Kindred

Octavia butler has written a masterpiece. She has written a book that portrays black life through the early 1800s. The irony and ties that the boy, Rufus, and Dana, the black woman, had is ingenious. The woman keeps going back into history saving this boy she has no idea who is. Until one day she learns that he is related to her. She never knew that a white boy was her distant relative. This shock made me and her curious and determined to find out her history. As she tackled this task she endured the hardships of being black back in the days when owning slaves was an every day event.

Is this story an accurate representation of the past and the future? Or is this a special case where a young boy, soon to be plantation owner, who starts out being fond of black people turns out to be just another mean and bitter slave owner. Are all plantations this harsh to slaves? Or is this a case where slaves are treated pretty well compared to other plantations? No one will actually know for sure unless you lived back then or have relatives who lived in those times that are still alive to tell you stories. Or if you have Octavia Butler write a brilliant story with both those circumstances.

I’m going to start off saying Octavia Butler is an amazing young writer. I have never been able to sit down and read any book because I get bored or tired, but for once I enjoyed this reading experience. She kept me intrigued with the back and forth reality checks that Dana had with and without her husband. I began to understand the hardships and realize the everyday occurrences that went on, on the plantations, in the early 1800s. The way the slaves were: treated, forced, tortured, beaten, raped, and sold for the pure satisfaction of the white plantation owners is mind boggling. Even when the slave owner Rufus grew up his entire life cherishing and helping the black slaves he began to grow mean and bitter toward them. He was especially grim towards the ones he cared for the most, a.k.a Alice, his soon to be wife. One thing that came to my attention was that Butler continued to bring Dana back to modern times, which in her eyes meant freedom. She presented the idea that over the years things have become really great for black people, giving them endless amounts of freedom compared to the olden days. But is that the case? Around where I was born and raised it was semi true but in other parts of America this is not exactly the truth.