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"Past" Alive or "Progressive" Dana? Who Would YOU Be? An Analysis of Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

Biography

Octavia Estelle Butler, born in 1947, was an American science fiction writer. She was born in Pasadena California and raised on a farm by her widowed mother and grandmother. During an interview, Butler stated that she got her idea of being a science fiction author when she was nine years old watching the movie, Devil Girl from Mars, two thoughts came to mind:

“Geez, I can write a better story than that!”

and

“Somebody got paid for writing that story!?”

This is where her writing career began. At nine years old, not only did she believe that she could write a better story, writing was where she was able to feel most at ease. Butler was the shy ‘weird girl’ in the neighborhood, so for her, the only place where she would feel “normal” was when she could write. Butler graduated from Pasadena City College in, with an associates of arts degree. During her time at Pasadena City College, she attended creative writing courses, in these courses she saw that she was the only black woman in the group. And as she got older, she thought:

“When I began writing science fiction when I began reading, heck, I wasn’t in any of this stuff I read. The only black people you found were occasional characters or characters who were so feeble-witted that they couldn’t manage anything, anyway. I wrote myself in, since I’m me and I’m here and I’m writing.”

Even with higher education and her passion still strong, her road to success was slow and difficult. Rejection after rejection followed her. In order to just survive she needed low-paying side jobs as a dishwasher, telemarketer, and potato chip inspector just to keep herself afloat.

Butler achieved critical success in the 1980s earning the Hugo Awards, Nebula Awards, a Locus Award, and many more awards to come. Soon enough, with the publication of Kindred, her career exploded and it became the landmark of her career. From then on she was able to live off of her books. Her success grew and could’ve been even greater, but she suddenly died on February 24, 2006.

Despite her death, Butler had created an impact on the writing world for the sake of her community: by showing the injustices of African Americans, women’s rights, corruption in politics, and climate change.

Summary of the Novel

Kindred, written by Octavia E Butler and published in June 1979, is about Dana Franklin, a struggling contemporary writer being hurled back in time into 1800s Maryland, in a plantation facing the realities of slavery and prejudice. Readers follow Danas’ journey as she faces the impending goal of keeping her family lineage alive by protecting & saving Rufus Weylin, the son of Tom Weylin, the plantation owner. She must see the union of Rufus Weylin and Alice Greenwood in order to produce Hagar, her next direct descendant. This is not easy, as Alice is a slave who despises Rufus and Rufus is too controlling & obsesses over her. Dana goes back in time seven times, with each time revolving around new findings of the past & new obstacles to overcome. In the end, however, once Alice has passed via suicide, Rufus mourns his loss and in that loss tries to rape Dana. But Dana gives no second chances and kills Rufus. As she appears back in her own time her arm is stuck in the wall, seemingly from Rufus clutching onto her left arm. This in turn becomes a full-circle novel relating to the prologue. In the end, Dana is safe in her own time but will forever be changed by her experience.

Analysis

The novel is mostly unconventional since Dana is a black American woman traveling in the 1800s Maryland when more sci fi novels revolve around a white man traveling to the future. This is important to mention, as it is crucial to how the book perceives a black woman.

To further explain I will focus on two characters: Dana and Alice; Dana as you know, is the protagonist of the novel who lives in the 20th century and Alice is a black woman living in the 1800s who later on becomes a slave in the Weylin plantation. By how these black women are perceived in the novel, I am interested in how Butler depicts the themes of isolation as a type of loneliness that pervades these women’s lives. Both women endure loneliness with these three topics: 1. Uncontrollability, 2. Lack of Privilege and 3. Pain & Punishment, but the topics are very different towards them and both react to them differently.

Alice Greenwood:

Alice is an ancestor of Dana, making her position a crucial role for Danas end goal: keeping her family tree alive. Dana needs her to produce Hagar, Danas next direct ancestor, to keep her family tree alive. However in order for Hagar to be born, Alice must be impregnated by Rufus, the next slave owner right after his father Tom Weylin.

1. Uncontrollability

Rufus and Alice were childhood friends and they did get along, but as they grew up Alice resents Rufus meanwhile marrying her husband Isaac Jackson. However, the childhood friendship for Rufus turns into a toxic obsessive-possessive one sides love, as seen in the chapter “The Fight” where it is implied that Rufus has raped Alice. Because of his position of power along with the systemic social norms in her time period, Alice has 0 to little control whatsoever in their relationship. For one, there is no police to back her up and support Alice, such police did not exist. And if there was a type of law enforcers in her society, it would be the sheriffs and white patrollers, who definitely would not take her side because in her world, she is considered property.

Alice's lack of control is more apparent when Dana is sent to Alice: “‘Rufus sent me to talk to you’... ‘He wants you tonight.’ [Alice’s] expression hardened… ‘Well! What did he send you for them?’ [Alice asks]. ‘To talk to you into going to him quietly, and to tell you you’d be whipped this time if you resist’” (Butler 166). For context, Dana is sent to Alice via Rufus to tell her that he wants to have sex with her and if she refuses, she will be whipped. In the position of Alice, her options are extremely limited and is understandably frustrated. She knows her role as a slave, but the most saddening part of it, is the fact that she was born a free woman, but was yet sold into Rufus’s possession. No one, from as far as the novel tells us, is experiencing this amount of stress, frustration and pain Alice is experiencing, not even Dana. Alice is the only thing Rufus sees as a sexual and romantic object. Therefore, Alice endures this completely alone with no one to really understand and comfort her.

2. Lack of Privilege

Does privilege exist without a white man? An example of how Kindred portrays isolation through Alice is by the next topic: Lack of Privilege. Alice is a black woman, with little to no rights at all. And she is also a slave, which means no rights whatsoever: you are only seen as property of your owner. However, Alice was actually not born a slave, she was a free woman. So then, why is she a slave? Shouldn’t she have her rights due to being a free woman? One scenario in the novel is when Dana has healed Alice’s wounds since Alice had been punished for helping Isaac escape. Helping free slaves is often resulting in a fine and six months imprisonment by The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793. But this only applies to white people, as black slaves were seen as property. And although Alice was born a free slave, she is a black woman who lives in the South. Back in the 1800s free slaves had a tougher time being part of society as they were ostracized or targets, especially in the south.

Therefore, becoming a slave was nothing more than normal. She isnt a white man like Kevin, Weylin or Rufus. She faces the repercussions of being a free black woman who tried to help her enslaved husband escape which leads to her becoming one herself. And although she does not give up on being free, like most slaves in the novel, taking away what little privilege she had is something she goes through alone. Knowing that this is her reality: she was once a free woman now turned into a sex slave. No one else encounters this reality in the novel thereby isolating Alice emotionally and mentally.

3. Pain & Punishment

Slavery is dealt with this main ideal: A slave is property and you can do whatever you want with your property, either benevolence to malicious intent. To a slave: if you did something that your master sees as wrong, you get punished by whipping, attacked by dogs or worse; you never know what would happen. Slaves were always on guard and feared the consequences of their masters decisions.In this case, Alice faces the decisions Rufus makes because of her. As previously stated Alice becomes a sex slave for Rufus and from this she gives birth to four children, with two dying. Now, focusing on the children's death, Alice was unable to say anything when Rufus decided to get a doctor and do anything they could to save them. The doctor of course, does not help at all, his solution was to essentially bled out the children. This is more of an emotional pain than physical, as Alice is even more powerless than she could have felt before. Another example of pain and punishment is in the chapter The Rope, where Alice tries to escape and as a punishment, Rufus tells her that she had sold her children. This is her breaking point, she essentially gives up on her hopes to be free and kills herself by hanging. It is established that she only has contempt for their relationship, however the rest of the slaves do not like her because they believe she enjoys her time with Rufus. So with little to no support from her community, the grief and pain from her punishment by Rufus’s decisions ultimately leads her to suicide. In a sense this literally isolated Alice: comfort isn't there when she needs it the most, lack of support from her community which results into the most isolating thing a human can experience: death.

Dana Franklin:

Time traveling is not as easy as you think. When Dana is suddenly back in time, she doesnt know nor understand why at first but as the novel continues onwards, we can count that she travels back in time at least seven times.

1. Uncontrollability

Danas' first time going to the past and back to her home reaction is as follows: “I lowered my head and closed my eyes for a moment. I was shaking with fear, with residual terror that took all the strength out of me. I folded forward, hugging myself, trying to be still. The threat was gone, but it was all I could do to keep my teeth from chattering” (Butler 15). She is at first afraid and confused. Kevin tries to console her, but this is something she goes through alone, being comforted by Kevin does not help. And as her uncontrollability continues, the second time she is transported back in time to Rufus, who is a young boy and about to set his bedroom curtains on fire. And in this chapter (The Fire) she learns that Rufus DOES get affected by Danas time traveling, but that does not include time travel. Instead, Rufus catches glimpses of Dana BEFORE she gets thrown into his time. So even then, the one person who seems to be the only person in the entire world that can understand Danas experiences, Rufus STILL isn't able to fully comprehend her power. Unable to control her time travel can be seen as a curse, and she is utterly alone to endure this burden.

2. Lack of Privilege

Privilege is nonexistent for a minority woman, the next topic to explain Danas isolation is: Lack of Privilege. Dana is uncontrollably thrown back in time yes, but the time period she is repeatedly going back to is extremely important: 1800s Maryland. In American history, slavery did not end until 1865 so, as a darkskin black woman, her ‘privilege’ is nonexistent. This is shown apparent in “the fire” chapter, where she is almost raped by a white patroller because Dana looked almost identical to Alice’s mother. With his view on looking at a black person as ‘property’ and a woman used as a ‘sex object’ utterly defines her hierarchy in society.

But being a black woman contributing to her lack of privilege doesn’t stop there. One of the main properties Dana is, is that she is from the present, 1800s ‘future’ to be clear. This should be an advantage for her right? Technically yes and no. She does provide aid for Rufus when he's injured by giving him aspirin, however her intellect is a disadvantage. Dana talks to Weylin about Rufus’s education: “‘How’d you like to be the one to do the teaching?’ [Weylin asks]. ‘Me?’ I managed to frown… managed not to laugh aloud with relief. Tom Weylin wanted to buy me. In spite of all his warning to Kevin of the dangers of owning educated, Northern-born slaves, he wanted to buy me..”. This makes her intellect a liability rather than an advantage. Weylin is threatened by her intellect, yes, but her knowledge makes her look more profitable as he clearly wants Dana to be his property, under his control. He could’ve easily stolen Dana away. But this isn't the main premise of his overall opinion on Dana and her intellect. In fact, Weylin allows Dana to read to Rufus but when Dana gets caught attempting to burn a spelling test for Nigel, she gets rewarded with a whipping. This further emphasizes the target on Dana’s back, as Weylin believes that educated slaves are ‘nothing but trouble’, because they are a threat to his power. Therefore, Dana being a black woman with future intelligence contributes to her lack of privilege via the norms of 1800s society and being seen as a threat. This literally isolates her from the rest as a target with no help from her peers.

3. Pain & Punishment

Finally, Dana experiences isolation through the third topic: Pain & Punishment. To begin, a major difference between Alice and Dana is that Dana plays the role of a slave whereas Alice IS an actual slave. And emphasizing this makes it all the more tragic, Dana does not deserve all the pain & punishment she endures. An example of pain & punishment she endures is after her last endeavor with Weylin. She gets whipped by him which makes her travel back into the present, without Kevin. This pains her, but the realization of Kevin being stuck in the past is nothing compared to the physical pain of being whipped. She essentially takes care of herself: taking a long bath, patching her wounds, and a bit of crying in silence. This is the physical example of isolation in the novel, Dana is now the only person in a house in which she cannot and does not make her home. She is actually all alone.

And after her final endeavor with time traveling, the loss of her arm represents the stain of the experience as it acts as a constant reminder of what she had been through. Not to mention, a possible remark on the 21st century, today.  To quote an extract from ``Between the world and me” by Ta-Nahisi Coates, “ In America, it is traditional to destroy the black body—it is heritage. Enslavement was not merely the antiseptic borrowing of labor—it is not so easy to get a human being to commit their body against its own elemental interest. And so enslavement must be casual wrath and random manglings, the gashing of heads and brains blown out over the river as the body seeks to escape”, it is either death or playing the role of a slave in Danas’ case throughout the novel, but what do you think happens when she’s back in her own time? Now disabled, her experience doesn’t change the fact that she is still a black woman living in a world pandering to white privilege. The loss of her arm becomes ‘traditional’, as her pain can represent the oppression of the black community: it still lives on even in the present, like a neverending reminder.

Black Community vs. Society

Epigraph: “Racism is built into the DNA of America. And as long as we turn a blind eye to the pain of those suffering under its oppression, we will never escape those origins.”

• Annealise Keating portrayed by actress Viola Davis in ABC’s “How to Get Away With Murder”

[WORK IN PROGRESS]

Further Reading Section:

Books by Butler:

Dawn (1987) Lilith Lyapo encounters a race called the Oankali, who is said to have lived over one hundred years ago intervening with humanity. She had been chosen to be saved by them, as she awakes from her long sleep being chosen again to lead her people back home.

Earthseed: The Complete Series (1993) A book series in a worldwide economic and global warming apocalypse. The main protagonist, Lauren Oya Olamina faces many dangerous situations throughout the series.

Fledgling (2005) Shori, a black vampire, tries to remember her past after waking up from a deep sleep shrouded in darkness with no memories.

Written works related to the black community vs. society concept

James Baldwin Debates William F. Buckley at Cambridge University’s Union Hall. Baldwin debates on the topic of whether or not the American dream is at the expense of the black community.

Between the World and Me: Letter To My Son by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Coates tells his son what it is like to be a black person living in the US.

TV shows to watch that can give you an insight into the black community:

How to Get Away With Murder. (Drama) Analise Keating, a criminal defense lawyer, hired 5 students from her law class to help her with cases. The Keating 5 get involved with criminal activities such as murder, and Keating continues to protect them from getting caught. The most relevant season to watch is season 4, where she takes her case to the supreme court based on defending an elderly black man for a crime he didn’t mean to do because of solitary confinement in prison, also known as the SHU.

POSE. (Drama) In 1980s New York City, we follow multiple POCs in the LGBTQ+ community battling oppression, disease, and internal struggles as they continue to express themselves in a ‘ballroom’ where all of them gather and show off their creativity in fashion or dance. Characters like Blanca, Angel, and Elektra Evangaleita (all black transgender women in the show as well as the actresses that portray them) inspire their LGBTQ+ community and make headway for them to progress in a time where they weren't allowed to.

When They See Us. (Drama) The true story of 5 teenage boys of color who get arrested for the attempted murder & rape of a white woman in Central Park. Viewers are exposed to each individual lives in prison due to the racism of our justice system.

Black-ish. (Sitcom) Dre and his family live in a classy neighborhood consisting of 4 kids and his wife, Rainbow. Dre begins to struggle & question if his family’s identity of being black has been forgotten because of their environment, and consistently tries to teach each member of his family about the honor of their culture and community.

Dear White People. (Comedy Drama) In an Ivy League School, viewers watch the daily lives of students of color and what they face: cultural bias, ignorance, and social injustice. A notable character, Samantha, uses a podcast platform to awaken the students at her school about these issues for progression.

KIPO and the Age of the WonderBeasts. (Cartoon) Kipo, a sheltered child, runs off to see the world full of dangerous creatures called mutants. After almost dying, she and a group of friends learn how to survive as they face challenge after challenge each day.

Abbott Elementary. (Mockumentary) Teachers in a Philidelphia public school struggle against a poor underfunded elementary as they continue to achieve their goal of inspiring their students to succeed. Notable characters like Janine and Jacob, strive for this goal the most.

Lovecraft Country. (Horror Fiction) Set in the 1950s, the character Atticus Black tries to find his missing father with his friend & family as they face prejudice from Jim Crow Laws and unexpectedly, alien-like creatures that harm/kill humans.

Living Single. (Sitcom) Six black neighbors, friends, and/or roomies are followed through their lives in 1990s Brooklyn Brownstone. Notable characters like Maxine and Khadijah are savvy career ladies making it in the world, Khadijah being the head of a magazine to put the spotlight on POC women, and Maxine being a passionate, strong-willed attorney at law.

Sources

Unknown Author, “The Author”, The Octavia E Butler Estate,

Unknown Author, “Octavia E. Butler: Telling My Stories”, The Huntington, April 8- August 7 2017,

Bates, Grigsby Karen, “Octavia Butler: Writing Herself Into The Story”, Code Switch, July 10 2017,

Baldwin, James, “James Baldwin Debates William F. Buckley at Cambridge University’s Union Hal”, Folger Shakespeare Library

Coates, Ta-Nehisi, “Between the World and Me: Letter To My Son”, The Atlantic, July 4 2015,