Essay Sample on Kindred: Octavia Butler's Time-Traveling Feminist Tale

Introduction

Reviewed literature shows that Kindred (1979) is Octavia Butler's feminist African-American science-fiction book whose setting is between 19th and 20th centuries in Maryland and Los Angeles, respectively. Butler uses the concept of time travel to analyze a slave story about African women called Dana Franklin, who happens to be a protagonist in the story. On Dana's 26th birthday, this character began seeing blurry vision before saying, "I collapsed to my knees' (Butler 9). She magically traveled from Los Angeles in 1976 to travels to Maryland in 1815 courtesy due to the call from Rufus Weylin, the boy between "four or five years old" (Butler 9). Rufus was the white boy who often summons Dana to save him from many dangers until he grows to adulthood and contributes to a blood relationship with Dana. The encounter with the horrific and dangerous situations that cause physical her injuries means that Dana is a victim of intergenerational trauma and slavery.

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Dana's role in the Kindred was to protect Rufus from any harm until he matures to father Hagar, who would then influence the blood ties with her. At one-time, Dana proves guardian angelic role to Rufus by saying says, "my first trip had ended as soon as the boy was safe" (Butler 17). During the second encounter, Dana learns that she had traveled from the 1900s to "Eighteen Fifteen" (Butler 25). However, Rufus becomes obsessed with Dana to the extent that it was difficult to predict her next return. This situation continues until when Dana must save herself from rape, thus kills Rufus and breaks free. On returning to Kevin, her white husband, Dana realizes that she had left part of her arm in the past in an unexplainable state. When she recovers, Dana and her husband travel to Maryland to seek the truth about the situation. In the process, they learn that Rufus dies in the fire, with many other characters remaining untraceable. However, it turns out that Dana and her husband were sane by all means regardless of the mystery they faced.

Intergenerational Trauma and Slavery

Analysis of literature from Gilda Graff shows that the psychological torture experienced by Black Americans since their entry in the United States was not only visible through genetic changes but also via the influx of mental disorders. This author asserts that the predisposition to such sufferings from anxiety, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and depression due to a century of discrimination and oppression needs quality medical therapy to mitigate these issues. Emotional torture among African slaves emerged through disrupting them from their ancestral soil, people, and customs" (Graff 259). The stereotypes and attitudes that were underrating Black people as subhuman, unintelligent, criminals, lower class, and poor slave labors also had a negative influence on their psychological wellbeing. In the Southwest, the whites considered Black American female slaves as the "Whiteman' sexual ground" (Graff 261). Moreover, adult slaves faced inhuman treatment as punishments by compelling them to cat-haul, prolonged exposure in nigger boxes, stock confinement well as rubbing pepper and salt into injuries from floggings (Butler 262). About Dana's case, it is possible to prevent the symptoms that emanate from the trauma, even though controlling its origins is difficult.

At this point, one could define Intergenerational trauma as direct exposure to an event with valid or death vulnerabilities, and severe injury or additional susceptibility to an individual's worth. This phenomenon also consists of experiencing a circumstance that associates with death, a threat to real value or harm of another person. In the novel Kindred, Dana's experience originates from the generations before her, which suffered cruelty from the hands of their white oppressors. It was this era that a child who depicted thirst for education suffered from the amputation of fingers or arms" (Graff 261). According to Graff, trauma and stressors cannot be confined to one activity and may emerge from the whole community through systematic oppression and racism. The mixture between the original traumatic events and the progressive oppression of Blacks is what results in Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome. Exposure to slavery caused psychological and emotional taxing hence created the notion of being lesser humans.

Analysis of Dana and Rufus

Butler's narrative presents Dana Franklin as the heroine and the narrator of the novel who prevails in two time periods courtesy. According to Graff, such unique patterns often associated with "the intergeneration transmission of trauma" (262). In her encounter with the time travel, she comes face to face with the 1800s experience of slavery in Maryland. Basing on Graff's concept, Dana's expertise got to her from slave ancestors who suffered an extreme brutality from the white oppressors. As a black woman, Dana is determined to cope with the cruelty of slavery as she preserves her wellbeing. In her struggles to serve Rufus, the slave owner, she feels that her action could bring together slave families. For example, when Dana accompanied by her husband, Kevin encounters Rufus, who emphatically states that a black woman had no chance of marrying a white man despite having "a leg that was discolored and swollen" (Butler 61). Although she countlessly forgives Rufus, he regrets her actions; hence after the birth of Hagar, she had to kill Rufus to escape rape, consequently surviving her familiar line.

Besides, Rufus Weylin is the reason for Dana's constant time travels, thus calls upon her to save him from challenging times during his childhood. When he matures, Rufus becomes cruel, filled with whims, emotions, and desires hence perceive Dana as a sexual alternative for Alice.Empirical studies show that Rufus Weylin is the primary driver of the plot and the character of Dana in the novel Kindred. Although he is not a hero or villain, this character becomes the principal reason for the plot and the determining factor in finding the resolution for Dana's freedom. For Rufus to live on, Dana must survive hence must compel her to engage in all events until he matures to have children. When Dana realizes that the young Rufus was her ancestor, she decides to do anything for his safety. In this novel, Rufus is the representation of the white businessman who owns slaves in the antebellum South. However, as a child, he deviates from the traditional features of the white monsters who oppressed their slaves. Instead, he depicts complexity, as seen in his story, which competes against what the past could say about him.

The link between Dana and Rufus grows more complex after realizing that they relate, thus presenting a delicate situation for her when they are physically close" (Butler 278). However, this situation creates emotional tension. Dana does not understand how she could tie herself to Rufus or admit that she originates from him. When Dana accepted this notion, she linked herself to both the slave past and its slave owners. Dana perceives that the relationship between her and Rufus is guilt by association but remains put. As the bond develops, both Dana and the audience realizes what surrounds the past. More so, Dana learns that she cannot transform Rufus wholly, yet she can understand him. The description of Dana's ancestral roots from both a black slave and white slave owner creates her as a contemporary intermediary person for Rufus and Alice as well as the past and current (Butler 270). As a result, Dana needs to comprehend the actual history to pave the way for reconciliation.

About the concept of slavery, the bond between Rufus and Dana poses a test on their emotional and racial boundaries. When she first found Rufus, she saw nothing cautious hence considered maintaining a close link with the young boy. As Rufus grows, he recognizes her as the "source of his safety and shelter" (Butler 19). Here, Rufus' family perception of slavery does not affect him as a young boy because Dana's closeness protected her from harmful situations. In comparison with the gentle and understanding Dana, Rufus illustrates that his father "used his whip on niggers as well as horses" (Butler 27). Rufus' father was rough and unapproachable as the mother was overprotective and seemingly impatient. As a young boy, Rufus seems innocent and imitates what he hears with a limited understanding of the same.

Rufus transforms to take his father's approach against issues, especially about slavery. He could speak to his childhood slave friends but not with passion as in the past. In Dana's view, Rufus had adopted American chattel slavery. For instance, when Dana comes in contact with the adult Rufus, she finds him assaulting one slave character called Isaac. In her attempt to intervene, Dana learns that 'Rufus had also sexually violated Isaac's wife, Alice, who is equally his childhood friend" (Butler 256). These acceptable patterns in the behavior of Rufus and his white folk are what Dana as to cope with, bearing in mind that the now grown man sees the difference between a white woman ad black one. Rufus emphasizes that Alice could have avoided his wrath if she said yes to all his demands despite Dana telling him otherwise. Since the commencement of the novel, Rufus and Dana relate via the prevailing trust. However, this man breaks the trust countlessly until Dana had decided against allowing him to be his master and lover (Butler 286). Dana had to fight with him tirelessly as he tried to rape her, thus leading to his death by stubbing.

Conclusion

Butler's application of time travel concept exposes Dana to the horrific incidents of slavery as she struggles to secure the life of Rufus. Apart from injuries and threats, Dana dealt with a unique perception of the mature Rufus, who thinks of her as a Black-American woman and sexual object. Although she later kills Rufus, Dana's effort to change him in all her capacity symbolizes that the contemporary society is continually striving to close the wound that occurred through the cruelty of oppression. At the initial time, Dana's attempts aimed at preventing the injury before it could emerge. Dana and her white husband also were aware of the would but forged ahead to facilitated the healing of the wound.

Works Cited

Butler E., Octavia. Kindred. Beacon Press, Boston. January 2, 2004. http://www.beacon.org/Kindred-P489.aspx

Graff Gilda. The intergenerational trauma of slavery and its aftereffects: The questions of reparations. 2017. https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1P3-4321372975/the-intergenerational-trauma-of-slavery-and-its-aftereffects