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