fights for the sides of the slaves, portraying them as helpless in a world of pain and suffering. To prove this he looks toward the slaves who fake injury, ignorance, and even pregnancy to avoid having to work. This “preoccupation of bondsmen” as Stampp says, was a “Striking refutation of the myth that slavery survived because of the cheerful acquiescence of the slaves.” (Stampp 301) In this essay, Stampp is standing up against the idea that slaves are weak and incapable of functioning as free men. People said that the slaves had accepted their fate as slaves and were alright with it, but Stampp says they have not given up their will to fight for their freedom and that their rights as people will come. Stampp’s portrayal of slaves as the victim is in direct alignment with the shooting of Michael Brown in which Michael was made the victim far before anyone knew what really happened. The slaves that Stampp writes about all are sad and distraught but it’s possible that there may have been slaves who were in fact not too unhappy with their lives. In this instance, there is only one point of view, so another document with the counter to Stampp’s must be examined as

In the statement “Enslaved women and their children could be separated at any time, and even if they belonged to the same owner, strict labor policies and plantation regulations severely limited the development of their relationships” (Li,14), it supports the idea of the acts of slavery disregarding a female slave and her young having a relationship. In the slave narrative, it shows that sometimes a punishment for not pleasing your master can be separated from your kid shown through “This poor woman endured many cruelties from her master and mistress; sometimes she was locked up, away from her nursing baby, for a whole day” (Jacobs,13). Dr. Flint, Linda as well as other slaves master, had a cook who was ordered to cook mush for their pet dog. The dog refused to eat what she was ordering to cook and died. The punishment for a dog dying was the poor lady being taken away from her infant. As can be seen, taking away the relationship between mother and child takes away the rights as a mother of a female slave. Sadly, it has to be remembered that a female slave is not looked at as a mother but her and her offspring are only viewed as a property and labor.

In Marie Schwartz’s book Born in Bondage, describes the life as a child during the antebellum era. The most evident struggle of these children is who to have the most loyalty to. Who should the child listen to when it comes to its survival? Should the child be loyal to the Master or its parents? This was the struggle between the will of the Owner and the wants of the parents. The struggle to gain the loyalty of the child typically would go to the parents except in a few cases where the child was raised away from its parents and in the owner’s house. Who has the most influence in the child’s life was a major source of conflict between slave parents and slave owners. This competition for their loyalty created its own problems for the child such as not knowing who to trust more. For the most part one group would exert more influence than the other. While the child’s parents tended to be the group that would exert the most influence, the owners in certain instances would and could exert more influence than the other. One of these circumstances was when the child was raised by its owners.

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

Should Octavia E. Butler’s “Bloodchild” be classified as a slave story? The author claims that “Bloodchild” is not a tale of slavery, but rather a love story and a coming-of-age tale. Does “Bloochild” conform to the conventions of the slave stories, love stories, or coming-of-age tales with which you are familiar? What other classifications—in terms of literary genre, form, or mode—apply to “Bloodchild”?

James’ emphasizes his authority as a writer through his use of colloquial dialect; he enforces his representations of slave life through the relentless violence. Lilith was the only child born on the Montpelier plantation. A slave owner rapes Lilith’s mother, which is how she is born. Her mother, unfortunately, dies from giving birth. Ever since Lilith was born, she was connected to slavery. Lilith’s birth is ruthless because: “Blood don’t got no colour. Not when blood wash the floor she lying on as she scream for that son of a bitch to come, the lone baby of 1785” (3). The graphic imagery in this quote shows that, as the relation of demises to childbirths persisted extraordinary, slaves were essentially guilty. Moreover, the viciousness of this birth scene,

As it was common for large amounts of African slaves to live on one plantation, families began to become prevalent among slave communities. Slave owners actually encouraged marraige because it generally meant better moral among the slaves and thus less opposition, as well as, because slave marraiges meant children which would become the slave owner’s next generation of laborers. Therefore, slave families grew quickly and became a key aspect of slave culture. Instead of relying on friends on the plantation, slaves had their families to go back to. Black mothers found great joy and happiness in their newborns, even though childbirth deaths were common, but

Looking at the female slave as a mother, we find that she fetishizes her relationship with her child. Fueling her state of distortion further, we suggest that the mother believes her infant son’s existence is another mistakes. Boldly, the mother takes on the unprecedented role of God and makes a multitude of distasteful decisions about her infant son. Like deeming his fair skin unbearable, predicting that as an adult he will claim a “master-right” over black slaves, and finally ending his life. By all accounts, the mother is unable to make sensible decisions about anything.

According to 'the conventions for slave narratives', it is possible to categorize Kindred by Octavia Butler as a slave narrative. However, the circumstances that take Dana back in time are imaginative and fantastical compared to slave narratives such as Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs. While reading Kindred, one doesn't really get the experience of the slaves, but how Dana feels as she participates in slave times. Compared to the lives of slaves, her life is much easier and she has the luxury of knowing she is not and never was a slave. In contrast, Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl is a direct portrayal of slavery through

In my nineteen years on this earth, I have not been exposed to much hardship. My first job came about for experience rather than necessity, my healthcare was preventative rather than urgent, my education held as a priority rather than a burden. I’ve viewed my environment and likewise my experiences through the tinted lenses of middle-class suburbia; white collars and full meals and limited threat. I’ve never had to be concerned about my next meal, shower, drink or bed. Many of my peers share in this secure experience, making my everyday exposure to poverty markedly limited. This narrow background made the events in “Sex Slaves” even more shocking, as the world in which these women come from seems entirely removed from the one in which I’ve spent the totality of my existence.