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Kindred ‘s plot is non linear; rather, it begins in the middle of its end and contains several flashbacks that connect events in the present and past. In an interview, Butler acknowledged that she split the ending into a “Prologue” and an “Epilogue” so as to “involve the reader and make him or her ask a lot of questions” that could not be answered until the end of the story.[1] Missy Dehn Kubitschek sees this framing of Dana’s adventures as Butler’s way to highlight the significance of slavery to what Americans consider their contemporary identity. Because “Prologue” occurs before Dana travels in time and “Epilogue” concludes with a message on the necessity to confront the past, we experience the story as Dana’s understanding of what we have yet to understand ourselves, while the “Epilogue” speaks about the importance of this understanding.[2] Roslyn Nicole Smith proposes that Butler’s framing of the story places Dana literally and figuratively in media res so as to take her out of that in media res; that is, to indicate Dana’s movement from “a historically fragmented Black woman, who defines herself solely on her contemporary experiences” to “a historically integrated identity” who has knowledge of and a connection to her history.[3]

Kindred ’s story is further fragmented by Dana’s report of her time traveling, which uses flashbacks to connect the present to the past. Robert Crossley sees this “foreshortening” of the past and present as a “lesson in historical realities.”[4] Because the story is told from the first-person point of view of Dana, readers feel they are witnessing firsthand the cruelty and hardships that many slaves faced every day in the South and so identify with Dana’s gut-wrenching reactions to the past.[5][6] This autobiographical voice, along with Dana’s harrowing recollection of the brutality of slavery and her narrow escape from it, is one of the key elements that have made critics classify Kindred as a neo-slave narrative.[3]

Another strategy Butler uses to add dramatic interest to Kindred’s story is the deliberate delay of the description of Dana and Kevin’s ethnicities. Butler has stated in an interview she did not want to give their "race" away yet since it would have less of an impact and the reader would not react the way that she wanted them to.[7] Dana’s ethnicity becomes revealed in chapter two, “The Fire” while Kevin’s ethnicity becomes clear to the reader in chapter three, “The Fall,” which also includes the history of Dana’s and Kevin’s interracial relationship.[8]

Butler also uses Alice as Dana’s doppelgänger to compare how their decisions are a reflection of their environment. According to Missy Dehn Kubitschek, each woman seems to see a reflection of herself in the other; each is the vision of what could be (could have been) the possible fate of the other given different circumstances.[9] According to Bedore, Butler’s use of repetition blurs the lines between the past and present relationships. As time goes on, Alice and Rufus’ relationship begins to seem more like a miserable married couple while Dana and Kevin become somewhat distant.[10] Redhead321 (talk) 17:53, 19 May 2014 (UTC)Redrosex1025 (talk) 17:54, 19 May 2014 (UTC)An286 (talk) 17:56, 19 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The critique or revision of American history

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Scholarship on Kindred often touches on its critique of the official history of the formation of the United States as an erasure of the raw facts of slavery. Lisa Yaszek places Kindred as emanating from two decades of heated discussion over what constituted American history, with a series of scholars pursuing the study of African-American historical sources to create "more inclusive models of memory."[11] Missy Dehn Kubitschek argues that Butler set the story during the bicentennial of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence of the United States to suggest that the nation should review its history in order resolve its current racial strife.[12] Robert Crossley believes that Butler dates Dana’s final trip to her Los Angeles home on the bicentennial to connect the personal with the social and the political. The power of this national holiday to erase the grim reality of slavery is negated by Dana's living understanding of American history, which makes all her previous knowledge of slavery through mass media and books inadequate.[13] Yaszek further notes that Dana throws away all her history books about African-American history on one of the trips back to her California home, as she finds them to be inaccurate in portraying slavery. Instead, Dana reads books about the Holocaust and finds these books to be closer to her experiences as a slave.[14]

In several interviews, Butler has mentioned that she wrote Kindred to counteract stereotypical conceptions of the submissiveness of slaves. While studying at Pasadena City College , Butler heard a young man from the Black Power Movement express his contempt for older generations of African-Americans for what he considered their shameful submission to white power. Butler realized the young man did not have enough context to understand the necessity to accept abuse just to keep oneself and one's family alive and well. Thus, Butler resolved to create a modern African -American character who would go back in time to see how well he (Butler's protagonist was originally a male) could withstand the abuses his ancestors had suffered.[15]

Therefore, Dana's memories of her enslavement, as Ashraf A. Rushdy explains, become a record of the "unwritten history" of African -Americans, a "recovery of a coherent story explaining Dana's various losses." By living these memories, Dana is enabled to make the connections between slavery and current social situations, including the exploitation of blue-collar workers, police violence, rape, domestic abuse, and segregation.[16]An286 (talk) 17:51, 19 May 2014 (UTC) Redrosex1025 (talk) 17:51, 19 May 2014 (UTC) Redhead321 (talk) 17:54, 19 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

References

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  1. ^ Bogstad, Janice. "Octavia E. Butler and Power Relations." Janus 4.4 (1978-79): 30.
  2. ^ Kubitschek, Missy D. "'What Would a Writer Be Doing Working out of a Slave Market?': Kindred as Paradigm, Kindred in Its Own Write." Claiming the Heritage: African-American Women Novelists and History. Jackson, MS: UP of Mississippi, 1991. 24-51. Print. ISBN 1604735740 (10)ISBN 978-1604735741 (13)
  3. ^ a b Smith, Roslyn Nicole. "Medias Res, Temporal Double-Consciousness and Resistance in Octavia Butler's Kindred." (2007). English Theses. Paper 31
  4. ^ Crossley, Robert. "Critical Essay." In Kindred, by Octavia Butler. Boston: Beacon, 2004. 279. Print. ISBN 0807083690 (10) ISBN 978-0807083697 (13)
  5. ^ Davis, Jane. “Kindred." Masterplots II: African American Literature, Revised Edition (2008): 3. MagillOnLiteraturePlus. Web. 9 Feb. 2014.
  6. ^ Crossley, Robert. "Critical Essay." In Kindred, by Octavia Butler. Boston: Beacon, 2004. 274. Print. ISBN 0807083690 (10) ISBN 978-0807083697 (13)
  7. ^ Mehaffy, M., and A. Keating. ""Radio Imagination": Octavia Butler on the Poetics of Narrative Embodiment." MELUS 26.1 (2001): 51-52. Print.
  8. ^ Kubitschek, Missy D. "'What Would a Writer Be Doing Working out of a Slave Market?': Kindred as Paradigm, Kindred in Its Own Write." Claiming the Heritage: African-American Women Novelists and History. Jackson, MS: UP of Mississippi, 1991. 27. Print. ISBN 1604735740 (10)ISBN 978-1604735741 (13)
  9. ^ Kubitschek, Missy D. "'What Would a Writer Be Doing Working out of a Slave Market?': Kindred as Paradigm, Kindred in Its Own Write." Claiming the Heritage: African-American Women Novelists and History. Jackson, MS: UP of Mississippi, 1991. 39. Print. ISBN 1604735740 (10)ISBN 978-1604735741 (13)
  10. ^ Bedore, Pamela. "Slavery and Symbiosis in Octavia Butler's Kindred." Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction 31.84 (Spring 2002): 77-78.
  11. ^ Yaszek, Lisa. "'A Grim Fantasy': Remaking American History in Octavia Butler's Kindred." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 28.4 (Summer 2003): 1054. JSTOR. Web. 27 Jan. 2014.
  12. ^ Kubitschek, Missy D. "'What Would a Writer Be Doing Working out of a Slave Market?': Kindred as Paradigm, Kindred in Its Own Write." Claiming the Heritage: African-American Women Novelists and History. Jackson, MS: UP of Mississippi, 1991. 28. Print. ISBN 1604735740 (10) ISBN 978-1604735741 (13)
  13. ^ Crossley, Robert. "Critical Essay." In Kindred, by Octavia Butler. Boston: Beacon, 2004. 276. Print. ISBN 0807083690 (10) ISBN 978-0807083697 (13)
  14. ^ Yaszek, Lisa. "'A Grim Fantasy': Remaking American History in Octavia Butler's Kindred." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 28.4 (Summer 2003): 1061. JSTOR. Web. 27 Jan. 2014.
  15. ^ Butler, Octavia. "An Interview with Octavia E. Butler." Charles H. Rowell. Callaloo 20.1 (1997): 51. JSTOR. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.
  16. ^ Rushdy, Ashraf. "Families of Orphans: Relation and Disrelation in Octavia Butler's Kindred." College English. 55.2 (Feb. 1993): 137-138; 143-144. JSTOR. 23 October 2012.
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