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Kindred by Octavia Butler
The above mentioned literary appreciation is a fictitious text. The critical argument and the storyline on which the book is based is on slavery. The propagation of the activities of the aforementioned takes place in the South of the Antebellum. By taking the time to literary analyze the text, one would be tempted to embark on reading it. The reason is largely that it takes the reader back when the slave trade was the day’s order. Therefore, the reader gets to be magically transported back in time through a loop of time travel in the perception that would best serve to enlighten them in matters about the struggles of the modern African-American woman.
The critical character who the story composed by Butler seems to be revolving around is Dana. She serves as a perfect representation of the modern-day woman. According to the text, Rufus, a plantation owner, summons Dana, to protect him across time when his life is in danger. She is, therefore, dragged back in time and forced to endure a life of slavery. The struggles she and those who find themselves stuck back in the same position face are repeatedly drawn back while trying to make it in contemporary society. When Dana thought that her life was finally getting better for her sake, a calamity would strike and worsen the situation that it had been before. Take the case of the time when violence stroke Dana as she was struggling with difficulties that heralded her way by the slave movement back in the early 1800s. The violence she is facing in this particular case is quite significant in the sense that it is the propellant force that paves the way for the reader to envision time traveling in the novel.
Even though the author of the text makes it clear the aspects of time travel within the book, there are no sure indications of the time when Dana would be in the best position to travel back in time and enjoy a happy life in the look of a long-lasting relationship. In a real sense, she is suffering back in slavery and busy getting engaged in the fight against it through slave movements, yet she has a real affair at a future time. In relation to the text, the vital role meant to be played by the underlying aspect of time traveling is the alarming fact about examining the toll that it has on Dana and the relationships that she is having. Also, the aspect is meant to pave the way for the readers to see the various ways in which the association of time travel and violence acts would adversely affect Dana’s relationships.
In the novel, the author exposes Dana, the crucial cast, as having two relationships. She is torn between being in an affair with Rufus back in time and having another with her present husband. The scenarios present themselves within the textual context as the two sides of a coin that happens to be entirely different. In addition to the essentiality of the role that is played by time travelling in Dana’s life, violence has also been brought out as having a critical role-play in her life. Violence is the pivotal point and the critical determinant of how her affairs in both eras turn out since they determine the time she can travel back and forth in time.
At the initial stages before the whole issue about time travel is brought into the picture, Dana and her husband Kevin, have a fecund relationship. However, the affair starts having hardships when Dana began to travel back and forth with Kevin. According to the author, the frequency of the travels determined the severity of the difficulties they experienced. Dana was not for the idea, but then she did not like the idea of leaving her husband all worried as she travelled in time, and that is the reason as to why she decided to take him along with her.
Just as is the case in real life and contemporary society, relationships are bound to have issues of varying magnitudes. The author depicted the same in the novel as the couple has both ups and downs involved in the scenario that partakes of relationships. There are instances in which Dana did not know what to do. Take the example where she travelled back in time and left her husband, Kevin. When she came back; he was utterly confused. The same applied to when they travelled back in time together; they were both perplexed. Kevin was lost after having been separated from his wife Dana for five years, and he got stuck in the ancient time. Concerning the author’s set up, he found it hard to adjust to the modern world.
“Did he end up blaming me for the five years he had lost? (Rahman 195)” In the quote mentioned above, Dana is perturbed by the thought that her husband might be blaming her for the five years he had spent back in time, which is also the time they had been apart. In the same way that in relationships, people involved end up pointing fingers at each other for the issues they are facing, Butler depicts the same scenario within the text. When taking Kevin out to Maryland, the author tries to reinforce a sense of kinship on the reader by demonstrating what occupies Butler’s thoughts about time. Conclusively, Kindred gives an inclination of the various instances attributed to the rise and fall of relationships.
Work Cited
Rahman, Arifa Ghani. “Kindred: A Story of Appropriation, Bonding, and Power Relations.” InSight: Rivier Academic Journal 13.2 (2017).