Co-Development and Racial Conflict in “Kindred” by Butler

NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.

NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.

Table of Contents

Differences in Perception
Mental Losses
The Importance of Co-Development
References

Differences in Perception

The importance of co-development is based on the ways Dana, her husband, Kevin, and other characters of the novel interact with each other. In the beginning, Dana describes Kevin as a progressive man who firmly believes in the essential nature of equal rights (Butler, 2004). While their interracial marriage is met with some negative responses from both their families, Dana and Kevin are able to overcome these problems and live as a seemingly balanced couple.

However, during the course of the novel, the characters’ experiences and Dana’s stories about their past reveal a different side of Kevin and make the distinction between their perceptions more visible. The lack of details about Kevin at the beginning of the novel is contrasted with an in-depth analysis of his personality that both the audience and Dana have to perform. According to Brown (n.d.), Kevin can be classified as a man born into privilege. Dana, on the other hand, is “born into struggle” – her gender and ethnicity influence her opportunities and experiences (Brown, n.d., para. 11).

Mental Losses

Dana, being a Black woman, perceives the situation on the plantation to which she travels differently from her husband. Her interactions with white people owning the farm show that she has no authority over anything, even though she does not “belong” to these particular slave owners. She experiences racism and violence similar, if not identical, to that of the local slaves. On the other hand, Kevin, upon arriving at the farm, is treated as a guest and as a person with freedoms, desires, and opinions. He is allowed to read, write, speak, and express emotions.

Dana is not given these basic rights. Instead, she is persecuted for “[trying] to act so whitely” (Butler, 2004, p. 165). Therefore, the characters’ experiences vary significantly, making their impression of the place differ from each other. While Dana remains aware of the cruelty and injustice that is inherent to the period, Kevin begins thinking that the plantation life is not that bad. His willingness to ignore the obvious – Black people are not treated as people – shows his privilege.

In the novel, Dana’s time-traveling allows her to perceive the history of racism in America not just through books and remnants of old behaviors but through direct presence in the time period. As she and her husband travel from 1976 to 1815, they relive the experiences of their ancestors, bound in the notions of control, fear, and authority (Butler, 2004). Notably, Butler (2004) uses these years to show the differences between her contemporary time period and antebellum American South.

However, she also uses time travel to explain how mental pressure and fear can affect one’s ability to adapt to new surroundings or retain old habits. After living in the 1800s, both Dana and Kevin change as people. Kevin forgets how to use modern appliances and develops some controlling attitudes and anger management issues (Butler, 2004). Dana’s mental health suffers much more, as she learns to accept being powerless. The lack of control over one’s body is an issue expressed by many Black women to this day (Katwiwa, 2017).

The pressure that Dana experiences during her travels break her spirit as she unlearns her independence and sense of freedom. When she is transported to her house, Dana no longer feels at home and realizes how much she wants to go back to the plantation, although she despises it (Butler, 2004). The strength of group thinking and environmental influence cause her mental distress and almost turn her from a happy, free woman into a scared and powerless slave (Tweedy, 2017).

The Importance of Co-Development

In the last effort to free herself from the past, she kills Rufus, her abuser and the person for whom she cared for the last year of her life. However, she loses an arm as a result. The physical and emotional sacrifices that Dana goes through show how significant the impact from her travels truly is. The underlying reason for these losses is institutionalized racism that turned unassuming children such as Rufus into slave owners and made Black people fear education because it made them appear white (Butler, 2004).

This ability of historical events to create a status quo and affect people’s opinion on some ideas is why co-development should be an essential part of thinking about race. The necessity to realize that different paths can be changed to lead to one objective is crucial in fighting discrimination that is deeply rooted in people’s history. One group of people can initiate change, but it cannot change the world’s structures without changing people’s minds (McDonald, 2017).

It takes individuals with different backgrounds to realize their opportunities and using their existing roles to institutionalize a new and improved idea. Similarly, in the book, Dana was the only person who tried to change the system in the beginning by attempting to raise Rufus to be a good man. However, as her attempts got overshadowed by the system, Rufus’s fate was sealed to follow the steps of his father. Dana was no more than a human and a single person, whose efforts were limited by time, race, and gender (Ikem, 2018).