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The Importance Of Friendship In Octavia Butler's Kindred

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Recommended: Stereotypes in history

Whether it is reality or books, there are always different types of relationships involved with the main characters. In the antebellum South, white people are taught to be dominant, leading to a feeling of superiority over black people. This leads to a stereotype of what types of relations you should have with those around you, though this leads to the white man doing what he wants and thinks is ok. Rufus is no exception to this matter, as he is raised in an environment with role models who exemplify this stereotype. In Octavia Butler’s Kindred, this environment leads to Rufus and Alice having a warped relationship because of their social standing, Rufus’ thoughts as he grows up with the conflicting views of a white man’s mentality, and Rufus’ action as he realizes the power he holds over Alice. During this time period, Rufus as a white male naturally has a higher social standing than Alice, who is a free black girl. Because of this, Rufus, as a boy, thinks that every person of …show more content…

As a child, he is taught to treat all other races as though they are beneath him, resulting in his expectation of being called master or mister by those around him on the slave farm. When he grows up, Rufus takes on the role of a slave owner and becomes unusually cruel to the one he claims to love. As a slave owner, he abuses the power to keep Alice in place and establishes a master-and-slave relationship, and destroys the childhood he had with her. When Rufus realizes that this is not enough to set her as a slave, he turns into his old man and resorts to threatening and manipulating her to control her. Their relationship goes from innocent childhood friends to master and slave just because of Rufus and his selfish

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He is starts to see that being respectable is worth more than be rich. When the play ends he is a man that redeemed himself by overcoming trials. He goes from being hot-blooded to being gentle and able to talk things out. He goes from being immature to being able to be the head of the house and ends up making decisions that benefit all of the Youngers. He changed because the only way he would have successfully made it through the events in the play was to fix himself as a

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Analyzing Character Development: Dana Octavia Butler’s novel, Kindred, provides a unique look into slavery in the antebellum South through the eyes of Edana Franklin, a black woman living in the late 20th century, who is suddenly sent through time to the early 19th century where she is suddenly faced with the task of protecting her ancestor, Rufus, from many dangers in order to ensure her existence in the present. Dana begins her adventure with no knowledge of how or why she has been given this responsibility and, as a result, must adapt to her new and unfamiliar surroundings. As the novel progresses, the reader sees Dana’s internal battle with herself as she decides whether or not Rufus is worth saving, or if she should let Rufus die

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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.

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(25-26) ” It’s clear that Rufus’s parents’ two opposite approaches to raising him are conflicting and damaging, resulting in Rufus getting the wrong message as to how he is allowed to behave. While Rufus’s mother gives him all he wants regardless of his poor behavior, his father on the other hand neglects him and resorts to violence to discipline him. The use of violence and sense of entitlement build up in him and worsen as he ages.

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The characters are very important in Octavia Butler’s science fiction short story “Bloodchild”. A character is a person presented on a dramatic or narrative work. When it comes to the story of “Bloodchild”, most people would agree that gender roles are reversed. This agreement may end, however, on the question of character in Butler. It is safe to say that understanding the characters, who they are and what they do, help explain the theme of gender roles.

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Speaker: Alice Walker writes in a first person point of view. The speaker is a single mother who “never had an education” (Walker 49). She is a minority, and accepts the lower status: “Who can even imagine me looking a strange white man in in the eye?” (48). The mother refuses to challenge the people society deem as better than her.

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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

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And Rufus was Rufus-erratic alternately generous and vicious. I could accept him as my ancestor, my younger brother, my friend, but not as my master, and not as my lover. He had understood that once” (260). Dana is distancing herself from being a slave doesn’t feel that she could ever be subjected to it like Alice was. She uses pronouns like “her” to describe a slave to show that she will be associated with one.

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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.

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One historical figure that influences me is Martin Luther King Jr. He was an African-American activist and a political leader. During the Segregation in 50’s and 60’s in USA, he stood up for black people’s rights. However, he did not defend their rights by violence, he did it by peace.

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However, as he grew up he became more associated with the harshness of slavery from his father who by no means was kind to the slaves. From witnessing these events Rufus would forever be changed. It would turn him into a man that would do what he believed to be wrong because he knew it was the only way it would work. When he got Alice to be with him romantically he tried to rape her and when that did not work, he used Dana to try and talk to Alice to get her to change her mind. When talking to Dana it became apparent that Rufus knew what he was doing was wrong, but he did not care because it was okay to do it

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In the novel, Kindred, by Octavia E. Butler, a lot of ignorance and intelligence is demonstrated all through the book which in a way is dangerous. Kindred is a wonderful work of science fiction that catches the attention of readers by telling a story of Dana, a modern-day African-American woman, who is abruptly transported from California in 1976 to the antebellum South. Not only is Dana abruptly transported back in time but she’s able to experience first-hand the cruelty of enslaved black women and men in the 1800s. The experiences of Dana and the enslaved women in the novel were viewed as mostly women working in households.

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Walter further shows his false pride when he flaunts his newfound sense of power when Mr.Lindner, one of the Younger’s soon-to-be neighbors, offers him an unjust deal. Now that Walter has control over the family 's money, he considers himself the head of the family and decision maker; this plays an important role towards how Walter treats others now that he holds himself to a higher standard. This theme applies to Walter when the chairman of the “welcoming committee” (115) named Mr.Lindner pays a visit to the family a couple weeks before they 're supposed to move into their new home in Clybourne Park. During this visit, Mr.Lindner makes the offer of the Clybourne Park community “buy[ing] the house from [them] at a financial gain to [the] family” (118). Mr.Lindner’s offer represents the racial oppression and how the white community looks down upon and doesn’t want African american people dirtying their communities.

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In The Book of Martha Octavia Butler places the reader in the middle of a conversation with God. There are only two characters in the story, and the theme is Martha’s annoyed tête-à-tête with God. Martha is given the option of saving the world. The rules of this arrangement are Martha can make one change and whatever the results, she must occupy the bottom stair. She must make a decision concerning the entire earth; nevertheless she must first overcome her fears and personal views of God.

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Dana and Rufus’s Relationship Ever wonder what it's like to have a changing relationship with a plantation owner's son back in the 1800’s? Dana Franklin is a younger African-American woman married to Kevin Franklin who is a middle-aged man. Dana travels from California in 1976 back to the early 1800’s whenever Rufus is in trouble. Rufus is a plantation owner son and is also the father of Dana’s ancestor. Dana’s travels are random; she gets lightheaded and dizzy when she is about to travel.

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