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.