Kindred: A Literary Analysis

Each day that goes by, certain individuals and groups of people are faced with threats, menace, and risk. These people can be targeted just by random choice, have current or past affiliation with crime, or can just be part of a certain situation going on in the community. Dana from the novel Kindred by Octavia E. Butler, and China Joe from the A Path Appears by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn happen to represent this situation perfectly. In the books Kindred and A Path Appear, threats serve as a motif for characters to enhance the importance of protecting and having a direct connection with each other. Dana is a mid-twenties African American women told in the story, Kindred. The book is fictional because she is transported back into

When Joe was about ten years old, the only life he really knew was drugs, sex, and stealing money. His parents worked everyday all day, so he was never able to look to his parents for when he needed help. By the age twelve, he had dropped out of school and was behind bars many times. As years went on, Joe became high in the Vice Lords and was one of the leaders for his group. He began to use heroin and became obsessed with the stealing business. China Joe spent pretty much half of his life in jail after the fifth grade. After his final arrest on a burgarly charge, Joe finally realized he needed to do something different with his life and had to stay away from prison. He was released by a judge to work on the streets for Cure Violence. Cure Violence is an organization that tries to help out individuals to understand that the can change for the better, and can still do something good in their life. China Joe was a perfect fit into this organization because that’s exactly what he wanted. When Joe started to work for Cure Violence he got that initial spark inside that he needs and wanted to do good for the community. It wasn’t easy for him though, he faced many threats throughout rehab and working for Cure Violence to go back to what he was doing his whole life. That didn’t affect him though, he knew that God gave him another chance to make his life right and that’s exactly what he intends to