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Butler (1979) showed in her novel Kindred, that the times are getting harder to live in for Dana, the main character. The world itself can be a dark and scary place, but Dana feels this, “It was a bad night, I didn’t get much sleep. Nor was I to get much for six days and nights following (Butler, 1979, p. 207). Using this statement, the night time makes the situation harder to deal with and makes everyone fear the unknown. Why does the world feel so dark and numb to Dana? Since she goes back in 1976, the world believes that slavery is something that is okay to follow through with performing. The main character Dana is new to this adjustment and she feels like this is the end of the world, that nothing is going to get better from here. As life
Her since of safety and security, but most importantly her freedom. Dana’s knowledge of slavery was from books she read and things she has seen on the television, she has not had a personal experience. When she first when into 1976, it hit her how bad that the African Americans have life. This relates to how Sharon an African American women felt about slavery, which is “I had no concrete idea, until that very moment in the parking lot, what anguish she and other members of my family had suffered as slaves (Morgan and DeWolf, 2015, pg. 3). This statement compares to the feeling Dana has when she keeps going back into the past and getting treated like a slave. After Rufus father died, he treated Dana like she caused it so he sent her to work on the fields where she got whipped for not performing well (Butler, 1979, p. 21). Butler believes that if Dana fully understands how her ancestors are treated that she will do more to preserve
In this setting, the African Americans must struggle to get by in the world and to take care of their families. When Dana gets forced there she struggles to fit in because she is uses to living freely. The hardest time for her is when Kevin, her white husband, came back into this segregated world with her and this is not appropriate for them to be married. The reason this is the case is because in 1976 do not believe white and black are on the same levels, that blacks are lesser. Even in today’s time many couples still must face the same conflict. In an article, I read a man who has ancestors whose slave traders and a woman whose ancestors were slaves are struggling to understand each other’s point of view (Morgan and DeWolf, 2015). This shows that there is always going to be fear with racial segregation to a certain extent in all times.
Another major idea I think Butler tried to get the readers to focus on is that she wants Dana to try to adapt to her settings. In previous chapters, Dana started to slowly fit in and she felt like she would never go home even though she hoped to. Also, when her husband went back with her the first time they were just playing as if they lived in those roles. Even when they go back to what they use to be able to call home, Dana feels as if she is losing her place in her own time because the deep connections
How far would someone go to survive? All through life people go through various challenges, but when someone is facing death, how far would someone will they go to save oneself? Survival can mean many different things; such as making it through highschool without getting into trouble, fighting off a predator, or standing up for what is right to help others. In Kindred, Octavia Butler uses many different situations to show what survival means to her. For example, Dana, the main character, travels through time to save her ancestor Rufus thus experiencing times of near death predicaments. In Kindred, Octavia Butler uses the conflicts Dana experiences in her time travels to suggest the idea that people do things they wouldn’t normally
...eir lifehave felt and seen themselves as just that. That’s why as the author grew up in his southerncommunity, which use to in slave the Black’s “Separate Pasts” helps you see a different waywithout using the sense I violence but using words to promote change in one’s mind set. Hedescribed the tension between both communities very well. The way the book was writing in firstperson really helped readers see that these thoughts , and worries and compassion was really felttowards this situation that was going on at the time with different societies. The fact that theMcLaurin was a white person changed the views, that yeah he was considered a superior beingbut to him he saw it different he used words to try to change his peers views and traditionalways. McLaurin try to remove the concept of fear so that both communities could see them selfas people and as equal races.
The first novel, Kindred involves the main character Dana, a young black woman, travelling through time to explore the antebellum south in the 1800’s. The author uses this novel to reveal the horrific events and discrimination correlated with the slaves of the south at the time. Dana, who is a black woman of modern day, has both slave and white ancestry, and she develops a strong connection to her ancestor Rufus, who was a slave owner at the time. This connection to Rufus indirectly causes Dana to travel into the past where she helps many people suffering in the time period. Butler effectively uses this novel to portray the harshness of slavery in history, and the impa...
Segregation is the act of setting someone apart from other people mainly between the different racial groups without there being a good reason. The African American’s had different privileges than the white people had. They had to do many of their daily activities separated from the white people. In A Lesson Before Dying there were many examples of segregation including that the African American’s had a different courthouse, jail, church, movie theater, Catholic and public school, department stores, bank, dentist, and doctor than the white people. The African American’s stayed downtown and the white people remained uptown. The white people also had nicer and newer building and attractions than the African American’s did. They had newer books and learning tools compared to the African American’s that had books that were falling apart and missing pages and limited amount of supplies for their students. The African American’s were treated as if they were lesser than the white people and they had to hold doors and let them go ahead of them to show that they knew that they were not equal to them and did not have the same rights or privileges as they did just because of their race. In A Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass segregation is shown through both slavery and the free African American’s during this time. It showed that the African American’s were separated from the white people and not
Baldwin’s writing technique is simultaneously created by the thought of his two different worlds – reality and fiction. By converting his reality of life and present issues in America and translating it into a story, he introduces abroad point of view to the audience. In both of these short stories, he introduces two different stories with several different characters who both inhabit a common realistic theme, oppression, which serves as a major important role in all of their lives. Jesse was oppressed by his sexual identity, while Sonny’s brother was oppressed by the responsibility of taking care of his younger brother. It is even possible to claim that the antagonists’ of the story are oppressed as well. It could be claimed that Jesse’s wife was also an oppressed character. Though the story doesn’t reveal much about Jesse’s wife, it could be assumed that she suffered from oppression because Jesse could not please her sexually. She could be suffering from mental pressure or distress, a solid form of oppression, because she may feel she is the reason as to why Jesse cannot sexually perform correctly. The many thoughts that could run through a woman’s mind when her partner can no longer make love to her is free to roam throughout the story since Baldwin left her character unrevealed. It could also be claimed that Sonny was
The slave mentality is a reoccurring theme throughout this text. I find that Alexander may not even realize that she has done so but the brief explanation in the beginning about why the Blacks were the most ideal candidates for slavery actually helps the reader explain the Black exploitation that is illustrated throughout the rest of the book. Alexander goes from discussing slavery, post slavery, Jim Crow, lack of economic gain, the War on Drugs, labeling, blaxploitation in the modern day, the successful celebrity outliers (Oprah and Barack Obama), and the silence we have seen amongst the once vocal civil rights activists. I realized...
The book follows Dana who is thrown back in time to live in a plantation during the height of slavery. The story in part explores slavery through the eye of an observer. Dana and even Kevin may have been living in the past, but they were not active members. Initially, they were just strangers who seemed to have just landed in to an ongoing play. As Dana puts it, they "were observers watching a show. We were watching history happen around us. And we were actors." (Page 98). The author creates a scenario where a woman from modern times finds herself thrust into slavery by account of her being in a period where blacks could never be anything else but slaves. The author draws a picture of two parallel times. From this parallel setting based on what Dana goes through as a slave and her experiences in the present times, readers can be able to make comparison between the two times. The reader can be able to trace how far perceptions towards women, blacks and family relations have come. The book therefore shows that even as time goes by, mankind still faces the same challenges, but takes on a reflection based on the prevailing period.
She learns the relationship of slave and master during slavery was complicated. Without Rufus to teach and guide her through this experience in slavery Dana would have never truly understood what she went
Some of the inspiration for Dana came from Jones desire to know her sisters from her father’s previous marriage stating in an interview: “I 've always felt that I had a sister just outside my grasp,” (Norris). In the world Jones has created for Dana she is well aware of the other family, the privilege they receive from being the legitimate family. Dana is not only denied a relationship with her father and sister but educational opportunities because the possibility that Chaurisse may attend the same event. Hiding in the shadows of her sister Chaurisse, Dana longs to know her sister, to have a relationship with her father and to be acknowledged as his child. At the outset of the novel Jones clearly lays out the conditions of life for Dana when in a conversation with her father, he states: “What happens in my life, in my world, doesn’t have anything to do with you…Dana, you are the one that’s a secret”. (p. 8-9) The absence of a loving father figure in Dana’s life drives her desire to be acknowledged by men. Jones portrays this acceptance of her role in life through a series of boyfriends finally settling on one, who much like her father, wants to keep their relationship a secret. Dana’s relationship with her mother is much more like that of sisters than a mother daughter relationship, each woman feels abandoned by their father turning to each other in times of need. The sisterly
...courage to survive in the world. On the other hand, her portrayal of marriage and the black family appears to be negative. Marriage is seen as a convenient thing—as something that is expected, but not worth having when times get rough. At least this is what Lutie’s and Jim’s marriage became. The moral attributes that go along with marriage do not seem to be prevalent. As a result, because marriage and the black family are seen as the core of the black community, blacks become more divided and begin to work against themselves—reinforcing among themselves the white male supremacy. Instead of being oppressed by another race or community, blacks oppress themselves. Petry critiques these issues in the black community and makes them more applicable to our lives today. These issues still exist, but we fail to realize them because of our advancement in society today.
I was late for school, and my father had to walk me in to class so that my teacher would know the reason for my tardiness. My dad opened the door to my classroom, and there was a hush of silence. Everyone's eyes were fixed on my father and me. He told the teacher why I was late, gave me a kiss goodbye and left for work. As I sat down at my seat, all of my so-called friends called me names and teased me. The students teased me not because I was late, but because my father was black. They were too young to understand. All of this time, they thought that I was white, because I had fare skin like them, therefore I had to be white. Growing up having a white mother and a black father was tough. To some people, being black and white is a contradiction in itself. People thought that I had to be one or the other, but not both. I thought that I was fine the way I was. But like myself, Shelby Steele was stuck in between two opposite forces of his double bind. He was black and middle class, both having significant roles in his life. "Race, he insisted, blurred class distinctions among blacks. If you were black, you were just black and that was that" (Steele 211).
Even though racial discrimination may not be as prevalent in the present day society, many African American men and women believe that they do not experience the same opportunities as the white race. Media in general plays such an active role in bringing more information about racial discrimination and how it is still occurring today. But media can also bring negative effects to the struggle in living up to social standards to today’s society “norms”. Anna Mae was very brave in lying about her identity to become someone she really wanted to be. But, I feel she should have never had to have done that. He story just goes to show how the power of society can change you as a human being. It can make you believe that you must change your identity in order to “fit in” which I find to be very sad. I think that more people in this world need to stand up to theses stereotypes of being the “perfect American” and say that no one is perfect in this world and everyone is created by the most perfect human God. Overall, racial discrimination is a part of our everyday lives and "By the Way, Meet Vera Stark" can still speak to us today, even with the play set in a time 80 years
The oppressed and the oppressor’s lives are intertwined through their need to protect and maintain their well-being. As seen in the novel, Dana is summoned to the past only when Rufus, her distant ancestor’s life is in danger. Rufus continues to summon her from his childhood through his adult years. ...
Alice and Kevin have an interesting start to their relationship. Initially, it appears that Dana is not interested in Kevin, as she tries to reject communication and his advances through buying her lunch. This distance on Dana’s part allows readers to contemplate whether Dana is put off by Kevin’s obtrusive attitude because he is a man, because he is white, or a combination of the two. As the novel advances, Butler continues to focus Kevin’s faults in his marriage because of his identity as a white man.
While travelling to and from the south, Kevin often tries to understand and empathize with Dana. In the book Scenes of Subjection, written by Saidiya Hartman, she writes, “yet empathy in important respects confounds Rankins’ efforts to identify with the enslaved because in making the slave’s suffering his own, Rankin begins to feel for himself…” (19). Rankins is s white man whom appears to be in a similar situation as Kevin. While understanding and trying to feel what slaves feel, he goes beyond and starts feeling sorry for himself. I believe Kevin discovers he has the same problem: he tries to empathize with Dana and as a result feels sorry for himself. Time travel brings the situation to light by allowing Dana to be subjected to the role of a slave. Despite Kevin unconsciously empathizing with himself, he never stops his worry for Dana. Upon Dana’s return to modern days, Kevin tells her, “‘But in all my travelling, do you know the only time I ever felt relieved and eager to be going to a place?’... ‘it was when you went back to Maryland, when you visited the weylins to see whether I was there.’” (192). Kevin constantly worries about Dana even though he was stuck in a time where whites treat blacks as though they are objects. He always shows his love for Dana, which for the time he was in is extraordinary. While the antebellum south changes their views on life, it rarely changes their views of each