This essay examines Octavia Butler's novel Kindred as a vehicle for understanding the experiences of African Americans during the nineteenth century. Through close analysis of the protagonist Dana's experiences, the paper argues that three interconnected factors—race, gender, and freedom—defined the lives of enslaved people and continue to shape American society today. While conditions have improved since slavery's legal abolition, the essay contends that systemic forms of oppression persist in modified forms, making Butler's work a powerful meditation on historical trauma and contemporary inequality.
Octavia Butler wanted to get her audience to feel what it was like to be an African American during the nineteenth century. Slavery was one of the most catastrophic events to occur during that time period, and she shows this through the novel Kindred. Although she makes a strong visual point in getting her audience to feel what it was like to be an African American in that era, one could not truly know the feeling. Although race, gender, and freedom affected African Americans during the nineteenth century, these aspects have changed but not by much, and those same factors are still in effect today.
During the nineteenth century, race played a major role in determining what an African American could and could not do. Rufus makes the following remarks: "Who're you? Asked Rufus. [Student]-Kevin Franklin. Does Dana belong to you now? In a way she's my wife. Wife? Rufus squealed. Niggers can't marry white people" (60). When people found out that Dana and Kevin were married, she was looked down on. Fact being, African Americans were not allowed to marry whites, but in the twentieth century things changed and it did not really matter that blacks and whites married.
Despite the fact that being a slave was tough for Dana, it was also an emotional toll for her husband Kevin. He basically had to watch his wife take on the role of a slave. For example, her having to answer to the Weylin's every demand made it difficult for him to witness, because in the nineteenth century white men owned African Americans. Slaves during that time had no voice or rights, so slave owners could do anything they wanted to a slave, which is why they were beaten, raped, or tortured. For instance, rape was perfectly normal back then. Dana says, "I was beginning to realize that he loved the woman—to her misfortune. There was no shame in raping a black woman, but there could be shame in loving one" (124). White men were not allowed to have an African American as a lover. Whereas, in the twentieth century blacks and whites were pretty much equals. So for Kevin being in a time period that was out of the norm for him, he had to get accustomed to not being Dana's lover but her owner.
Even though race played a major role during the nineteenth century, that was not the only thing that Octavia Butler wanted her audience to understand. Gender played a major role as well. She wanted her audience to feel what it was like for Dana as an African American woman at that time. The things she had to endure while she was away from home were not only physically straining but also emotionally straining.
For example, every time Dana went back in time something happened to her that frightened her half to death. Dana states: "...Weylin dragged me a few feet, then pushed me hard. I fell, knocked myself breathless. I never saw where the whip came from; never even saw the first blow coming. But it came—like a hot iron across my back....I thought Weylin meant to kill me. I thought I would die on the ground....by then I almost wanted to die. Anything to stop the pain...I saw Kevin blurred but still recognizable...and I passed out" (107). Dana tells how she got whipped for teaching Nigel how to read and write. In the nineteenth century, African Americans were not able to learn how to read or write. The reason being is that whites did not want any educated African Americans. For Dana, having to transition from a time where it was okay to be able to read and write was difficult for her, and she sure paid the price.
Although times are hard for Dana, she tends to play the slave well. Dana says: "I was careful. As the days passed, I got into the habit of being careful. I played the slave, minded my manners probably more than I had to because I was not sure what I could get away with. Not as much as it turned out" (91). Being a slave, there was not much freedom and the things you could do were limited. For today, both blacks and whites have the same amount of freedom. There are not any laws saying that whites are superior to blacks, but throughout the nineteenth century whites controlled what African Americans could do.
Freedom, or the lack thereof, played a significant role in the lives of enslaved people. Dana states: "He had already found the way to control me—by threatening others" (169). Even though Dana was used to her freedom in the twentieth century, this showed how little freedom she had in Rufus' household. As we can see, freedom played a big role for African Americans in that time period. There were slaves that wanted to be free but did not have the courage to run away because of what they feared would happen to them.
Dana states: "...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" (145). This was Dana's description of Sarah, who feared to leave where she was because of what would happen if she did. Some people just accepted slavery because it was their way of life and they had to deal with it.
"Contemporary labor conditions echo historical patterns of exploitation"
Octavia Butler got her audience to realize that just because slavery was technically over, how much of it still existed in present day time. The suffering African Americans had to undergo during that time period was no doubt wrong and harsh. For instance, having to be looked at as less than because of the color of your skin, or having to watch your kids be sold are some of the things that blacks in today's time will never fully understand. With that being said, Octavia Butler made a valid effort in wanting her audience to feel slavery, but the truth of the matter is that one will never truly understand or even be able to feel what life was like for African Americans throughout the nineteenth century.
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