Writers utilize their writing abilities in order to create a piece of literature that would transmit a meaningful message to their audience and create an impact on them. This is the case of Octavia Butler’s Kindred , a historical science-fiction novel evolving around a twenty six year old woman named Dana living in 1976. The story in the novel is rather unique since the plot alternates between the past and the present as Dana time travels from the commodity of her house in 1976 Los Angeles to Maryland in the antebellum period. The catalysts for these trips to the past are the near death experiences of the son of rich southern planter, a boy named Rufus, who is one of Dana’s ancestors. Every single time Rufus fears for his life, Dana is summoned
Initially, because she underestimates her own courage, which has never been properly tested, Dana doubts that she has sufficient fortitude to survive in the nineteenth century. As Kindred unfolds, it becomes clear that she does, indeed, have abundant courage and stamina. Butler effectively utilizes a common technique in fiction whereby an individual becomes heroic by transcending his or her base humanity by drawing on hidden inner resources. Dana is tested in her second trip to the past when she is nearly raped by a white man who is part of a patrol—the forerunner to the Ku Klux Klan. Never before having experienced physical abuse, initially Dana is reluctant to act. She fails to disable him by gouging his eyes, thereby losing her only chance
In the story, “The Killing Game”, Joy Williams, uses several diffenent types of writing skills to presuade the reader to see her views.
In the novel Kindred by Octavia Butler, Dana reveals in the fight that she is drawn back again to a flashback of her husband Kevin talking to her in their kitchen; however, she realizes Kevin did not make it back to their home. Dana had a feeling of fainting and vomiting, and she realized that she would soon see Rufus and reconciled with her husband that she had not seen for months. Dana saw that Rufus was beaten by this young black male and there was a young lady who was frighten and had her clothes tore and told the man to run away and to leave Rufus. Then Rufus denies Dana’s help throughout the chapter. He says that he is a young adult and does not need her help at all. Later, in the chapter Rufus reveals that Dana’s fear would come to reality and that sooner Rufus will break the purity of the relationship they have. After that Dana, will realize the true colors that were reveal during Rufus confrontation with Kevin that almost resulted in a horrifying situation for Dana. Nonetheless, when it comes to relationship or treatment, every character differs from each other due to race, or how they
When looking into works of literature, some stories seem to be similar to others. They can have a similar setting, point of view, theme, or sense of language and style. However, all of these points could be very different as well and could cover different theme or style. Flannery O’Conner’s “Good Country People” and Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” have some contrasting elements, such as their points of view and use of symbolism, but their similarities in the underlying theme, language, and the setting of these stories reveal how these two stories are impacted by education on both the individual and their family.
Writing fiction helps with “reconnecting with the true, deep weirdness inherent in everyday reality, in our dealings with one another, in just being alive.” (Russell) She shows these emotions throughout the stories of Lemon Grove, with her more violent emotions expressed through the horrifying story of “Reeling for the Empire.” In this story, a group of young, enslaved Japanese women are turned into human silkworms to produce commodities that are precious to their empire. The story comes to an explosive ending when the main character chooses to fight against their seeming...
Between the years 1976 and the early 1800s a lot of progress was made towards racism in America. The use of time travel in the book shows the readers the major differences of how white people treated the African Americans. Whenever Dana would travel back in time to the 1800s, the readers can see how time has affected the characters, not only physically in appearance, but also their changes in attitude and personality. Dana would time-travel to Maryland and come back to her new home in California. In the 1800s, slavery was bad in Maryland and California wasn’t part of the United states. The use of time-travel and issues of race in the book Kindred by Octavia E. Butler shows the progress the United States has made on racism and how it got better.
When a writer starts his work, most often than not, they think of ways they can catch their reader’s attention, but more importantly, how to awake emotions within them. They want to stand out from the rest and to do so, they must swim against the social trend that marks a specific society. That will make them significant; the way they write, how they make a reader feel, the specific way they write, and the devotion they have for their work. Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgard Allan Poe influenced significantly the American literary canon with their styles, themes, and forms, making them three important writers in America.
Abolutionist, Fredrick Douglass once stated, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will”().
He believes that he has a place in this disaster, and he accuses himself for causing a person's death and he doesn’t stop thinking about it as he says here “half a year has passed since I returned from Nepal, and on any given day during those six months, no more than two or three hours has gone by in which Everest has monopolized my thoughts” (296) .The experience has in many ways, affected him very deeply, which influenced him to write this book. The character development in "Kindred" by Octavia E. Butler is not as strong as "Into Thin Air", in this novel Dana, a young black woman who is a writer living at the end of the Twenty-first century, she is sucked into the south during the 19th century. Dana must go's through struggles so that she is able to establish her own identity and have
In the beginning of the novel, Octavia Butler writes; “Prodigy is, at its essence, adaptability and persistent, positive obsession. Without persistence, what remains is an enthusiasm of the moment. Without adaptability, what remains may be channeled into destructive fanaticism. Without positive obsession, there is nothing at all.” In my own words, I believe what the author is saying is a prodigy is a young person with exceptional qualities, in particular she is referring to essence, adaptability, persistent and positive obsession. A prodigy without persistence, is someone with intense enjoyment. A prodigy without adaptability, is someone who is unwilling to accept opposing points of view. A prodigy without positive obsession, is just nothing.
In Anne Sexton’s poem “Her Kind” the speaker appears to be woman who is dealing with constant feelings overwhelming her as being an outcast. These feelings the speaker portrays throughout the poem causes the speaker to not to fit into the guidelines society expects and forces the speaker to become a poor misunderstood woman. However, upon further review the reader observes the speaker actually embracing the negative stereotype of liberated and modern women and transforms it into a positive image. All the while two voices throughout the poem, the voice of the speaker and the voice of society, dual about the issue of the stereotype in modern women.
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler, is a novel about an African American woman named Dana (born in 1950) who lives in 1976 California. She experiences weird headaches and dizziness one day and gets teleported to a river in the woods. She sees a boy drowning and rushes into the river to save him. The boy’s mother comes out yelling at Dana and then the father comes out with a shotgun just as Dana is sent back to her house. Dana kinda sees it as a hallucination and goes on shocked. Later she experiences the dizziness again and is sent back to a house this time. Then she finds out she is being sent to the past to help her relative Rufus from dying. Every time Rufus gets in trouble to the point of dying Dana is flung back in time to save him. But she is sent to the 1800s
Meyer, Michael, ed. Thinking and Writing About Literature. Second Edition. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2001.
Dawn by Octavia Butler is a feminist take on an origin story. Due to its feminist foundations Dawn interrogates how gender, individuals, and social constructions shape people 's as well as society 's creation. The story follows the "rebirth" of Lilith Iyapo in an alien world after they 'saved ' her from the nuclear apocalypse on earth. Lilith 's journey is both mental and physical. She becomes more than human physically due to Okanali enhancements and mentally beyond the constraints of human beliefs, such as that of gender and time, due to her acceptance of the Ooloi and the Oankali way of life.
In most relationships, friendship or sexual, trust is one of the main aspects that determine whether or not the relationship will last. In Octavia Butler’s Kindred, relationships are a major topic. Specifically, one that involves two different races which was never a big factor until time travel introduces them to the antebellum south. The trust Kevin and Dana displays shifts due to the novum of time travel and the way they view their own relationship in modern day 1970 to the antebellum south.