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Physical Experience In Kindred

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Close your eyes and imagine a time in your life that was unbearably painful. Feel the pain in you heart, clench your fists with anger and let out a sigh of relief that it is in the past. Now imagine being put back in that awful time; Reliving through the emotional struggles and you have no control of it. Luckily, time travel is impossible, but there is a lot curiosity that comes along with this concept. Throughout the book Kindred, the main character Dana experiences time travel and finds herself back in the time period where she was a slave. Dana struggles to understand why this is happening, and she begins to experiment with it. Throughout this novel, there is a shift between mental and physical abuse of slaves used to reveal …show more content…

Butler uses a serious tone while describing the physical abuse that enables the readers to “feel” the pain that was present in the text. Physical abuse is seen most often with the slaves, it was a form of punishment and a source of joy for their owners. During the story, when Dana was sent back in time, she was taken outside to be beaten: “I began to realize that I should have resisted, should have refused to let Fowler bring me out here where only other slaves could see what happened to me” (5.5.20). Dana was ashamed, she notes that she should “have resisted.” At this point, Dana is aware that this brutality is not tolerable and she did not want other to see her experience pain. She notes that she “began” to realize that she was making a mistake, which is when her tone switches from hesitation to pure …show more content…

One of the Weylin’s Slaves begins to reflect on one instance of abuse, she states that the owners: “Sent me to the field, had me beaten, made me spend nearly eight months sleeping on the floor of his mother's room, sold people… He's done plenty, but the worst of it was to other people. “(6.2.40). The slaves are unbelievably selfless, she states that she was abused but she thinks the worst part is what has been done to “other people.” The fact that she believes that she deserves the brutality and feels that others don't reflects her selflessness. Then, there was a huge shift in this novel. A shift of power, which was very unexpected. Dana stood up for her life, friends, and future when she: “I pulled the knife free of him somehow, raised it, and brought it down again into his back. (6.4.140)” Recall the character Rufus who was introduced earlier in this report. Rufus was a character that had power over the slaves. That was until Dana murders him. Dana displays dominance and she takes his power away. This twist was unbelievable since there is so much risk with it. Dana shows strength and her actions gives hope to the slaves. By killing Rufus, there is a large chance Dana will face harsh consequences, but at this moment, she is on

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Douglass uses paradox to demonstrate that slavery degragrates the slaverholder. When Douglass under Mr. Sever’s care he described that: “He was less cruel, less profane… He whipped, but seemed to take no pleasure in it. ”(Douglass 24). Most slaveholders are characterized to be cruel and inhuman because of the whipping and the way they treated the slaves.

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Octavia Butler uses the motif of “time travel” to convey the quick acceptance of slavery because when Dana travels back in time, she goes straight home and there is no time between the shift. Octavia Butler also uses Dana’s arm as a symbol to show that the past will “live” in her presence. During Dana’s final return to the past, she kills Rufus while his hand is still gripping on to hers and this causes her to lose her arm. When Dana returns back to her house, she describes her current situation, “I was back at home- in my own house, in my own time. But I was still caught somehow joined to the wall as though my arm were growing out of it- or growing onto it… my left arm had become part of the wall.

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Throughout the narrative, the author includes his personal stories about experiencing the violence of slavery first-hand. For example, on page 20, he writes about the first time he witnessed a slave, his own aunt, getting the whip. “The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest…I remember the first time I ever witnessed this horrible exhibition… It struck me with awful force. It was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery…” The author including his experience of his aunts whipping, in detail, appeals to the emotions of the reader.

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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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She becomes a witness to how a vulnerable little boy turns into a selfish, malevolent and cruel slave master. In every chapter of the novel, Dana has been transported to a certain period of time and observes significant changes in the behavior of Rufus, due to the influence of the environment. Therefore, Rufus is more of a product of Nurture, rather than Nature. His father, Tom Weylin, is influential in how Rufus

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Slavery was a long, slow process of dulling. Slaves had the constant fear of physical violence, the threat of losing the ones they love, and endured a life of always being treated as subhuman. One way that slavery dulled those in its grip was the constant fear of physical violence. Their masters could hurt or kill them at any moment and there’s nothing they could do. Dana explains how whippings were

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Situations are defined by choices. Small actions in one moment of time alter the future of what happens forever. In Kindred by Octavia Butler Dana, the main character, is a black women born in 1976, who time travels back to the early 1800’s in order to save her relative, Rufus, a white boy who is the son of the owner of the plantation. Along the way she also meets her other relative, Alice, a slave born free, but enslaved since she helped her husband run away. Alice is owned by Rufus, who is convinced that he is in love with her.

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Dana plays the role of the angel on Rufus’ shoulder by reminding him that even though the solution may seem subversive, he does not need to become a product of his environment, though easier said than done. Even when she explains to Rufus that in “history,” he will “find a white man named J. D. B. DeBow claimed that slavery is good because, among other things, it gives poor whites someone to look down on”(140). On account of this realization, she begins to understand that no matter what side they are on, history is objective “whether it offends you or not,”signifying that subjectivity is the root of history’s violent nature(140). Rufus, physically, mentally, and emotionally cannot face the weight history packs on top of Dana as a black woman years after slavery and vice versa for Dana to expect a difference from the son of a slave master who can do nothing but follow in his footsteps. By meeting Rufus at various points in his life as he grows up, she comprehends that to blame him directly would mean to erase all of the history before him and the way he was taught and deem his actions as his own fault when he follows the only way this point in history teaches

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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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The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass shows the imbalance of power between slaves and their masters. In his book, Douglass proves that slavery is a destructive force not only to the slaves, but also for the slaveholders. “Poison of the irresponsible power” that masters have upon their slaves that are dehumanizing and shameless, have changed the masters themselves and their morality(Douglass 39). This amount of power and control in contact with one man breaks the kindest heart and the purest thoughts turning the person evil and corrupt. Douglass uses flashbacks that illustrate the emotions that declare the negative effects of slavery.

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Kindred Analytical Essay Question:Critically analyze the environment surrounding Rufus. How does his environment shape him? Positively? Negatively? Both?

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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).

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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

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She makes choices that affect her relationships and that could get her in trouble, but she always does what is best. Author Tayari Jones explains in an interview with Erika Dreifus, "I never want to write a story where the moral choices are easy," (5). Her statement allows readers to realize that Dana as a character had to make difficult choices. Her choice to talk to Chaurisse at the science fair almost got her in trouble, but it just added to the anger she held deep inside of her for her father. Dana is a character that was influenced greatly by being a secret to

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PAGE 2 In the Narrative Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass, he uses this text to explain his purpose in “throwing light on the American slave system”, or show it for what it really is, as well as show his position on how he strongly believes slavery is an issue that needs to be addressed and how it differs from those who defended slavery, with experiences from his own life to support his argument. Douglass uses experience from his early days as a young slave to throw light on the aspect of physical abuse. According to his narrative, Douglass states, “Master, however, was not a humane slaveholder.

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