Racism in Kindred Racism is an issue that should be tended to in the present society, regardless of a few endeavors to forestall it. Literature has historically provided a forum for addressing significant social issues, such as those in Kindred by Octavia Butler. Kindred accurately depicts the enslavement of the African American people in America's history and inspires readers to take action against racism by narrating the story of the protagonist's trip back in time to the South before the Civil War. Butler's Black protagonist Dana is transported from 1976 into the antebellum South in Kindred using the time travel technique, after which she is forced to face the horrific reality of slavery. Butler highlights how racism is pervasive in American …show more content…
Prejudice and racial inequality are two significant issues that underprivileged populations still confront today (Erete et al. 2). Literature writing can be a viable means for offering minority bunches a voice and empowering them to share their accounts. Literature can accomplish this by challenging prevailing narratives that uphold biases and inequalities and fostering compassion and comprehension. As expressed by Angie Thomas' book “The Hate U Give” is about a little girl of color named Starr who sees her friend Khalil being lethally shot by a cop (Levin 151). The book discusses problems like racism, brutality by law enforcement, and the Black Lives Matter movement. The novel offers visibility to an ethnic group that is underrepresented by narrating the tale from an African American teenager's perspective that the dominant media frequently ignores and silences. Therefore, by giving the minority groups a platform to share their experiences. , literature may support the empowerment of oppressed populations and the advancement of an equitable society. It can also be used to spread knowledge and awareness, enlighten readers about the struggles of others and encourage feelings of empathy and …show more content…
Following recent events of racial profiling and even George Floyd's murder due to police brutality, and the resulting Black Lives Matter demonstrations, many educators and educational institutions have begun integrating anti-racism literature into their curricula to foster empathy and understanding among students from all backgrounds. Students can receive help in grappling with difficult questions of privilege, authority, and identities as well as in thinking critically about their role in advancing social justice by learning literature books like Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Ta-Nehisi Coates' The Case for Reparations that have been incorporated in their curricula to shed light on such issues and bolster inclusivity and diversification among students (Simpson and Cremin 66). Consequently, beyond merely increasing awareness, literature can motivate change and action. Following George Floyd's murder, numerous literary associations and publishers committed to aiding Black authors and advancing diversity in publishing. This dedication to highlighting underrepresented voices and fostering diversity can affect lasting improvements within and outside of the field of
“It's not hard to understand a person; it's hard to listen without bias” (Criss Jami, Killosophy). Media and its bias play a significant role in the novel THE HATE YOU GIVE by Angie Thomas as it showcases the horror and tragedies of black communities: The media shows how biased Khalil’s death is, how it brings negative national attention and how. The traumatic events in the novel THE HATE YOU GIVE by Angie Thomas are identical to real-life scenarios that happen daily in black communities. Media speaks about how difficult it is for black communities to try to get their voices heard due to the lack of information and representation about what truly happens. Media is biased and helps to form negative opinions towards black communities.
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.
“It was dangerous to educate slaves, they warned. Education made blacks dissatisfied with slavery,”--or so Rufus’s neighbors claim as they observe his liability of allowing slaves to have even the slightest form of education. In the novel, Kindred, composed by Octavia E. Butler, Dana strives to maintain agency, or power over situations and personal encounters, as she navigates the Antebellum South after being miraculously teleported through time. While exploring this oppressive society, Dana turns to using knowledge from 1976, the time era she came from, in order to gain agency over others who automatically have more power than her, such as Rufus, the son of a plantation owner she is tasked with helping.
Specifically, Starr's ethnocentric lens highlights the need for empathy and understanding in the fight for justice, while Kenosha's cultural relativist lens highlights the complexities of the Black Lives Matter movement. The novel demonstrates the importance of listening to and understanding different perspectives in the fight for
The novel Kindred by Octavia Butler examines issues of racism and slavery throughout America by depicting an African American woman named Dana who, through forced time travel, finds herself in the antebellum south. This story focuses on the violence, exploitation, and abuse of black people in the past. However, through Dana and Kevin's relationship, the novel speculates on the systemic impact racism has systemically on contemporary society. This is highlighted through the struggles present within their interracial marriage and how their dynamics parallel the racism present throughout the book. Kindred explores the ways in which systemic racism has affected and continues to impact society.
As the descriptive details of the narrator's life displays color blindness within America we also have to fight against racial discrimination that we face today that also relates to my novel was trying to explain as our black people or other races need to come together and rise as
Octavia Butler’s novel, Kindred, connects the past to the present through Dana and Kevin time traveling back to an era of slavery. The theme of time is essential throughout the novel, especially to Dana and Kevin’s survival and who they are as people. Both Dana and Kevin begin to comprehend that what has happened in the past is gone but never forgotten. Although slavery is no longer legal today, we are living in its ramifications. Butler emphasizes the theme that the past and the present cannot easily be distinguished and are consistently related.
Abouzeid, Berry ENG 2DR Johnston 5 April, Tolerate it or Die Tolerance; it means to have the capacity to endure continued subjection to something without adversity. Throughout history, Black people have been forced to endure systemic racism and discrimination, often without any recourse or means of self-defense. When they finally stand up for themselves and demand equality, they are met with unjust repercussions and violence, as seen in the novel Dear Martin by Nic Stone. The author examines the unjust repercussions faced by Black individuals who challenge the status quo and speak out against racism and police brutality. Through the character of Justyce McAllister, Stone sheds light on the dangers faced by Black youth who advocate for social
Writers utilize their literary abilities as a tool to create a piece of work that transmits a meaningful message that will create an impact on their audience. This is the case of Octavia Butler’s Kindred, a historical science-fiction novel evolving around a twenty six year old woman named Dana who lives in Los Angeles during 1976. What makes the story unique is the fact that the plot alternates between the past and the present as Dana travels through time from the commodity of her house in 1976 Los Angeles to Maryland during the antebellum period. The catalyst for these trips to the past is the near death experiences of the son of rich southern planter, a boy named Rufus Weylein, who is one of Dana’s ancestors. Every single time Rufus is put in a situation where he fears for his life, Dana is summoned to the past in order to save Rufus’ life in order for her
The central character in the novel Kindred by Octavia Butler is Dana, an African American woman who lives in Los Angeles, California. Throughout the novel, Dana travels through time multiple times to pre-Civil War Maryland. Readers first witness Dana being transported when she is assisting a young boy in a river bank in Los Angeles. In the instance Dana is met with the re-memory of her ancestors. As she is transported back to the South, she arrives every time to save the life of a younger white boy who is named Rufus Weylin.
“I closed my eyes again remembering the way I had been hurt—remembering the pain.” (Butler 20) Dana, the main character in Octavia Butler’s Kindred stated this quote to emphasize the great amount of pain she has experienced in her life, and how focusing and remembering the pain keeps her from losing her grip on reality. Dana, takes the reader in a journey back to the slave period through the antebellum south and allows the reader to travel time through the eyes of a modern African-American woman and experience all the heartache and misery she experienced during those times. Octavia Butler’s science fiction novel Kindred explores not only the unimaginable horrors of slavery; but how those horrors and the time travel affects everyone. Dana, the main character of this novel
The novel Kindred, written by the author Octavia E. Butler, was about a black woman named Dana Franklin traveling through time to save her ancestors to ensure her birth. Dana travels back to the 1800s, to the era known as the “Antebellum South.” The novel opens with a horrific scene of Dana having her arm crushed in the wall of her house and being taken to the hospital. The police question her about what happened, as they accuse her husband Kevin. Eventually Kevin is cleared as a suspect and is allowed to see his wife Dana.
Dana goes back in time during the slave days where racism was very common, and this piece of evidence shows how rude people of color were treated. Butler draws on that experience to convey the universal theme that racism happened frequently in the past, but it’s still occurring today. Through this novel, Butler speaks to the reader with the message that racism is something that continues, and will keep on continuing for a long time. The words“ job and white” show a negative connotation, and implies that people of color did not have very pleasant lives before. Dana experienced time traveling to the past, which lead to an external conflict of dealing with racism and slavery.
In accordance with George Bernard Shaw, “The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essence of inhumanity.” Shaw’s Quotation demonstrates what the worst possible thing a human can do to anything or anyone, such as inhumane treatment of a person, just because of the color of their skin. This can be seen in the Novel Kindred, Octavia Butler, reveals how some of the characters such as Tom Weylin, Rufus, and Margeret, using their power, and ego, to abuse & affect someone else, by using Violence, a heavy use of discrimination towards african american slaves, in the antebellum south which brought upon a lot of trauma, thus leading to PTSD. In the Novel Kindred, Octavia Butler, uses the Weylin Family as an example to demonstrate the inhumane treatments of
They do not have a government to watch over the people anymore. The setting in this story is a dystopian post-apocalyptic world that Rye shares with another character; Lauren. She is a character in Parable of The Sower. In Rebecca Wanzo’s article, it is shown that, “Lauren Olamina is a fifteen-year-old Black girl living in the Los Angeles area in the year 2024” Another one of Butler’s stories placed in the future. In Butler’s story of “Kindred”, It has a different setting than the other two stories.