Octavia Butler is well known for having a variety of unconventional themes within her novels and short stories. Butler is one of the first female writers in the feminist science fiction genre, as well as, one of the few African-American women writers in the science fiction genre itself. Her novel Kindred published in 1979, is prime example of the unique and distinct perspective Butler brings to the genre; it is a blend of a neo-slave narrative and feminist science fiction. This blend of themes demonstrates the purpose of feminist science fiction itself: to reconstruct ideas of gender, sex, history, and ideas of the female body. Kindred is also used as a mechanism to defy and reconstruct the science fiction genre by using a female as a main character, redefining dystopias in the science fiction genre, and challenging masculinity of science fiction. …show more content…
Dana, the main character of the novel, discovers she has the ability to time travel, only to discover she must rescue her ancestors during the harsh times of
“Let me tell you the secret that has lead me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity.” -Louis Pasteur. Forge, written by Laurie Halse Anderson, is about Curzon, a boy that turns into a young man as he faces the hardships of Valley Forge in the winter.
Reading the story "Bloodchild," by Octavia Buttler was very difficult for me to follow. What I do know is this young boy had a near accident that almost killed him. Kind of a near death experience that the boy was not fully understanding why because, he had lost his memory. However, he comes back from that experience with no memory of knowing what really happen to himself. After that he had gotten to know this child from the opposite sex, which was the same age he was.
The poem, “Siren Song” by Margaret Atwood, embodies the alluring ideas of Daisy Buchanan. The speaker of the poem describes the song she sings that “forces men to leap overboard in squadrons even though they see the beached skulls.” We see Daisy doing the same in The Great Gatsby. She gives Gatsby false promises about how she never loved Tom and that she will divorce Tom in favor of Gatsby. We can almost imagine Gatsby reaching out on his dock towards the green light coming from Daisy’s dock.
The topic of my Portfolio will be how Laurie Halse Anderson uses characterization, a certain style(with symbolism and tone) and 1st person point of view, to convey her theme. My thesis will look like: In the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, the author uses characterization, a certain style(created by symbolism and tone), and an artistic take on 1st person point of view to convey her theme to her readers. I want to include specific examples of how she accomplished this; for instance: she accomplishes her characterization by giving the characters such spot on personalities that a similar real life person would have(your stereotypical teacher, dad, mom, daughter, and student), along with how her characters change over time, and how they do
A normality in the literary world is that texts deeply nestled in the crosshairs of biopolitics, gender, nationalism, and other identity particularities often fall victim to one sided and dogmatic cultural critiques. Critic after critic find difficulty regarding how to analyze and essentially read a novel where intersectionality is intrinsic to its framework such as Kindred, because it does not fit the fairly common singular literary theory mold. This notion is articulated and defended in “"Some Matching Strangeness": Biology, Politics, and the Embrace of History in Octavia Butler's "Kindred"” where Robertson explores Butler’s usage of Dana’s body to confront universal truths and to cement the idea that Dana is in a historical paradox due
Nonetheless, traditionally, science fiction had begun as a promotion of positive attitudes towards progress in science and technology. According to research, as the number of female authors in science fiction grows, this influx may not be a result of encouraging physical science and technology. Instead it seems to have a continual growth in social advocacy rather than technical competence. The new wave of feminist literature is a way to attack the traditional sex roles addressed in society. Feminist science fiction has helped women raise awareness and has created discussion in the public regarding the disadvantages of contemporary sex roles and consideration of options for the future (Bainbridge,
The series touches on the subjects of race, gender, the ethics of bio-engineering, and the nature of humanity, among other themes common to science fiction. By the time Butler had published Survivor in 1978, she was finally able to live off of her book sales rather than odd temp
Dana has these flashbacks that take her to the time of her ancestors and someone that she was related to was Rufus, a white southern slave owner. Dana, being black, had ancestors that were slaves. Dana vacillates between the present and the past because she goes back in the past when Rufus is in danger. When Dana returns to the present, Rufus gets older. Kevin, Dana’s husband, suspects that the reason she returns to the present is because her life is in danger.
Finding one passion could be tricky. Sometimes we confuse passion with skills, passion is something that you do and enjoy no matter how tired or even if it doesn’t make you a millionaire. Skills are something that you are good at but you don’t enjoy, one will continue on this path because we need to pay our bills. This doesn’t make it right or wrong but we should be happy with ourselves doing what we enjoy.
Although Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein was the first science fiction novel in literary history, men with a less-than-egalitarian view of women, has since dominated the genre . The low status of women in science fiction was not limited to simply ignoring their existence, but male writers also often reduced women to “squeaking dolls subject to instant rape by monsters—or old-maid scientists de-sexed by hypertrophy of the intellectual organs—or, at best, loyal little wives or mistresses of accomplished heroes” . With the rise of the women’s movement and feminist science fiction writers like Ursula K. Le Guin, people became more conscious of the incomplete and negative portrayal of women. Le Guin approaches the subject of androgyny with a vision to consider the whole instead of two parts, with her ambisexual Gethenians that are female, male, neither and both without becoming a paradox. The issue of gender, or the lack of it, is what initially strike readers before they segue into the deeper philosophy of the novel .
In Octavia E. Butler’s novel Kindred, Dana battles an external conflict of time traveling to the past, and experiencing what it was like to be a slave. Dana ultimately resolves this conflict by killing her ancestor named Rufus to return to her present time; however, this choice also illustrates her true character as both scared but brave. Dana’s decision to kill Rufus because she did not want to live in a time where slavery and racism occurred also reveals the universal theme that racism was very common in the past, and it still occurs till this day. When traveling to the past Dana struggles with an external conflict of racism and slavery.
Speech Sounds 1) Summary A mysterious disease has swept across the nation and deprived many of their abilities of communication; speeches, literacy, as well as the lives of numerous people were lost. Rye, after the death of her family to the disease, was making a trip to Pasadena out of loneliness and desperation in search of her remaining relatives. While riding on the bus Rye encountered Obsidian, a man dressed in police uniform trying to restore peace in a society where miscommunication led to violence and government was obsolete.
Rosario Ferre, a Puerto Rican feminist writer, wrote “The Youngest Doll” in response to the myth of the Pandora. (Encyclopedia Britannica) This legend is of a woman named Pandora, who opened a box her husband told her not too, unleashing mayhem onto the world. (Encyclopedia Mythica) In this legend, women are the cause of issues, whereas in contrast, Ferre scrutinizes men as the cause of issues.
to the rise of an idiosyncratically full-fledged tradition with a distinctly feminist drives, initiated by Radcliffe and consolidated by many later women novelists who contributed to “bifurcation of the Radcliffe tradition” and consequently to the establishment of what Ellen Moers
However, the counter to this argument is that the critic misinterprets current science fiction and Women in science fiction are progressing. Ursula K. LeGuin and Alex Eisenstein are two science fiction authors that disagree on the current state of science fiction, specifically “Inconstant Moon” by Larry Niven. These two write articles that address the role of women in this story. LeGuin says that the heroine is simple-minded and a subordinate to the hero. While, Eisenstein would counter saying LeGuin article is an over analysis of Inconstant Moon.