How Does Octavia Butler Use Time Travel In Kindred

Time Travel and Its functions in Kindred
Of all the readings we had recently, Kindred is my favorite piece. The plot and characters of the novel are really interesting and make me think a lot on the subject matter such as feminism, slavery and gender and race equality. However, after reading this novel, I do not consider it as a science fiction. Octavia Butler’s definition of the book as a “grim fantasy” seems more appropriate. Nevertheless, as a successful science fiction author, Butler incorporated a very common and important science fiction element into the novel--- time travelling. Time travelling is crucial to the plot development and provides the context for the character’s actions to take place.
Time travel is the single most significant science fiction element involved in this book. Dana, the protagonist traveled back in time multiple times to save her ancestors. Time travel is the context of the story. Butler chose not to disclose specific technical details on
The most important reason I believe is that travelling back in time is one interesting way for “history” of slavery to be told through a person who had experienced the slavery and was literate enough to tell the story. Robert Crossley mentioned the use of first-person American slave narratives in the second half of the 20th century. It is known as neo-slave narrative fictions and he classified Kindred as one of the distinctive representation of the genre in his introduction of the book. Dana, an educated black woman from the 20th century was thus sent back in time not only to save her ancestors but also to help record and experience the dark history of slavery. Also, the ambiguous description of the actual process of time travelling could be a deliberate act by Butler. By not specifying the means of travelling, Butler sets the focus of the time travel on the purpose of the trips and the characters’ experience through the