A sailor at sea that takes on the struggles and hardships of being at sea. This is what Malcolm Lowery in his exercpt, "Ultramarine" portrays to readers to understand Dana Hilliot, who comes from a well-off family. Dana Hilliot is a sailor that is on a journey as he describes his experiences of day to day life on the ship. He deomonstrates the hardships and trials he and the crew face every day. Lowery incorporates various techniques such as imagery, allegory, and interior monologue in order to describe Hilliot and his experiences as a sailor.
The roles of “protector” and “protected” in stories is often tied with implications of racism, sexism or patriarchal traditions. From the white man’s burden to chivalry to motherly protection, societal and fictional stories are colored by hegemonic forces and norms. The stories Kindred and Dark Benediction complicate and reinforce these hegemonic forces involved in their means of defining of “protector” and “protected” as their protagonist protectors move through their stories and evolve in relation to their charges. In Kindred, Dana’s begins her story as a Protector fitting into the role of motherly, caring womanhood for her ward Rufus. However, the looming tension of racial hierarchies and sexual manipulation through her and Rufus’s relationship
One example of when they need each other is when Kevin and Max are running from the Tony D and his gang. One quote that shows an example of this idea is “... they never knew it was Freak who rescued me or his genius brain and my big dumb body” (Philbrick, Page 41). this quote shows that Max may not think much of his part of Freak the Mighty, but his body combined with Freak’s big brain. They are stronger together than apart. They need each other to complete each other.
Tragic Yet Beautiful Kindred Spirits was selected as our second piece of music for CMEA on May 7, 2016, because it is a tragic ballad that symbolizes the loss of two of our own. We use a motto in band when preparing for CMEA. The motto goes as follows: Establish your Unanimous Superior in the first song, Earn your Unanimous Superior in the second song, and Don’t lose your Unanimous Superior in the final song. Through the use of a story, symbolism, and complexity, this piece will help us earn our Unanimous Superior after establishing it in the first piece of music, Overture Jubiloso. One reason Kindred Spirits was chosen was because it has a tragic background.
In the beginning, Irene criticizes Clare’s lack of loyalty to her race thus claiming: “No, Clare Kendry cared nothing for the race. She only belonged to it” (Larsen, 52). Irene struggles to comprehend the lack of allegiance Clare has to her race. When John makes a joke about her race, “It was hard to believe that even Clare Kendry would permit this ridiculing of her race by an outsider, though he chanced to be her husband” (Larsen, 39). It is intriguing that Clare does not use her white privilege to defend her race and challenge her husband’s hatred of the race.
The 1997 science fiction film ‘Gattaca,’ directed by Andrew Niccol delves into the concept that the human spirit will prevail despite an uncaring fate. Protagonist Vincent Freeman represents powerful notions of perseverance and humanity, and through his victory epitomizes humanity’s triumph over science. Niccol implies that all children deemed Valid do not possess the trait of the human spirit and consequently have no true dreams nor aspirations. Niccol infers that when one knows their predetermined fate, they will not strive to accomplish anything further. When a Valid does not accomplish their predetermined fate they struggle under the burden of perfection.
A normality in the literary world is that texts deeply nestled in the crosshairs of biopolitics, gender, nationalism, and other identity particularities often fall victim to one sided and dogmatic cultural critiques. Critic after critic find difficulty regarding how to analyze and essentially read a novel where intersectionality is intrinsic to its framework such as Kindred, because it does not fit the fairly common singular literary theory mold. This notion is articulated and defended in “"Some Matching Strangeness": Biology, Politics, and the Embrace of History in Octavia Butler's "Kindred"” where Robertson explores Butler’s usage of Dana’s body to confront universal truths and to cement the idea that Dana is in a historical paradox due
The pursuit of dreams has played a big role in self-fulfillment and internal development and in many ways, an individual 's reactions to the perceived and real obstacles blocking the path to a dream define the very character of that person. This theme is evident in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, which is about the search for identity. A woman of a mixed ethnicity resides in several communities, each playing an important role and serve as crucial influences on her life. During the story, she endures two failed relationships and one good relationship, dealing with disappointment, death, the wrath of nature and life’s unpredictability.
Kevin claims that Dana is his wife; Rufus squeals and says, “Niggers can’t marry white people”, “It’s against the law” (Butler 60-61). The Deep South had banned interracial marriages until 1967. Although interracial marriage was unheard of, miscegenation was common but it “often led to complications in the South. Sometimes white men loved their black concubines more than they did their white wives” (Blassingame 84). Many of the white wives would file for divorce if this happened and they would also take out their anger on the black woman involved.
In his “’No.’ : The Narrative Theorizing of Embodied Agency in Octavia Butler’s Kindred,” Bast underscores humanity’s desire for agency, one’s “ability to reach decision[s] about themselves and [express them]” and how one’s agency can benefit a society or a community (Bast 151). In the beginning of his article, Bast labels this decision-making and expression as beneficial and necessary for a community, while simultaneously underlining society’s limitations put on mankind’s freedoms such as discrimination, prejudice, or injustice. Nevertheless, he follows up by stating that it is simply human instinct to want to express thoughts even if other factors oppress them, undermining these social limitations.
Harming not only slaves but free blacks as well in the novel, when Dana is transported back to the moment right after Rufus rapes Alice: Dana attempts to express how she felt about Alice’s right to refuse Rufus sexual advances and he replied, sarcastically saying “‘She must have thought she was a free woman or something”. In the novel, shows the oppression of black women. Dana asks Rufus: “‘...your father whips black people?’” and he replies “‘when they need it’” (Butler 26).
In any novel there is multiple parts that make up and define how the novel will go, such as if the character will be good. There is always a storyline to follow and from that storyline there are many different themes that give the novel character. In the novel Kindred by Octavian Butler there are multiple themes laced into the text that make the novel what it is. For example, throughout the story there is a huge underlying theme that involves Rufus Weylin, a main character of the novel and how the environment shapes him into the man he is at the end of the novel. Kindred starts off with Dana, a black woman, who by some mysterious means is sent back in time, to the days where her ancestors were alive and enslaved by Tom Weylin, a southern plantation
Throughout the whole story, each member of the group was sure they knew what love was. However when trying to verbally describe it out loud, none of them could do so well enough to get across what they meant. Mel tried using two different examples but neither explanation ever went anywhere. Terri was sure she knew what love was based on an abusive relationship, showing the reader that her idea or perception of love is warped. Nick and Laura both just knew they loved each other but only being together for eighteen months they were still in their honeymoon phase with their blinders
This is why Rufus and Dana’s relationship has many intricacies throughout the
Kat and Patrick’s relationship, or lack
