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Undoubtedly, slavery that thrived during the first several centuries of American history is a dark chapter, and abolishing it is celebrated as the true definition of liberty. However, how aware are we of life conditions African Americans were forced to experience? Do we understand why the modern generations protect their rights and value equality? One book written long after slavery ended reveals the hard truth about violence towards the enslaved. Kindred is a science fiction novel created in 1979 by Octavia E. Butler, an African-American female author. The book significantly impacted American literature due to the writer’s roots and the problems of slavery addressed in a detailed manner (Guo 553). This paper aims to analyze Kindred’s plot, discuss the issues raised by Bulter, and describe the book’s influence on American literature.
Kindred’s main character, Dana, was born and grew up in the United States long after abolishing slavery. However, under extraordinary circumstances, she went through the experience of being a servant on a Maryland plantation with ruthless masters. The novel’s plot takes place in two dimensions – Dana’s reality of 1976 and the period of the early 1800s, where she appears as a slave. After the two time-traveling occasions, the main character understands what was going on and involves her husband, Kevin, in the process. They lost each other in the 1800s dimension because Kevin was white and could leave the plantation. Each time she arrived at the 1800s dimension, she helped Rufus, the masters’ son, survive, and if a life threat appeared, the woman was thrown back to her reality.
Dana was kindred with the masters’ family and with one of the enslaved women, as their child named Hagar was the character’s grandmother. The plot is based on the relationship between the Weylin family and their slaves, showing how closely tied they were in various ways and how violently the latter were treated. The African American characters, Nigel, Sarah, Carrie, and Alice, experience unreasonable punishments, and their lives depend on the masters’ moods and desires. As a female slave, Dana faced mistreatment, harassment, and emotional abuse, for example, when she was beaten for not saving Mr. Weylin’s life during the heart attack (Butler 215). Life at the plantation changed her character, as she claimed that “pain had never been a friend to me before, but now it kept me still; it forced reality on me and kept me sane” (Butler 113). Detailed descriptions of these actions provided by Butler make a reader question how people could be so cruel to one another.
Alice, a slave from Maryland’s plantation, was a significant character of Kindred because her destiny reveals the most harmful sides of slavery. Rufus, the master’s son, was in love with Alice and allowed himself to treat the young woman as his property (Butler 70). Dana witnessed the moment when Rufus found out that Alice committed suicide: “I saw that someone was hanging there. Hanging by the neck. A woman. Alice” (Butler 248). The master’s son confessed that he wanted to punish his mistress by temporarily sending their children to Baltimore, however, she thought they were sold and killed herself. Butler adds even more hideous detail in those scenes by describing Rufus’s attempt to rape Dana shortly after Alice’s suicide.
The novel’s narrative portrays slavery in its most cruel demonstration via how black women were forced to lead their lives. They were continuously threatened, raped, and literally with no rights, served the masters, and did all the dirty work. Butler emphasized the severity of female slaves’ conditions because women tend to avoid mentioning those dark sides of slavery (Guo 556). The novel loudly resonated in society as the stories of female maltreatment were revealed, highlighting that enslaved women were raped and beaten primarily because of their gender (Guo 559). Dana is an African-American woman, and being in slavery was especially harmful because she knew what it meant to be free.
Butler disclosed how severely and violently African Americans were treated during the slavery period and reminded people why equality and diversity must be praised in modern society. The author witnessed the false historical knowledge in ways slavery was being described and taught (Behrent 798). Slavery was reflected by a free woman in Kindred, providing a foundation for a reader to draw their conclusions instead of relying on plain historical facts. Butler’s own African American roots make it her duty to clarify and emphasize the cruel treatment her ancestors had to survive at.
Kindred significantly influenced American literature of the late twentieth century by being the first fiction novel written by an African American female writer and raising the sensitive topic of racism and violence towards slaves. Butler witnessed the thriving period of the Civil Rights movement, which inspired her to craft strong stories that mercilessly addressed the issues society refused to remember (Behrent 802). Indeed, the novel pointed attention to history’s truthfulness, perception of home, and gender issues, making the further American fiction authors cover these topics.
In the twenty-first century, society praises diversity and equality in most institutions. However, the mistreatment of the minority groups still occurs, leading to the appearance of protest movements like Black Lives Matter. Although slavery was abolished more than two centuries ago and many generations have already lived as free people, the harmful experience must not be forgotten. Butler’s novel prevented the facts of violence toward female slaves from being buried in history’s backyard by creating the first-person experience of living in severe conditions.
Works Cited
Behrent, Megan. “The Personal is Historical: Slavery, Black Power, and Resistance in Octavia Butler’s “Kindred.”College Literature, vol. 46, no. 4, 2019, pp. 795-828. Web.
Butler, Octavia E. Kindred. Beacon Press, 2004.
Guo, Wenwen. “Semper Shame: Reading Octavia Butler’s Kindred and Fledgling.”Science Fiction Studies, vol. 46, no. 3, 2019, pp. 551-570. Web.
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