particular group in “their place” while creating a universal understanding that the other is intrinsically better. Kindred a novel by Octavia Butler‚ is one of the greatest works that gives voice to the position of reductionism that the African American community faced but from the removed position of a woman from our current time. This science fiction novel captures the heritage of Butler who has roots in a Grandmother who was a slave and a single parent mother who worked relentlessly as a maid to provide
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Kindred is about a girl named Dana who is teleported from the 1970’s back to the 1800’s slave era when a boy named Rufus is in danger of losing his life. Dana faces many hardships and learns many things about her ancestors and the environment they grew up in. Tom Weylin is Rufus’s father and considered an evil man along with his son as he grows older. They both commit what this era would consider violent crimes‚ but in there time it was considered perfectly normal. Surprisingly there are many similarities
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ENGL 436 001 May 2‚ 2013 Accepting Bondage In Octavia Butler’s novel‚ Kindred‚ the main character Dana and her husband‚ Kevin‚ time travel backwards from the year 1976 in California to the nineteenth century in the antebellum South. Both Dana and her husband are authors in their present time‚ but‚ because of gender‚ he is paid more. They faced the long-time issue of racism as Dana is African-American and Kevin is Caucasian‚ which contributed to Kevin’s success as well. Their relationship
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Jack O’Brien Dr. Powell 10/04/2012 English 121 To Make a Slave Slaves do not have an option to decide whether they are born a slave or not‚ nor do they choose to be one either. In Octavia Butler’s Kindred‚ we find that a slave’s actions do not directly make them a slave‚ and nothing that they can do will affect the status quo of slavery. Rather it is the actions that a slave-owner makes that makes a slave‚ and in doing so takes away their humanity. Tom Weylin knows that he can have any
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It Is Not About Feminism. It Is About Freedom. Octavia Butler is the famous writer and the author of the fantasy genre of African American race. She became the first black woman who gained worldwide fame in science fiction. Kindred was published in 1979. Kindred is considered as the most famous and the best book of Butler’s works. It describes a strong black female protagonist who makes time travel for the sake of Rufus’ (white man) salvation. The main character is Dana. She experiences what it feels
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A Metaphorical View into Kindred In Kindred by Octavia Butler‚ Dana is subject to many different wounds all over her body; the more involved Dana becomes in the story the more damaging the wounds are to her everyday function. These wounds‚ their severity‚ and their position represent certain emotional and mental scars in Dana made by her travels into the 1800’s.The most severe of these wounds and the bait of the novel‚ since it is the opening chapter and I am awaiting for this scene
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is not to hate them‚ but to be indifferent to them; that’s the essence of inhumanity”. Meaning‚ it is our heartlessness that allows us to feel indifference towards others; it steals the harmony in the world. Octavia Butler allows us to explore this cruelty in her science fiction novel Kindred. The novel is based on an average black woman Dana. Dana is called back in time to the antebellum south to save her ancestors. The author uses a variety of literary devices such as conflict and imagery to prove
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Kindred: A Story of Alienation Since the dawn of time‚ society’s views on inequalities have been its greatest shortcoming. The fact of the matter is‚ there are several aspects in society that determines these inequalities. In the novel Kindred by Octavia Butler‚ Dana is alienated from society through race‚ class‚ and gender. Thus‚ she faced much hardships and tribulations throughout the novel. Society’s outlook of African Americans caused Dana to be abused on many different levels‚ especially
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0802 1 May 2012 Oppression and Resistance Through Kindred’s Story Kindred tells the story of a 1970s African American woman traveling through time to an 1815 slave plantation. The author‚ Octavia Butler‚ portrays how the main character‚ Dana‚ uses resistance to survive in both time periods. She uses Dana to address the social and cultural issues of the Antebellum South and post-Civil Rights Movement. As African American woman‚ Butler was subjected to racism and oppression in her life‚ and translated
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Kindred represents cultural contact and exchange because an African American woman from the 1970s is forced to adapt to life in the 19th century with other slaves. Her own culture is dramatically different from the culture of Tom Weylin’s slaves. Dana is used speaking to white people as her equals and not as threatening superiors; she is used to exercising her rights to simply do as she pleases‚ which includes wearing pants and writing novels. The black people who she encounters in the past are slaves
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