Slavery Exposed In Kindred By Octavia E. Butler

The novel Kindred, written by the talented-multiple award winning Octavia E. Butler, is a science fiction-slave narrative that tells the tale of an African American woman who travels back through time and endures the heinous abuse slaves faced daily during the early nineteenth century. Octavia E. Butler was able to address numerous concepts and ideas regarding the reality of slavery throughout her novel. The bestseller, Kindred, follows the main character, Dana, through a series of involuntary time-travel to an era of slavery and the repercussions of being stranded powerless in an abusive environment. Octavia E. Butler does an excellent job at addressing the misleading, and often times deceptive views and beliefs that are used to depict the

Butler was able to confront countless ideas through her novel; the most recognizable belief Butler addressed was the reality of the physical abuse African Americans encountered from the hands of the Caucasian majority. This idea of abuse is boldly shown countless times throughout the novel. For example, in the second chapter of Kindred readers’ are introduced to the violence of the time period through the whipping of a slave. The runaway slave is physically forced out of his girlfriend’s home and tied to a tree before being viciously whipped several times. The slave’s endurance is slowly broken as he begins to, “moan - low gut-wrenching sounds torn from him against his will….he began to scream”. Even more brutally described is the physical state of the suffering slave; “I could literally smell his sweat, hear every ragged breath, every cry, every cut of the whip. I could see his body jerking, convulsing, straining against the rope as his screaming went on and on…” (Butler 33-36). Readers’ will have an imagine of agony and torture produced simply by the words used to accurately describe the whipping of a African American runaway slave, and eventually the sexual assault of Dana, the main

Butler courageously confronted numerous concepts regarding slavery in her novel, Kindred; Butler was bold in exploring the reality of slavery and it’s connection to sexual assault. The idea of a slave being sexually abused by their master is a common well-known factor of living in the early nineteenth century. Butler does a fantastic job at describing the mindsets and beliefs regarding the rape of a slave. For instance, Dana, who travels back to present-day time when she feels her life is in immediate danger, travels back home after a patroller tries to rape her after mistaking her for another African American woman. The patroller feels no remorse or guilt for the actions he performed; he, like the majority of his white society, believe that there is nothing wrong with his actions (Butler 41-43). In fact, later in the novel, a caucasian man forcing himself on an African American woman is excused by the belief that, “...there was no shame in raping a black woman, but there could be shame in loving one…” (Butler 124). Octavia E. Butler does an outranking performance in not shying away from the reality of the sexual assault slaves faced daily; she shines major light upon a topic that is still ignored and depressed in today’s