Kindred, By Octavia E. Butler

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

In "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl", Harriet Jacobs writes, "Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women" (64). Jacobs' work shows the evils of slavery as being worse in a woman's case by the gender. Jacobs elucidates the disparity between societal dictates of what the proper roles were for Nineteenth century women and the manner that slavery prevented a woman from fulfilling these roles. The book illustrates the double standard of for white women versus black women. Harriet Jacobs serves as an example of the female slave's desire to maintain the prescribed virtues but how her circumstances often prevented her from practicing.

He eventually cracked and gave up valuable information on the whereabouts of Celia, and she was later captured. Celia was provided with a lawyer, which was another important situation. A young hot shot with aspirations of protecting her, this was a perfect lawyer for Celia. However, she was

Harriet Jacobs wrote, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” using the pseudonym Linda Brent, and is among the most well-read female slave narratives in American history. Jacobs faces challenges as both a slave and as a mother. She was exposed to discrimination in numerous fronts including race, gender, and intelligence. Jacobs also appeals to the audience about the sexual harassment and abuse she encountered as well as her escape. Her story also presents the effectiveness of her spirit through fighting racism and showing the importance of women in the community.

(1) The use of natural dialect can be seen throughout the slave narrative interviews through words and phrases used that were common during the period of slavery, but are not used today. One example can be seen in the dialect used by former slave Mama Duck, “Battlin stick, like dis. You doan know what a battling stick is? Well, dis here is one.” Through incomplete sentences and unknown words the natural dialect of the time can be seen. Unfamiliar words such as shin-plasters, meaning a piece of paper currency or a promissory note regarded as having little or no value. Also, geechees, used to describe a class of Negroes who spoke Gullah. Many examples can be seen throughout the “Slave Narratives”

During the mid 1800’s women were almost treated as slaves. The slave owners would be considered to be their husbands. Whatever the women would make in their earnings would have to be given to their husbands. No will would be made if the husband didn’t have the woman’s belongings. The husbands were also allowed to beat up their wifes.

Linda’s account of the incidents she encountered during her 27 years as a slave shows us the harsh, terrible, fearful conditions in which slaves lived. Especially, the life endured by slave girls. In fact, these girls grew up side by side with the children of their masters, but at age fifteen they would become subjects of the morbid attention of their masters. If these girls were blessed with beauty, then they would endured even harder situations due to the attraction that their masters had towards them. Linda recalls how she used to play with her master’s daughter until she turned fifteen.

Comic books can portray one thing and mean another. The reader, while reading, doesn’t think about the shading or spacing as they read a comic book, but it could change the whole outcome because of the setting or characters mood. Scott McCloud showed many examples of different concepts based on image, language, and composition. All of these concepts seen in Kindred by Octavia E. Butler are transition, the connection between image and language, and lastly closure. The others that can catch a reader's eye are time frame, different ways emotion was expressed between the character Dana and other slaves towards the Weylin family, and the vocabulary used in the text showing the reality vertex.

The situations Dana is forced to live through are set in moral gray areas that cannot easily be solved in one way or another. Her unwillingness to kill Rufus, at first, is proof of that. Dana cannot kill him in the beginning because she has to see him through to his adulthood. After that, she begins to understand Rufus as a human being. She connects with him personally, as Butler wants the reader to do. By killing Rufus, Dana takes back her life and her future while sacrificing her arm; the loss of Dana’s arm serves as a symbol of the inability to escape the trauma of the past without being hurt. For Dana, this is emotional and physical. However, the reader acknowledges this as a symbol of the emotional connections made with the past and the situations many people were placed in because of traumatic events like slavery. Dana keeps the past from defining her with trauma, even if it means facing the emotional and physical pain of knowing the people and events of that past

My research about women's abolitionist was basically about how women in the United States, fought to gain their equal rights. Standing to the point that “all men were created equal”, and their ideology about being considered as “moral guardians”, they stood up against the government to show they are equal as men. Women went through so many horrified tragedies. Arrested, and death, issues women had through their journey. Yet, determined to meet their goal, women didn’t give up. As it’s well known, women reform started by Caucasian women because they were more powerful than black women due to slavery. Although Caucasian women had more power that black women, they went and convinced black women to join their reform to become a stronger power.

Slave masters are portrayed, and deservingly so, as monsters within the novel Kindred. Slave masters’ inhumane treatment of slaves is within time’s social norms and even encouraged by society to create obedient slaves. The Weylin men are not evil, but acting within their position of power as the owners of slaves. Morals have little to do with their treatment of slaves. Though slave masters are violent and cold-hearted, their morals are not what makes them such; it is the corruption of power encouraged by society that turns them into monsters.

It is easy to interpret “Bloodchild” as a slave narrative, because we inherently are ready to take it that way. To understand the story as anything else can be disturbing to the human psyche, especially so, since it is about humans serving as egg carriers for an alien species. The connection between slavery and this example is too clear cut. Even I, as I am writing this, am having second thoughts. However, Butler isn’t trying to make the human’s subservience as a positive thing, or even as the best way for humans to live; she us, in truth, making a story about what humans will do survive, and how that could even lead to an alien love. Modern humans value freedom as a basic principle beyond all else, which can be seen in contemporary young adult

Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, one of the most significant, noteworthy, and meaningful milestones in race- and gender-focused literature, carries potent messages and underlying themes that are vastly applicable to real life and to human nature, all of which are crucial to its overall, cohesive meaning. The most prominent themes include the reversal of traditional gender roles throughout history, the sins of racism, sexism, and other types of unjust discrimination, mutual love and respect in bonds and relationships, and the notion and development of self-identity. These themes and messages serve as a commentary on the human condition as a whole, for they are not only indicative of the motives of both protagonists and antagonists, but also

No one in today’s society can even come close to the heartache, torment, anguish, and complete misery suffered by women in slavery. Many women endured this agony their entire lives, there only joy being there children and families, who were torn away from them and sold, never to be seen or heard from again.

I read the Excerpts from Slave Narratives and it was edited by Steven Mintz. This story is about “A slave tells the story of his enslavement.” This story came from the “A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, A Native of Africa.” The story took place around Guinea in 1729. The author named Venture Smith, wrote a book about his life, how he was taken prisoner by an invading army when he was six years old.