“Kindred” by Octavia E. Butler Literature Analysis Essay (Book Review)

The issue of racial inequality and prejudices has been one of the most bothering and important problems of the modern world for centuries. It has touched millions of destinies of people with different backgrounds and of various races and cultures. Over time most of the prejudices and judgments towards the people of color have been eliminated, yet this issue still remains a question of high importance today.

The novel called “Kindred” written by Octavia E. Butler in 1979 touches the problem of racial discrimination and brings out its most awful sides. The author of the novel intended to show the contrast between the past of the relationships between the races and their modern status. Octavia E. Butler’s skilful writing is focused on the horrible history of slavery on the territory of the United States, it shows the scary experiences that African-Americans bad been put through daily in the past through the eyes of an African-American woman living in the 70’s.

The contemporary readers of “Kindred” get to see much more perspective of this issue than the ones of 1979 because some significant changes happened in the world’s and the American society in aspects related to the attitude towards races and backgrounds of people since that time.

Octavia E. Butler grew up during the frustrating times of racial discrimination in a racially-mixed society in Pasadena, California. She first showed her interest towards science-fiction writing at the age of twelve years. “Kindred” is based on a fictional story, yet the novel cannot be called science-fiction as it lacks scientific explanations of the reasons of the mysterious events happening to the main characters that are necessary in science-fiction.

Octavia E. Butler employs the elements of fiction in order to create a conflict that would not be possible under normal circumstances. The main character of the novel, named Dana, is being pulled to the past and visits the beginning of 1900s. She gets to observe and participate in the life of slaves and their owners and discovers that some of the people she interacts with, both slaves and slave owners, are her ancestors. “Kindred” leaves its readers with the most striking and shocking experience of witnessing the painful and merciless realities of slavery. The author spent a lot of effort researching the history of that time in order to make her descriptions very precise and detailed so that they have the strongest effect on the reader.

The time travel leaves the main characters physically and emotionally injured. Dana states that “there isn’t any safe way to almost kill yourself” (Butler, 1). The dramatic events happening to Dana and her white husband Kevin serve artistic and educational purposes for the readers of “Kindred”. Surprisingly, the characters are not trying to change or influence the past, like the main heroes of many other time travel novels do (Walton, par. 4).

Putting her characters through sufferings and tortures Octavia E. Butler vividly demonstrates the contrast between the two epochs. While in the Antebellum South African-Americans are treated as property of white people, insulted, abused and hurt daily, in the 1970s the two races can marry each other and pursue various careers, but there are still strong prejudices against the inter-racial unions and Kevin’s family does not approve of his choice of a spouse.

The contemporary readers live in times with more tolerance, more freedom and better understanding and appreciation of racial equality, this is why they get to see that the modern society is still going through its stages of development and to notice its progress. To my mind, as the time passes the novel “Kindred” by Octavia E. Butler does not lose its value and importance, but obtains new perspectives and levels.

Works Cited

Butler, Octavia E. Kindred . London: Hachette, 2014. Print.

Walton, Jo. Time Travel and Slavery: Octavia Butler’s Kindred . 2009. Web.

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Octavia Butler’s Kindred: Essay Example

Kindred essay: introduction, kindred essay: analysis of the novel, kindred essay: conclusion, works cited.

“Kindred” is a novel written by Octavia Butler, American writer who created an extraordinary combination of science fiction events and the issue of slavery. The book was published in 1979 and became popular in no time because it discusses the problems that are on the front burner even today. It reveals the story of a black woman who becomes a slave and suffers from the white men’s authority. “Kindred” occurs to be a skillfully organized mixture of the main issues that people face on personal and social levels and reveals the connection between the kindred and survival.

Realizing that the novel is not a short piece of writing where every event is in the center of attention, Butler divided her text into chapters. The book starts with the epilogue, which is used to involve the readers in the imaginary world and acquaint them with it and its inhabitants. It makes the further reading more simplified, as the background is already known and one can concentrate on the problems that are described.

The author made each chapter connected with new event, another time travel. In this way, she underlined that the attention is to be paid not to the whole story as a description of past, but to each episode separately. The scenes are like stages that resemble how a person can change with the course of time.

Dana, the main character, comes to save an innocent child but sees him growing up and turning into a monster. The book ends with an epilogue, which shows that the past has an immense influence on the present and future. Dana and her husband Kevin, are willing to prove that the people she spent time with really existed, and it encourages the readers to refer to their past, to examine their generation trees and bring to mind people to whom they owe their lives.

In her novel, the author skillfully intertwined past and present, underlying their interdependence and turning them into the framework of “Kindred” (Hua 391). As Dana comes to a new house, she starts a new life and seems to be reborn, not bounded by the previous problems and grievances. When she starts unpacking, Dana opens a kind of Pandora’s Box that is stored with her antecedents and turns out to be called to the past by her ancestor, Rufus, to save him. Each time he is in danger, Dana comes to help.

Even though she does not realize it from the very beginning, her life depends on his, and it cannot be changed, which is the true power of kindred: “no matter what I did, he would have to survive to father Hanger, or I could not exist” (Butler 29). In the climax of Kindred, Dana kills Rufus and gets back to the present. She closes the box as if it is an old photo album that revealed lots of memories. She dives into the past easily and unwillingly, but it takes lots of time and effort to resurface, which emphasizes that people do not control their birth and affiliation to the particular family but need to struggle when they want changes.

The author reveals different themes and issues in the novel, but the most vivid one is kindred, which goes through the whole text and can be seen in the title. “You and her. One woman. Two halves of a whole”, says Rufus about Dana and Alice (her ancestor), claiming that they are tightly connected. Of course, he does not know about their real relations but he feels the bondage between them, the one that comes with blood. The relationships between the spouses are also valuable.

As Dana starts to travel in time and faces problems in the past, the support that she receives from her husband becomes more significant. Trying to reassure her, Kevin says: “take it easy… Whatever happens, it’s not going to do you any good to panic yourself again”, he even gives her a promise to do everything possible to be near and help: “I’m going to do all I can to see that you never come here alone again” (Butler 17, 81).

Butler also pays the readers’ attention to the fact that it is not enough to create a new family to live a full life. When Dana was going to marry, she searched for her aunt and uncle’s approval. Unfortunately, they did not want to see her with a white man and make the woman frustrated. Still, she tried to gain their understanding. With the help of this scene, Butler wanted to show that all people wish to have family bondage and feel the support from their nearest and dearest.

Dana knew that her relatives would not be happy to see her with Kevin, but she tried to appeal to them. In this way, the author wanted the readers to evaluate their actions and realize that family is the most important thing (Jesser 42). Those issues connected with racial discrimination occurred to be more significant than Dana’s happiness to her relatives, and Butler does not want us to make the same mistake.

The novel attracts the readers’ attention to the problem of inequality, race, and gender discrimination. Still, even though the book is mainly focused on the adversity faced by Dana, it aims not just to make the readers understand her and those who are abused. Butler wants them to believe in themselves, in their powers and to understand that there are no problems that cannot be solved because having the courage and struggling people can survive and get out of a jam (Hua 393). In other words, not suffering but fighting for survival is to be considered when speaking about “Kindred.”

Speaking about the troubles faced by Dana, Butler also showed her will even though it was not underlined so much. Needless to say that the most obvious message that is sent by the author is the fact that racial discrimination and slavery not just made people suffer but ruined their lives. Dana was a happy woman before she was taken from her home and almost imprisoned by a white man, Tom Weylin, a cruel slave owner was violent to his slaves and even to his children. As a result, his son Rufus turns into the hard person too.

As Dana realizes that her time travels are connected with Rufus, she seems to lose the control over her life. Now when he is in danger, she has nothing to do but to be near. Being in the past, she becomes a slave, a person with no rights who have to obey the master or to receive punishment. Still, she is not going to give up easily. Dana realizes that “most of the people around Rufus know more about real violence than the screenwriters of today ever will” (Butler 48).

However, she tries to escape and to get home. This situation proves that she is not ready to accept the situation, in which she was put. Dana shows her courage because she does not leave her determination even though she is afraid of what might happen. She says that Sarah is “the house-nigger, the handkerchief-head, the female Uncle Tom – the frightened, powerless woman who had already lost all she could stand to lose, and who knew as little about freedom of the North as she knew about the hereafter” (Butler 145).

With these words, she shows her attitude towards people who are ready to yield to the circumstances. They are weak, dependent and not able to live their own lives. She does not want to become the same person and is constantly searching for some way out. Still, with the course of time, Dana loses her determination even though she continues waiting for some improvement.

Being in the center of the novel, Dana embodies all women who suffer because they do not have enough power. It turns out that she is also not strong enough to defeat herself in any situation, as she is severely beaten and thinks that it is time to stop escaping (West 74). In this scene, the author tries to appeal to the readers and make them consider what they would do in Dana’s place.

Is it better to become a part of the slave’s world or to create a new one, a community that will struggle until it wins? Butler wrote the novel from the first-person perspective, and this “I” makes the readers identify themselves with Dana. The character decides to use all the influence she has on Rufus and help those around her to escape the state when they are treated like property. Dana cannot give up because if she does, her ancestor may be killed and she will not be born.

By her example, all women are also encouraged to do everything they can to ensure that they and their families will be free from any adverse influence from the outside. Butler refers to the time travel to show the importance of the “Kindred” in terms of survival. She assumes that the actions of one person can have an immense influence on the life of a family, ethnicity and society in general.

The author shows that the will to survive can be adopted by others, and then together they will surely become strong enough to reach improvement (Asunder 17). Dana does not give up. She kills her master, kills the very source of problems and makes free not only herself but all people that lived with her under the same conditions. Butler says that Dana loses her hand in this fight, but, losing the hand, she gains freedom and life.

Of course, “Kindred” was written to influence the readers, change their attitudes towards their families and make them more persistent, courageous and fearless. Still, except for that, it also reveals several social issues. As a rule, science fiction is connected with some progress made by the population, but it reflects the horrors of slavery this time (West 72).

Butler wanted to educate her readers and to make them remember how their ancestors suffered when they were losing their humanity and learning how to survive (Hua 395). In Dana’s opinion, even cruel slave-owners were not terrible people. She understood that their actions were like that because the society accepted them: “[Tom Weylin] wasn’t a monster at all. Just an ordinary man who sometimes did the monstrous things his society said were legal and proper” (Butler 134).

It is a kind of warning that shows what will happen if people will not treat each other equally remembering that they all are a huge family. The author also underlines that it is very important for everyone to be free and independent. But she also shows that one is to take pains to have such opportunity, as independence means facing consequences of your actions.

It is seen that the author delivered lots of messages with the help of the novel, but it would not be possible if she did not use dynamic characters as the main ones. The readers perceive the world of “Kindred” from the Dana’s point of view. They sense the feeling of powerlessness and yielding circumstances when she occurs to be unable to keep herself in present. Dana appears as a rather courageous female, in the beginning, but being treated a slave, she loses her will and renovates it.

She comes to save the life and leaves ending it. Dana is in a constant action. She is traveling in time, and she moves towards her goals. Even in the epilogue, Dana is flying to Baltimore to continue her search. Rufus, who seems to be her opposition, also develops or maybe even degrades. At first, the readers see him as a victim, a child who is not able to fight for himself and needs protection.

With the course of time, he turns into a tyrant, a person who humiliates others and from whom the protection is required. Butler even provided the readers with a hint that showed that something bad is going to happen in future: “The boy already knew more about revenge than I did. What kind of man was he going to grow up into?” (Butler 25).

Dana realized that the bloodiness of the past would influence Rufus adversely. She came from a peaceful world and could not accept the violent one: “I could recall feeling relief at seeing the house, feeling that I had come home. And having to stop and correct myself, remind myself that I was in an alien, dangerous place” (Butler 190). Still, during even the time she spent in this world, Dana became affected by it, which can be seen in a scene when she kills Rufus.

Providing the readers with historical information and attracting them by science-fiction events, Butler shows them not only the rain and pain of life in slavery but also underlines the necessity to be strong-willed and encouraged the readers to fight for their well-being instead of enduring and accepting sufferings. “Kindred” reveals the importance of the family and the support that its members reveal to one another.

With the help of situations faced by her characters, Butler tries to make the relatives care about each other and put aside their dissidences based on the attitudes towards race and other background problems. She claims that social issues are extremely significant and have a great influence on the people’s lives, but there is nothing more vital than a family and peace in it.

Asunder, Terryn. Women, Community, and Power in Octavia Butler’s ‘Kindred’ . 2011. Web.

Butler, Octavia E. Kindred . Boston, MA: Beacon, 2006. Print.

C S’Thembile West. “The Competing Demands of Community Survival and Self-Preservation in Octavia Butler’s Kindred.” Femspec 7.2 (2006): 72-88. Print.

Hua, Linh. “Reproducing Time, Reproducing History: Love and Black Feminist Sentimentality in Octavia Butler’s Kindred.” African American Review 44.3 (2011): 391-407. Print.

Jesser, Nancy. “Blood, genes and gender in Octavia Butler’s Kindred and Dawn.” Extrapolation 43.1 (2002): 36-61. Print.

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Dana’s story is told in first person. How would the story change if it had been told in third person? Would its effect still be the same?

What is the significance of the chapter titles? Why do you think Butler chose to title them this way? What do they reveal about the novel’s message?

Consider the relationships between Dana/Rufus, Dana/Kevin, Rufus/Alice, Alice/Isaac, Nigel/Carrie, and Tom/Margaret. How does the novel depict love? How does it complicate or reinforce traditional depictions of love?

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by Octavia E. Butler

Kindred themes, the deleterious effects of slavery.

Slavery is an absolutely brutalizing system that affects whites and blacks alike. White slaveowners, as well as whites who wish they were slaveowners, have complete and arbitrary power. All good sentiments, rationality, and human sympathy are easily squelched. They are able to do practically anything they want to slaves or even free blacks, as slavery is defined by race. Slaves are beaten, raped, and tortured. They are punished for all offenses great, small, or even nonexistent. Their children can be sold, their marriages are invalid, and they have no rights or recourse to action. They work backbreaking, soulless tasks for their masters and have no autonomy. The slaves in this novel are clearly human beings, capable of pain, emotion, sorrow, and regret; however, they are treated like beasts. Slavery is demeaning and demoralizing in an inestimable way.

Dana appears to be more of an introvert when we meet her in the 20th century, and even when she travels back to the 19th century she initially seems to be aloof, desirous of keeping her distance from the other slaves and considering herself more of a spectator. As time goes on, though, she is further enmeshed in the community of slaves at the Weylin plantation and comes to see that they have formed a new definition of family. Slaves have no guarantees of remaining with their spouses or children, but they can form bonds with each other that provide sustenance and solace. Dana comes to acknowledge this, and opens herself up to this family.

The suffering of slave mothers is almost unfathomable. Women do not get to engage with the societally determined definition of motherhood as the apotheosis of womanhood because they are not considered to have power over their children. Like Sarah , they can see them sold away to other plantations for something as insignificant as new furniture. Alice kills herself because Rufus "jokes" with her that he has sold her children. Slave mothers must also watch as their children not only grow aware of their status as slaves, but also endure watching them be beaten, raped, insulted, worked like animals, and maybe even killed.

Past, Present, and History

When Dana begins her journeys she privileges the present and thinks an awareness of the historical past will allow her to be a distanced spectator and successfully navigate its treacherous terrain. As time goes on, though, she realizes that is almost wholly unprepared to be in the past and that she has to adjust her mannerisms, words, behavior, expectations, and more. Past and present will be interwoven and Dana will even lose part of her body to the past; the past marks the present indelibly and should not be looked on with nostalgia or superiority.

Home and Family

Both Dana and Kevin are surprised how they come to consider the Weylin plantation home, and how their own home in 1976 Altadena feels less like home after their journeys. Critic Ashraf H.A. Rushdy writes that Butler sees home as "more than a place" and as a "liminal site.” He sees that, for Dana, home is a place between Kevin and Rufus, present and past; for Kevin, it is where he communicates with Dana; for Rufus, it is ownership of property. Home is not to be found in writing, which Dana and Kevin initially think it might be–it is found in memory, in linking past and present and considering a new understanding of family and kindred.

While race is certainly the defining boundary of ‘slave’ and ‘free’, gender also plays a role in power dynamics in both the 19th and 20th centuries. White women like Margaret are second-class citizens and have nothing to do but be wives and mothers; their husbands have a public presence and can do what they want. Black women are doubly victimized: 20th century women like Dana still suffer from the patriarchy, while 19th century women can be indiscriminately raped and deprived of their role as mother and wife. Their rights are nonexistent by dint of their skin color and gender.

Power in this novel is defined in many ways. Tom and Rufus have power because they are white men and own property, not because they are educated, kind, or honorable. Black men and women do not have any official power in the 19th century (and are often oppressed in 1976 as well). Every relation is a power struggle in this novel, with characters doing their best to come out on top. Dana and Rufus in particular vie for power, with Dana occasionally besting him in subtle ways. She can even be said to win out in the end, as she kills Rufus and retains her sense of self. Other characters exercise power in more nebulous ways, from suicide to altering food to running away to refusing to love; the novel reveals that, while there are clear power hierarchies, there are also subtle and meaningful ways to resist.

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Kindred Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Kindred is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Why is Isaac fighting with Rufus?

Isaac is fighting with Rufus because Rufus was trying to seduce Alice.

How does she influence him and his attitude toward slavery?

Dana really has no influence on Rufus' attitude towards slavery. Though she meets him when he is a mere child, he still grows up to be a man who abuses and oppresses his slave, and rapes the women.

How long has it been in 1976?

The time span between the past and the present is approximately 150 years.

Study Guide for Kindred

Kindred is a novel by Octavia Butler. The Kindred study guide contains a biography of Octavia E. Butler, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

  • About Kindred
  • Kindred Summary
  • Character List

Essays for Kindred

Kindred is a book by Octavia Butler. Kindred literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Kindred.

  • Chronotopic Shaping and Reshaping in H.G. Wells' The Time Machine and Octavia E. Butler's Kindred
  • The Concept of "Home"
  • Cultural Trauma Narratives' Use of Supernatural Elements
  • The Many Forms of Home
  • Individuals that Transcend Time: Non-linear and Fantastical Narratives of Kindred and The Rag Doll Plagues

Lesson Plan for Kindred

  • About the Author
  • Study Objectives
  • Common Core Standards
  • Introduction to Kindred
  • Relationship to Other Books
  • Bringing in Technology
  • Notes to the Teacher
  • Related Links
  • Kindred Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for Kindred

  • Introduction
  • Main themes

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Kindred Essay Examples

Oppression, possession, and violence: analysis of kindred.

In the novel, Kindred by Octavia Butler, the perspective of the author was told through Dana, the protagonist of the novel. It initially started as she found herself in a dangerous situation where she needed to save a boy, named Rufus, which is in imminent...

The Harmful Effects of Trauma and Abuse in Octavia Butler's Kindred

Octavia Butler's writing about the Ante-bellum South in Kindred highlights the consequences of American slavery and the continuous racism and prejudice that still resides in modern-day America. Dana is exploited throughout the novel-- subtly by her husband, Kevin Franklin, and severely by her 'master' and...

The Merging of Times in Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

One of the longest and most pivotal transformations the United States has been through is the abolishing of slavery and Jim Crow laws. However, race and gender inequality still persist in many avenues of society ranging from the streets to the workplace. To showcase the...

Literary Analysis of the Novel Kindred by Octavia Butler

“Kindred” is a novel by Octavia Butler that includes aspects of the time-travel genre and is based on a slave narrative perspective. The book is written in the first-person perspective of an African-American woman, named Dana, who finds herself being transported between ‘present’ time Los...

The Issue of Race and Gender in Octavia Butler’s Kindred

While Kindred by Octavia E. Butler is primarily a novel exploring the slavery of blacks in the United States, it also takes a secondary theme of exploring the lives of women in general in the South during this time. The contrast between Dana and the...

Analysis of Dana’s Empathy Throughout the Novel Kindred

Empathy allows a person to place themselves in the shoes of another. Often, being in someone else’s shoes allows for an entirely different perspective. In Octavia Butler’s novel Kindred, the main character displays empathy that may be difficult for the reader to process. Butler’s purposeful...

Neo-slavery and Time-travel Genres Within Octavia Butler’s Kindred

When writing fiction novels; many authors of the last century tend to incorporate more than one genre, to explore different and intricate ways a message can be delivered. Octavia Butler's novel Kindred, has a multifaceted analysis of different genres which help her express the overall...

Estrangement and Cognition in Kindred by Octavia Butler

Can it be said that SF genre has only scientific probability? Most people are beginning to see SF as a movie, animation, or game. However, few people can clearly distinguish what exactly SF means. As people call it Science Fiction, they will guess that SF...

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About Kindred

June 1979, by Octavia E. Butler

Neo-slave narrative

The book is the first-person account of a young African-American woman writer, Dana, who finds herself being shunted in time between her Los Angeles, California home in 1976 and a pre-Civil War Maryland plantation.

Kindred looks at the practice of slavery in the American South from the perspective of a Black woman in the 1970s. Like many of Butler's other books, this one engages the reader with themes of race, power, gender, and class through the use of skillful storytelling.

Edana (Dana) Franklin, Rufus Weylin, Kevin Franklin, Tom Weylin, Alice Greenwood, Sarah, Margaret Weylin, Hagar Weylin, Luke, etc.

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