What Does Dana Symbolize In Kindred

This time when she comes back she is saves Rufus’s room from burning down. Dana ask Rufus a series of question such as why she is here, what year it is, and why did he try to burn down his house. Rufus replies saying that he is upset that his father has sold a horse that he wanted. Dana also discovers that she is traveling back in time to save Rufus which is her great grandfather. She understands that she needs to keep him alive in order for her to live. When Dana realize what time period she is in she is frighten because it is during slavery. At this point Dana understands that she has gone back into time to experience the horrors of slavery and prejudice first hand. Dana tells Rufus that she needs to get out of his room because his father could come in his room at any moment. So, Rufus tells Dana of a little girl named Alice that lives not far from his house her mother and her are free blacks. When Dana sees them she believes that they are her ancestors. While at Alice’s house she sees physical abuse and she also endures the abuse herself. As Dana fights for her life she faints back into the present. When Dana is back at home in the present time she understands that when Rufus is in trouble and she is called to his side and when she wants to return to the present time she put her own life in jeopardy.

White-skinned people ruled. Color-skinned people worked. In the novel, The Kindred by Octavia E. Butler, Dana continually switched between time-periods to save her ancestor, Rufus Weylin, as without him, she will not be alive in her present. In Rufus’ time period, she noticed how numerous characters in the 1800’s experienced the troubles of being a slave including herself. Firstly, the patrollers thought it was enjoyable to bother the slaves for their entertainment from time to time. Furthermore, Margaret, Rufus’ mother, had emotionally abused Dana for several reasons. Finally, Rufus, himself, tried to commit the illegal crime of rape. Butler has focused greatly upon acts of physical, emotional, psychological and sexual violence, which were commonly seen in the 1800’s due to abundant racism/slavery.

In the beginning of the book Dana’s physical appearance affected her. One situation that she encountered is when she was going back to the cabin to find Alice and was mistaken by the patrollers. The patrollers were like security guards who make sure slaves were not moving around at night. Since Dana Black they thought she was related to the slaves. The setting of this story is in the slavery time. According to Butler “The man had stopped beating me. Now he simply kept a tight hold on me and looked at me. I could see that I had left a few scratches on his face. Shallow insignificant scratches. The man rubbed his hand across them, looked at the blood, then looked at me, (Butlers Pg 42). Throughout the book we see that Dana is encountering different situations including violence. This shows that during the slavery time people like her were not treated well. There were so many violence going on around. The protagonist is experiencing violence and being molested by a white person. In this time escaping violence without power is very difficult. That is why Dana was affected physically because of being

In Kindred, Dana faces a situation that leads her to thinking of killing Rufus or to deal with him a while longer. Killing Rufus would lead to the slaves being sold off, but Dana could be freed and go back to the future. If she held on a while longer, she would’ve suffered with the others and still would be able to go back. Even if someone says that he’s bad and abusive doesn’t mean she could take his life for it. I believe that Dana should just deal with Rufus, otherwise killing him would only benefit her and she’ll be the downfall to the plantation. The slaves would be safe from the more cruel slave owners, and no one would be sold off and separated. If Dana had done this action she is the traitor to the plantation, the people that supported

The restricted access to power causes Margret and the younger Rufus to act out in any way that they can. Margret lacks the ability to have any real say in what happens in the plantation, she can’t tell her husband how to treat their son or manage the money, she feels the contempt that even the slaves hold toward her, a result of being born into a lower class. As a result, Margret zealously holds what power she does have over the house slaves. She constantly micromanages their every act, showing up and showing off the little power she holds. Her inability to punish her husband for his unfaithful ways drives her to punish the children produced by the affairs. Rufus also acts out against his father, committing arson in an attempt to punish Tom Welyn for beatings and refusals to cede to the wishes of the young boy. There is no other way to fight back against his abuse, no social serves to appeal to and his mother can’t protect him, so he used his access to fire in an attempt to gain some control. Liza lashes out against Dana by ratting on her when the attempt to run is made. Liza didn’t have the power to act against Alice (who she hated), so she used what she could to cause pain any way she could. Even Alice relishes in the little power that she holds over Dana. Alice cannot control anything else in her life, not even who she sleeps with—and so she frequently lashes out at Dana, extorting her miniscule

Such as, I was know longer considered a slave, but with the evolvement of Sharecropping, my life became one of servitude again. Also, a new era came to be which was called, Black codes which discriminated against African Americans much like before the Reconstruction.

At one point in the novel, Dana’s other ancestor, Alice, unfortunately is forced to commit suicide by hanging herself in order to save herself from Rufus, who is obsessively in love her, but ultimately ends up selling her children away into slavery as a punishment and out of spite for Alice denying his love and running away from him off his plantation with her husband. Violence and Suicide are two of the biggest issues we face in the world today and both factors affect the majority of people in the world, including our loved ones. Some differing viewpoints that the act of suicide has brought upon are, committing suicide is wrong, suicide has its benefits and consequences and suicide can be prevented. In most suicidal cases, the victim commits suicide only due to the feeling of

Alice then eventually kills herself and because of that Rufus also nearly kills himself. Rufus then clings to Dana because she’s just like Alice but he then tries to rape Dana but in doing so, Dana stabs Rufus and kills him. Dana then immediately appears back at her apartment all beaten up.

Imagine a time when whites and blacks were required to utilize different water fountains, out of fear that if white people used one that black people had used they would contract some type of disease. Imagine a time when whites and blacks could not attend school together, which more often than not resulted in an efficient education for whites, and a deficient education for blacks. Imagine a time when in Mississippi it was considered illegal for one to advocate for social equality between whites and blacks (Stonaker). Although it may be hard to believe for some this was not a part of their imagination but rather a reality. For some they faced these injustices on the daily. Since the beginning of time African Americans had

The African American experience in the United States is one that could almost be described as irreparable. The African American debut in this country was one that started off as foul as a situation could be. The slavery experience ranks amongst some of the most inhumane eras in the history of mankind. The settlers in the colonies viewed Africans as only 3/5ths of a man and used Africans as tools, or pets, as opposed to acknowledging them as real thinking, loving, feeling human beings. Amazingly so, African Americans were able to advance in this society to a plateau in which we are now, by definition, accepted as equals. Racism still exists in many social institutions and mindsets of our citizens, but opportunity now is vast, compared to

The 21st century is prospering; two Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity were launched, our first African-American president took place in office, Apple has grown and is worth 600 billion. Amidst all the events is racism and discrimination. Since the 16th century African-Americans were taken hostage as slaves. This sparked the rules of society, changing it forever. Society in the past has “educated” their people with laws formed by opinions, forever changing the society we see today.

Over the years the way in which institutionalization of racism has shifted and become more embedded within societal norms while the ideals behind them have remained constant. With the rise of neoliberalism, racism seems to have waned significantly, while it has only in fact been internalized into more subtle expressions. In the beginning from slavery to now there has been change in how African Americans are treated, but the stigmatization has been unwavering. While they are no longer viewed as property, they are still considered lower in class than their white counterparts. The unwillingness to help forward newly freed slaves greatly inhibited the progression of African Americans in the years since. The slavery system started by creating a sufficive racial culture which instituted the bondage of the color-coded division of society. In the late 1800s the early installment of Jim Crow laws plantation owners attempted to ignore the Emancipation Proclamation and keep their

African slaves have been a fast adaptive race from the eighteenth century during the era of slavery through to emancipation.

The dangers of discrimination is not just an issue of the past. Discrimination has followed us into the present day but people have been so accustomed to the way society has hidden them that they don 't realize what is happening everyday. Innocent young African Americans like Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown and countless others have lost their lives due to this injustice. Does the world ever think African American men are in trouble because their lives are on a risk because of their skin color? It began with slavery which was around the 1600’s when blacks were shipped to white people to have them work, clean, numbers of years, that ended on December 18, 1865. Since the beginning of slavery the world has been falling apart and continues to do

The epidemic regarding racism is still an ongoing issue dating back to the colonial period when African Americans were sold to owners as cheap labor which resulted in the beginning of slavery. African Americans were placed at the bottom of the racial caste system which was eventually replaced by Jim Crow. Jim Crow may have replaced the word slavery but was very similar as blacks were still being sold, owned and suppressed. “The fact that some African Americans have experienced great success in recent years does not mean that something akin to a racial caste system no longer exists” (Alexander, M. p.21, 2012). For example, during the