Final thoughts to Kindred

After finishing Kindred, initially I was fairly disappointed in the ending. Most people would’ve probably predicted that Dana would lose her arm since we start off with that scene in the novel. As for me, there were still many questions, mostly about Dana’s time traveling, that were left unanswered. After the many class discussions we’ve had, I realized that maybe the disappointing ending was intentional, that Butler wanted us to leave unsatisfied in order to remind us about something even more serious.

When we were discussing in class about the interpretation of Dana’s loss of her arm, many of them centered around the idea that this loss of her arm represents the scarring effects of time. History has shaped who we are individually. While Dana was physically shaped by history, Butler wants the reader to know that something as bad as slavery has had lasting ramifications, and affects all of us.

As I mentioned before, after reading Kindred, I still had many questions left unanswered. Throughout most of this novel, Dana simply accepts the fact that she is constantly time traveling back to 1800s Maryland. We know that she travels back in time whenever Rufus’ life is in danger, and that a few minutes in Dana’s present time can mean a days or years in Rufus’ time. But, there are so many other things I wanted to know. What explains the varying lengths of time that passes as she is away? Why does Dana return to the present only when her life is in danger? Butler may have wanted to use time travel simply as a device. Since she leaves so many of these details out of her novel, she may have felt that explaining the concept of Dana’s time travel would distract readers from the bigger picture.

One thing that will stuck in my mind, and is something I will never forget, is about how important family ties are for slaves. Take Carrie, the mute child of Sarah’s. A long time ago, Sarah’s two other sons were sold by Weylin, and in fear of losing Carrie, Sarah willingly complies to the hard labor given to her by her masters. As Carrie grows older on the plantation, she marries Nigel, and has children with him. Prior to Nigel’s marriage, he already had thoughts of running away and finding freedom in the North. He even gets taught how to read by Dana in preparation of this. When he has children with Carrie though, in fear of having Carrie and their children sold off, Nigel is forced to control his urges of running away, and work silently on the plantation. For a long time, I knew that families were often separated by the auction. I never realized that breaking these family ties could have such a large impact on someone, and even keep them in line from running away or revolting. In a world of a slave, family is the only thing that many had for hope and support. Taking that away would’ve left slaves with nothing.

For me, while Butler doesn’t necessarily leave behind a solid novel, the picture she describes about slavery is simply unforgettable. The descriptions she puts into the whippings, the hard labor of the fields, and the strong family ties many of the slaves have portray just how bad slavery really was. As readers, we should focus more on her message of slavery, and see that slavery has impacted our society.

Rufus and Dana

As I mentioned before in my previous blog post, there is a lot to say about the characters in the novel. Different opinions can be made towards a lot of the characters such as Rufus and Dana. Considering where and when they were raised, it definitely makes readers think and decide whether their actions are justified or not.

Let's start with Rufus. While Rufus has good intentions and wants his slaves to be treated as best as possible, he is still as monstrous as his father Tom. This can especially be seen in his relationship with Alice. Even though Alice clearly dislikes Rufus, especially for what happened to Isaac, he forces Dana to make Alice condone him, and let him rape and beat her. By doing so, it lessens his own feelings of guilt. Dana often questions why she still forgives Rufus after everything he does, and this attributes to Rufus' lack of change in behavior. Rather than trying to change himself, Rufus only shows genuine regret for what he's done, making Dana feel bad for him. He only cares about himself, and only his own happiness. When he didn't send Dana's letters to Kevin, Rufus argued that he didn't want Dana to ever leave him alone at the plantation. This particular scene  exemplifies how immaturely Rufus thinks. His selfish and brutal actions, only worsen as he becomes an adult and an alcoholic.

Dana, the protagonist and narrator of the novel, must also struggle with many complex issues. As an alien in the antebellum South, her mannerisms cause her to be called strange and a "white nigger" by many of the other slaves. As she lives on the plantation, she begins to develop strong relationships with the slaves on the Weylin plantation. Dana soon sees how so many of these slaves each have their own histories and tragedies. She also begins to like Rufus, despite how cruel he is to the slaves and to Alice. Here, she is faced with such morally conscientious issues. Of course Dana is forced beyond her will to travel back in time in order to save Rufus' life. At the same time, she often wonders whether it is worth saving the life of a man who is committing so many cruelties. For someone who is selling off slaves and raping a woman, she feels that killing Rufus would solve the slaves' problems. This doesn't seem as easy as she thinks it is. Not only do her own affections for Rufus conflict with her decision to kill Rufus, even if she did kill Rufus for the sake of the slaves, they could easily be sold off and separated.

Maybe Butler intentionally invented such complicated characters in order to show how there is no black and white in history. As wrong as slavery was, there was no obvious solution towards it, and it took years before it was finally eradicated. Even when slavery was eliminated, it laid the grounds for hundreds of years of racial prejudice against blacks, especially in the South. Time has a lasting impact on people and on history, and Dana realizes that as she stays longer and longer in the South. 

Initial reactions to Kindred

When first reading Kindred, it seemed much more like a traditional novel compared to the other books we have read this semester. Kindred focuses on the larger story of slavery instead of warping historical facts and characters to the author's will like Doctorow did in Ragtime. It is easier to accept characters like Dana and Rufus because we know that they are fictional, and are not real-life historical figures with mysterious backgrounds (as Doctorow did with J.P Morgan and Harry Houdini). Kindred has more similarities to Slaughterhouse-Five, not only in the sense that it puts fictional characters in real events (with Billy Pilgrim in the Dresden firebombing), but also in the sense of time travel.

I couldn't help making the comparison to Back to the Future when reading Kindred. While Dana is trying to save her great grandparents Rufus and Alice from death in order for them to give birth to her grandmother Hagar, Marty McFly is trying to get his parents to fall in love so that they'll marry and give birth to him. This need for survival by trying to preserve the flow of history definitely engages me as a reader and moves the book along. Not only do these characters have to struggle with the social norms of the times they are in, but also have to make sure they themselves stay alive through everything.

What makes this book even more interesting though is its characters. There are plenty of things to say about the novel's characters, and I will save that for my next blog. Dana's attempt to reform Rufus into a better human being is certainly something to note. Marty McFly, in a way, is also doing something similar with his father, trying to help his father become a much more confident man that can stand up to Biff rather than the coward he originally was before Marty went back in time. With Dana and Rufus, it is almost like a secondary goal that Dana wants to accomplish. She certainly recognizes the difficulties of changing the mindset of someone growing up in a society with such institutionalized slavery, along with racism and sexism. The time when she tries to stop Rufus from calling her a "nigger woman" is an example. Yet, she's convinced that she can change him for the better somehow. Who knows? Maybe she can.