ipl-logo

An Analysis Of Kindred By Octavia Butler

1153 Words5 Pages

Have you ever wondered what shapes a person’s personality? In Kindred, by Octavia Butler, each complex character is dynamic or changes throughout the story. The root of these attitude changes comes from the environment in which they are placed. In the novel, slavery in the 19th century is the reason characters change such as Dana. By introducing Dana into the world of slavery, this, in turn, causes change in herself and those around her (i.e. Rufus). This is important to the novel because it enables readers to understand the reasons for each character’s actions. Even though, sometimes, they may be difficult to understand, we must not negate the fact that each character's attitude and personality is shaped by the given world in which they are …show more content…

When Rufus declares, “‘you’re not leaving!’ he shouted. He sort of crouched around the gun, clearly on the verge of firing. ‘Damn you, you’re not leaving me!”, he uses his vast power and violence to get what he wants (PG 190). This also proves his attachment to Dana even though he knows that she will not stay forever. This fits his personality because he always tries to take possession of things that he cannot have. It is clear that Dana’s appearance from the future has gotten to the best of Rufus. His attachment becomes too great and Dana’s attempt to influence his decisions will not be …show more content…

In Maryland, everybody sees Dana as a black female slave with no rights or privileges. The more time Dana spends in the past, the more she views herself in these terms as well, accepting the identity that others thrust upon her. This is evidenced in the last chapter as Dana recollects, “I could recall walking along the narrow dirt road that ran past the Weylin house and seeing the house, shadowy in twilight, boxy and familiar... I could recall feeling relief at seeing the house, feeling that I had come home. And having to stop and correct myself, remind myself that I was in an alien, dangerous place” (PG 193). Conformity is something that impacts her based on the environment in which she was placed. This is indicated in the way that Dana expresses that the Weylin house is almost too familiar, as if her home. The gradual acceptance occurred throughout the book, but here it was most evident in that she conformed to her new

Show More
Related

  • Summary Of Octavia Butler's Kindred

    635 Words  | 3 Pages

    Dana is young, intelligent, middle class writer and in interracial relationship different, almost extraordinary, for a black woman in the late '70s. This novel was to try to make people feel the past as well as understand the history of the slavery experience. Butler wanted us to be in their skin, mind emotions and to feel like we were them in the past. Dana didn’t agree with the plantation life, Dana sees how the Whites act towards the Blacks. The goal was to keep Rufus alive whenever she was pulled back in time.

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis Of Kindred

    2092 Words  | 9 Pages

    When Dana saves him from drowning in the river on her first trip back, she has no idea who he is. Slowly however, she begins to realize that Rufus is her relative, and he must bear a child with a slave girl named Alice for her bloodline to continue. Rufus does not realize this, but he does know that Dana is sent back to save his life, and he realizes that he needs her for this, but yet never fully respects her. As Rufus ages, he rapes Alice and is almost killed by her husband when he is caught, and Dana is sent back to save him. Finally, Rufus does have a child with Alice, only because Dana pushed her into being with him.

    Read More

  • Embodied Agency In Octavia Butler's Kindred

    886 Words  | 4 Pages

    This analysis of agency would be useful for a person pushing for more freedom of expression or freedom of speech. All in all, Bast’s successfully supports his perspective of agency through his evaluation of Kindred, and the comparison of the human instinct of expression to Dana’s want to create change with her time traveling powers constructs a powerful parallel between the novel and Bast’s article. The novel Kindred, however, serves to create an important message about society on its own, as well. Octavia Butler’s Kindred is a science-fiction novel that depicts the life experiences of a young black woman named Dana, who is given the task of traveling back in time to the era of slavery to save her ancestors, but is unjustly oppressed and has most, if not all, of her rights stripped away from her simply due to her race and gender. As a result, the most prominent overarching theme of the novel is the inequality of power and social status given to people of varying gender and race, and the struggle that those people must go through to gain as much freedom and equality as possible.

    Read More

  • Trauma In Octavia Butler's Kindred

    1674 Words  | 7 Pages

    As an African America, Dana is forced into the life of a slave, suffering through various hardships and numerous close encounters with death. All of these experiences have a significant effect on Dana’s mental stability, as she becomes more and more distant and distressed. However, her fellow characters are unable to fully realize Dana’s state of

    Read More

  • Comparing The Relationship In Octavia E. Butler's Kindred

    853 Words  | 4 Pages

    Dana and Rufus’s Relationship Ever wonder what it's like to have a changing relationship with a plantation owner's son back in the 1800’s? Dana Franklin is a younger African-American woman married to Kevin Franklin who is a middle-aged man. Dana travels from California in 1976 back to the early 1800’s whenever Rufus is in trouble. Rufus is a plantation owner son and is also the father of Dana’s ancestor. Dana’s travels are random; she gets lightheaded and dizzy when she is about to travel.

    Read More

  • Human Nature In The Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass

    1105 Words  | 5 Pages

    In life, humans have many different traits that describes themself. In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, by Frederick Douglass shows life a slave in the nineteenth century. In the story, Douglass brings us back in time to show his experiences of the hypocrisy of human nature. Disputes with Douglass and his masters are seen throughout the story showing both the good and bad traits of human nature. American literature of the nineteenth century reveals that human nature embodies contrasting traits such as love and cruelty through the uses of literary devices.

    Read More

  • The Scarlet Letter Arthur Dimmesdale's Psychological Identity

    585 Words  | 3 Pages

    Psychological Identity In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1850 novel, ‘The Scarlet Letter’, Hawthorne demonstrates the physiological impact that others and our own person can make on us. He uses his psychological standpoint to make a character in power who comes to be psychosomatic and has a general phobia to conform to the pure society he thinks he knows; this unconscious motivation, eventually leads to his demise. But he also makes a character that is the opposite (In many different ways) to show the correlation effect that actions can have on one's self. The women fights and does not conform, she has to change the way she thinks and see many different things to compensate what is missing in her life, and what was taken from her.

    Read More

  • Analyzing Character Development In Octavia Butler's Kindred '

    1936 Words  | 8 Pages

    Analyzing Character Development: Dana Octavia Butler’s novel, Kindred, provides a unique look into slavery in the antebellum South through the eyes of Edana Franklin, a black woman living in the late 20th century, who is suddenly sent through time to the early 19th century where she is suddenly faced with the task of protecting her ancestor, Rufus, from many dangers in order to ensure her existence in the present. Dana begins her adventure with no knowledge of how or why she has been given this responsibility and, as a result, must adapt to her new and unfamiliar surroundings. As the novel progresses, the reader sees Dana’s internal battle with herself as she decides whether or not Rufus is worth saving, or if she should let Rufus die

    Read More

  • Education In Octavia Butler's Kindred

    1843 Words  | 8 Pages

    Maryland in 1815, like much of the south, was a hot bed for slavery plantations. For slave owners in particular, it was a benefit if your slaves were not educated, as they would be less likely to question the oppressive treatment, and not adequately be able to express the conditions under which they labored. In the novel Kindred by Octavia Butler, various aspects of education are intertwined throughout, effectively depicting how education and slavery do not go together cohesively. Specifically, in the case of Dana, the novels protagonist, her intelligence led to her owners feeling inferior, which prompted many verbal and physical attacks, an exploitation of her abilities, and the overriding attempt to suppress the education of other slaves

    Read More

  • Paul's Case A Study In Temperament Analysis

    604 Words  | 3 Pages

    There have been many great pieces of Literature since the Civil War and a Paul’s Case a Study in Temperament by Willa Cather is one of those great pieces of literature. The prevailing theme in Paul’s Case a Study in Temperament reflects the struggles that many people go through with accepting their social class and wanted to be a part of higher society. The Author Willa Cather is able to portray many of the social issues that still plague us as a society today in this piece of literature that was first published back in 1905. This essay will discuss many of the relevant social topics that were addressed in this short story and are still very relevant today.

    Read More

  • Essay On Jem's Maturity In To Kill A Mockingbird

    741 Words  | 3 Pages

    I made the mistake of reading the first Little House on the Prairie book once again after finishing the series. It was just so hard to believe that the distinguished Laura Ingalls Wilder was once a naughty five-year-old, always secondary to her flawless older sister. This transformation made me realize that in reality or literature, characters change as they grow. Their change depends on the events taking place in the book, which explains how and why Laura Ingalls rose up to be the head of the family when her older sister was unable to do so. Many literary works portray growth or refinement of certain characters; physically, mentally, or emotionally.

    Read More

  • Theodore Taylor The Cay Character Traits

    1181 Words  | 5 Pages

    The novel “The Cay” by Theodore Taylor is about a boy named Phillip who was shipwrecked when he and his mother were trying to flee Curaçao because of the war on their boat the Hato. When they try to escape their boat gets torpedoed, so this story is about Phillip struggles with his new found friend Timothy and stew cat battling for their survival. So the topic of this essay is how Phillips character traits changed from bad to good throughout the story. So the four main traits that had changed from good to bad being immature, prejudiced and racist, selfish and dependant on others in the beginning and in the end the opposite, he was mature, accepting, selfless and independent from others. During the beginning of the book Phillip shows character traits that show negativity on his personality and these 4 traits are Prejudiced/racist,Immature,selfish and dependant and here is why.

    Read More

  • Tom's Characteristics In The Great Gatsby

    558 Words  | 3 Pages

    Tom’s characteristics affect his lifestyle, mindset, and individuality. Tom endures multiple adventure’s in which he is mischievous, trustworthy, honest, and brave. He paints a fence without painting it, witnesses a murder, saves an innocent man’s life, and struggles to stay alive in a cave with Becky Thatcher. Tom’s decisions are determined by his characteristics. Therefore, his traits frame his lifestyle, mindset, and individuality throughout the novel.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Brian's Winter And Call Of The Wild

    637 Words  | 3 Pages

    Literary Analysis of Brian’s Winter and Call of the Wild The novels Call of the Wild by Jack London and Brian’s Winter by Gary Paulsen both reveal aspects of character personality through thoughts and actions of the character. The authors both create the main character’s personality by showing the reader how the character adapts to the surroundings, about the levels of intelligence of the characters in their settings, and the aggressive instincts of the characters. These aspects provide the reader with a complete understanding of the development of the character. The characters adapt to their surroundings in different ways .Jack london writes, “That night Buck faced the great problem of sleeping.

    Read More

  • Conflict In Edgar Allan Poe's 'Annabel Lee'

    739 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many authors use different ways to help develop the characters. One way authors do so, is by the conflict of the story. In “Annabel Lee”, a poem by Poe, the conflict of the poem helps the reader understand how lonely the narrator of the story is. “Hop Frog”, another text of Poe’s, the conflict helps the reader know how bad Hop Frog wants to leave, because the King kidnapped him from his hometown. Another example, not from Poe, is the novel “Speak”; which the conflict brings the reader to know how the character is lonely, depressed, and even confused.

    Read More

More about An Analysis Of Kindred By Octavia Butler

Open Document