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How Does Octavia Butler Use Magical Realism

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Become immersed in the enchanting world of Kindred, where magical realism and history combine to reveal the story of Dana Franklin’s ancestry and growth. With the assistance of Magical Realism, Octavia Butler strategically juxtapositions the 1800’s and 1900’s without creating a distraction from this crucial historical time period. In the novel Kindred, Magic Realism escalates Butler’s purpose through deepening ancestral connection, and highlighting her transformative journey throughout the novel. Butler’s consistent use of magical realism strengthens the connection between Dana and her ancestors in the novel. Additionally, she grew closer to her ancestors and gained a deeper understanding of their time period. For example, Dana remarked “I …show more content…

At first, Dana couldn’t comprehend the connection between herself and Rufus, besides blood. However, as the novel advanced, Rufus and Dana began to grow closer and began to connect on levels that would not have been possible without Magical Realism. Furthermore, Dana achieved a better understanding of the life of her ancestors and their time period. Another example of Dana’s newfound connection is when Kevin and Dana observe the cause of Dana’s call to the 1800’s: “Then. Rufus’s fear of death calls me to him, and my own fear of death sends me home.” (Butler 50.) Not only does this quote demonstrate the cause of the Magical Realism Dana experiences, which occurs while transporting Dana back and forth between time periods, it also reveals irony. Rufus's fear of death draws Dana to the 1800's, believing that she can save him and prevent his death. However, Dana is ironically the cause of his death. Without the concept of Magical Realism, Dana would never have had a close connection or understanding with her ancestors, or the historical time period they lived in. Additionally, information from an outside source further supports this information: “From the start, she had questioned the nature of her relationship to

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Traveling through history In Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred, the author tells the story of a twenty-six-year-old African American woman named Dana. Dana is a writer who lived in Southern California during the 1970’s. She is married to a white man named Kevin who is a writer along with Dana.

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On page 13, in the chapter The River, she experiences her first encounter with the past and you see her connect with her ancestors. She feels as if it were a dream, but in reality, it was more like time traveling. The book goes to explain how Dana connects with a boy named Rufus; every time he is in danger she transports to aid him without having any control. Dana’s first experience with time travel was in her home library, Rufus was drowning in a river when he was just a kid and Dana appeared on the scene. Rufus could see her under the water while he was drowning and was surprised.

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She is knocked to the ground and is held at gunpoint. This is one of the shortest times she spends back in the 1800s but it is easily one of the most important for the reader. It gives the reader their first glimpse of what life in going to be like for Dana very soon. She travels back in forth a few times and learns that the boy she saved is actually her ancestor and he starts to become as fond of

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Landon Szabo Ari Finkelstien Language Arts Period 3 4/8/24. Whoever Controls the Past, Controls the Future: An Essay About Kindred Kindred, by Octavia E. Butler, is a book of many talents. Those talents include the themes. Dana’s journey throughout the book takes her to the past, where she learns valuable themes. The themes of violence, choices and their relationship with power, and kinship, which can relate back to the experiences of African Americans in our history.

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(Butler 125). Although the amount of power Rufus has over Dana is quite evident, he tends to forget that Dana does have power over him as well, however, she does not make it as translucent as Rufus does. In an instance, Dana could let Rufus die, so she has to remind him of what she is capable of doing, without actually harming him. Dana explains that what she is trying to convey is “more of a reminder than a threat.”

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In the novel when Dana is first time traveling to the past she mentions how “I had seen people beaten on television and in the movies. I had seen the too-red blood substitute streaked across their backs and heard their well-rehearsed screams. But I hadn't lain nearby and smelled their sweat or heard them pleading and praying, shamed before their families and themselves. I was probably less prepared for the reality than the child crying not far from me.”. Dana explains how she had seen reenactments of a time and place that she was in but now that she was there it was much different than she'd seen.

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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

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Rufus no longer understands the difference between friend and master at the loss of Alice. Dana was able to make the selfish decision of killing Rufus, rather than submitting herself, for the good of herself, not the good of anyone else. She could not stand to become like Alice, a slave at the hands of a master; thus, her determination to escape stemmed from her will to remain independent. She knows as soon as she lets herself submit to the will of this society she cannot be viewed as a person, but a tool. Dana represents the women in the current day and age that would do anything to protect their own freedom, even at the

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As Rufus was carried in the house, his mother frantically entered the bedroom and pushed Dana aside. Margaret Weylin noticed Dana and asked for her name. She seemed to recognize Dana from the past but as she spoke Rufus interrupted her asking for some water. Margaret turns and looks at Dana, as if Dana is her slave, and orders her to “get him some water” (Butler 69). Failure to do so Margaret dismisses Dana to the cookhouse.

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