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How Does Octavia E. Butler Use Racism In Kindred

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In the novel “Kindred ” By Octavia E. Butler, we travel back to a time were slavery and racism was at its peak when we are given the opportunity to see through the eyes of African American woman named Dana. Dana and her white husband, Kevin, get stuck between these two dimensions in time and get a real glimpse on what it is like to physically be in the 1800’s when they are exposed to this unfamiliar environment. As the author suggests to the reader to use their imagination and heighten their senses, they discover the true struggle of being an African American body and the process of waking up from the creation of racism. Dana also awakens to the emotional, physical, psychological trauma from the experiences she faces as a slave herself. During her warp though time, she endures much agony, fear, and difficulty that rudely awakens her to the harsh reality of Racism. Dana is a intelligent African American writer living in twenty first century in Los Angeles, California. Her reality is full of possibilities for education and …show more content…

“I was aware of him trying not to hurt me even as I raised the knife, even as I sank it into his side” (260). Dana realizes such coldness during this time, and she travels back to her reality with physical and emotional pain and ultimately evil …show more content…

Coates the writer awakens from the truth of the invention of race. As much as he wanted to believe that blackness was real, he came to the realization that it is simply and illusion and there was simply no such thing. “ I am marked by old codes, which shielded me in one world and then chained in the Next”(125). Coates and Dana will both realize they will forever will live with the pain and struggle they have witnessed on racial segregation. These experiences will remain within each of them and will on. Just like our society will all have to try to wake up and realize that this invention is nothing but a dangerous

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She is not immediately sent home and must deal with more trouble with Rufus, including being slapped by him, so she later decides to attempt suicide, knowing that the danger will send her home, and if it doesn’t she is at the very least free from the danger. This event is also the first time that Dana forces herself to be sent to the present rather than waiting for danger to find her. She is finally fleeing Rufus’s abuses, feeling betrayed because this is the first time that Rufus

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Passing, a novel by Nella Larsen, addresses the issue of race by telling the story of two African American women - Clare Kendry and Irene Redfield - who represent different aspects of passing1. In the novel, passing refers to the process of crossing the color line, where a light skinned person who belongs to the black racial community enjoys white privilege2. However, people who pass struggle with double consciousness as they long to honor their race without necessarily being associated with it3. The novel is highly invested in ambiguity to show the fluidity and complexity of race, and how it paves the way for passing4. Passing illustrates the struggle African Americans face with their unchosen race and their attempt to control their identity

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Many people forget that African Americans in this country have been enslaved for longer than they have been free. Coates reminds his son to not forget their important history and that they will continuously struggle for freedom over their own bodies. They must learn to live within a black body. These struggles can be seen in the racial profiling and brutality among police officers in cases such as Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and countless of others. He goes on to describe his childhood and how fear was the root of black existence.

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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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Racist and sexist stereotypes are depicted in the short story, Kindred. Kindred, is about an interracial couple living in California during the 1970s. Dana and Kevin are happily married, when Dana suddenly time travels back to the antebellum south during the time of slavery. Dana is an educated black woman, in the 70s it is normal for a black woman to have higher roles in society, but it is not

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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.

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In the novel, Kindred, by Octavia E. Butler, a lot of ignorance and intelligence is demonstrated all through the book which in a way is dangerous. Kindred is a wonderful work of science fiction that catches the attention of readers by telling a story of Dana, a modern-day African-American woman, who is abruptly transported from California in 1976 to the antebellum South. Not only is Dana abruptly transported back in time but she’s able to experience first-hand the cruelty of enslaved black women and men in the 1800s. The experiences of Dana and the enslaved women in the novel were viewed as mostly women working in households.

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Although he believes that this question is unanswerable, Coates’ purpose is to express his deepest concerns for his son and to help him understand his personal experiences as a black man. He achieves his purpose by incorporating rhetorical skills such as ethos, pathos, and logos. Coates has been a successful journalist and writer for several years. He previously worked for The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and O

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