Blog 5: The Meaning of Kindred

The novel Kindred, by Octavia Butler portrays the protagonist Dana and her husband Kevin and their adaption to a slave era coming from the present time of 1976. Dana is African American and married to a white man Kevin, and they both time traveled back to Dana's ancestors life during the slave period. They are forced to morph into the society where most blacks are slaves forced to serve their white masters, and the masters have ultimate control. Dana and Kevin were born and grew up in a society where they had priviledges and people lived in peace despite the different races, which did not exist in the past. But after spending long periods of time in the past, they are able to adapt to the segregated and cruel society and have gotten used to the place to call it home. Kindred represent how humans can easily fit in and get used to changes in their society and environment, but they are capable of producing their own thoughts and perceptions despite social norms. Rufus, Dana's ancestor from the past who is a white slavemaster struggles to live in his society where whites are not supposed to see blacks as humans like themselves, and he has emotional bond towards black people and developed close relationships with them in which the society would see it as taboo.

Dana had stated, “I were losing my place here in my own time. Rufus's time was a sharper, stronger reality. The work was harder, the smells and tastes were stronger, the danger was greater, the pain was worse ... Rufus's time demanded things of me that had never been demanded before, and it could easily kill me if I did not meet its demands” (Butler 191 Kindle Edition). Thus even though Dana belongs to a completely different time period with a society that is different from Rufus’s time, she was starting to lose sense of belonging to a time period. Confused of what she felt like home. Dana had gotten used to living in the past, playing the role as an educated slave, and creating relationships with the people there that she felt like she is capable of calling it home, and feeling like she can belong there. That shows that no matter how used to we are living our familiar lives day by day, our society is subject to change, and when change does happen, we are forced to comply and we will eventually adapt to it in order to survive and fit in.

Works Cited

Butler, Octavia. Kindred. Bostons Massachusetts: Beacon Press, 1979. Kindle Edition.