“Kindred” by Octavia Butler -Analysis Essay

There are various connections that can be make surrounded by the characters within the novel Kindred written by Octavia Butler. The mass of these connections relate to four of the course themes weve visited in past few weeks mental image consciousness, collective trauma, diaspora, and power relationships. The protagonist, Dana Franklin, traveled between the past and present and in her travels she met a variety of different people, including the enslaved African Americans and their White owners of the 19th century, as well as her ancestors, one in relegateicular is the ca wasting disease of her magazine travel. Alice Greenwood and Rufus Weylin both(prenominal) had a peculiar relationship with Dana, as well as with each opposite. The ties that Dana shared with Alice exemplified the themes of double consciousness and collective trauma, and the ties shared between Dana and Rufus demonstrated the themes of diaspora and power relationships.Alice and Dana had a sisterly relationship, as some of the other characters had commented, Sarah once told Dana after Alices passing, You and her was like sisters You sure fought like sisters, end littlely fussin at each other, stompin away from each other, comin back. Although a brief description, this is a really accurate summary of their relationship. Their double consciousness was first agnise when Rufus had pointed out that they were both one and the analogous, this meaning that they were cardinal halves of the same person. Not only did they look alike, but the line between their roles in the Weylin house back up were heavily blurred. Alice was the love interest of Rufus while she was a withstand, although her only use to him was to either internally abuse her or use her as his individualized punching bag. She had once told Dana that whenever shes around, the mental and physical abuse isnt as bad as it regularly is. On the other hand, Dana has an immense step of freedom in comparison to Alice, even to the other slaves. Due to the inarticulate set of rules that Dana and Rufus share, he doesnt try to pursue any sexual relationship with her until the end of the book. As Dana had once said, I could accept him as my ancestor, younger brother, friend, but not as my see, and not as my l everyplace.Alice is openlyspiteful towards Dana because of this, but it is also obvious that the reason why she eternally comes back to Dana is because, like a sibling, she is used as an outlet for her pain, fear, and hate, and learned that she could have done more(prenominal) to lesson Alices piteous, Dana allows puts her feelings aside and accepts the onslaught of abuse. twain of their relationships with Rufus also lead to their collective trauma as they are both abused by him, and, in different ways, he takes something from them that leave them unwhole. For Alice, he not only rips her freedom from out under her, but he also sells their children, which were the only reasons that she had stayed on the plan tation for so long. For Dana, he besides took her freedom and the power that she once held over him had vanished whole, but its practical that he is also the reason that she there was a short vex in the place of her arm.The relationship that was shared between Dana and Rufus was the most manifold relationship of them all. A list of unspoken rules shared between the two had been the foundation of their relationship, as they had both known that one could not live without the other, that if either one of them died, the other is just as good as dead as well. Ever since Dana had first saved Rufus from drowning in the river, she had try to in placid some morals into the young boy in hopes that he wouldnt be as corrupt as his father or the other slave owners, as she knew that that was what he would soon become. Although, with each eon that she returns to save the boys life, he grows older, and he becomes more jump on as well as stubborn, not as easily encourage into doing nice thin gs for the slaves, like setting most of them free, or not selling any of them as his father does. Eventually, the reigns of power are no longstanding held by Dana, and the influence of the 19th century has finally rubbed off on Rufus for the worse. No longer small and feeble, Rufus has Dana sent to work in the fields, has her whipped, hits her triplex times, and eventually held the barrel of a rifle to her head, though the line is completely crossed when Rufus tries to have sex with Dana, which she responds to with the thrust of a sharp steel in his side.Twice. The scale of power begins tipped towards Dana, then towards Rufus, then for some other brief moment back to Dana. Their relationship is also, in a way, diasporic, as Dana is constantly out ofplace in the 19th century passim the entire book. She brings back with her the knowledge of the future, though sparse, as well as new medicines, devices, and ideas, though because of her skin color she is seen as no more than either a smart nigger to the white folks and a white nigger to the blacks nothing more than a nigger. Even though she wasnt accepted by most of the other slaves and the whites who held power over her, Rufus, still needed her in many different ways and was very clingy at times, even as he gave his decision long and move reflexively sigh, he simply could not let go of Dana, both literally and physically, as his hand still grasped her arm in the afterlife.When Dana arrives from the past for the last time, she discovers -excruciatingly painfully- that her arm had somehow meshed and conjoined with the wall of her living room. The lease spot where Rufus had held her in his final moments marked the privation of her arm, from the elbow to the ends of the fingers, It is inscrutable whether or not Danas arm is left in the past, still held between the cold fingers of the dead, as Rufus frame was believed to be burned to ashes and never found, along with the Weylin estate. Danas graphic physica l loss shows what slavery genuinely is outside of popular novels, history books, and dramatized television where the actors practice the pain and suffering that their ancestors dealt with. The loss of her arm shows many different things, like how even though African Americans today have been removed from slavery over time, who they are today was planted and rooted in the past. Also, slaves had constantly suffered from both unrestrained and physical abuse at the hands of their owners, yet they were extremely unfree of their owners. Dana is subjected to horrific pain at the hand of Rufus, yet she still feels commiseration for him when he comes crawling back to her, as he is both her master and her kin-dred, so she alternates between despising him and feeling empathetic towards him. Lastly, Danas sever arm is a horrible loss, and it is meant to capture the horror of slavery. It is also significant that she suffers her injury because Rufus hangs on to her.Like Rufus holding onto D ana, the past has a hold on the present, the sacrifices of the past shape the present today. Dana loses an arm which is an important body part, especially for a writer, although she escapes with her life. The slaves of the past had sacrificed skin, bone, and sanity, yeta lot of them escaped, albeit scarred. Danas horrific injury makes all of the sacrifices slaves made painfully real in order to make lives better for generations to come. Part of her lies in the past, and so does part of todays generation. In conclusion, the strange relationships that Dana had formed with her ancestors, Alice and Rufus, had in some ways, led to the loss of her arm. Her entire existence was dependent on the two of them having her great gran Hagar, and although Alice may have survived without Danas influence, Rufus was definitely dependent on Dana as well. Octavia Butler had wanted readers to take with them the reality of how we are still deep rooted within slavery and it still has an affect on us tod ay, even though it had ended over 140 years ago. As Dana had witnessed first hand, slavery has never been a free occurrence, anyone who was apart of it in any way never came out of it as they once were to begin with they never escaped slavery whole again, but as less of the person than they were before.