Dana In Kindred

Words: 440
Pages: 2
Open Document
Dana is the main character of the story Kindred who travels back in time to the Antebellum South to various points in the life of her slave with her ancestor. Dana who would do everything to survive. Dana gets beaten up a lot because of her color of skin.The choices that she makes are very difficult. Sometimes she would do things before she thinks because she has no choice. She would do things that she never imagined she would. Whenever Rufus has a problem, she goes to him and helps him. Dana saves Rufus when he is a young boy when Rufus drowns in the river. When Rufus’s dad sees Dana, he is about to shoot her because of her race. When Rufus calls Dana the N word, Dana doesn't say anything. Every time Dana travels back to Rufus’ time, she …show more content…
If she hadn't gone back to her ancestor, she wouldn't suffer a lot. It is hard for Dana to talk back to them and not respect them because if she talks back to them they will beat her up very bad. When Dana saved Rufus,Dana heard a guy yelling,she panic because she was scared. “What the devil’s going, going on here”(14). When Dana went home, she was panicking and didn’t know what to do”What happened,tell me”(15) Kevin asks her what happened, she didn’t tell him because she didn’t know what to say and Dana came back to having an ache because Rufus’s mother pounded her with her fist. “Strength.Endurance. To survive, my ancestors had to put up with more than I ever could. Much more. You know what I mean.”, she is unprepared for the everyday hardships her black ancestors underwent just to stay alive. Dana cannot match their endurance either physically or mentally, she thinks.

“He was not hurting me, would not hurt me if I remained as I was. He was not his father, old and ugly, brutal and disgusting”(p.260)Rufus tries to seduce Dana, the reality of the moment is overwhelming, more real than her own time. She finds herself slipping into the same complacency she has observed in other slaves.Rufus tries to rape her,but Dana knows that he wasn’t trying to rape her,but he killed him because he was trying to rape her and stab him
Show More

Related Documents: Dana In Kindred

'Unexpected Relationships In Octavia Butler's Kindred'

Butler's Kindred tells the story of Dana, a black woman who is transported back and forth between 1976 America and the nineteenth century South. Dana's travels back in time allow her to save Rufus, her ancestor, and ensure his survival as well as her own in the future. Among other things, Kindred incorporates themes of family and relationships, especially with respect to how different people who are not truly related by blood can connect through common ground. Through this work, Dana's kindred relationships…

Words 497 - Pages 2

Surviving In The Past In Octavia Butler's Kindred

Octavia Butler uses Kindred to show a modern women can survive in the past, where slavery and cruel punishment was the norm to the society. In this novel, Kindred uses time travel as a crucial element to mysteriously travel Dana thru time to take her back to 1815. Throughout the novel, Dana is taken back to the past where she is meant to save the lives of her ancestors in order for her family tree to survive. Kindred uses many details to distinguish between the past, present, and past present.. Throughout…

Words 1374 - Pages 6

Octavia Butler Kindred Themes

Kindred Sometimes people have to make choices that they don’t usually make in order to survive.Some of those choices can be very hard to make when someone is in a dangerous situation.In Octavia Butlers, Kindred, Dana goes back to a time where slavery has not been abolished and she goes back to see her ancestors.She goes back in time when Rufus,one of her ancetors, is in danger and goes back to her modern time when she is in danger. Octavia Butler explores the theme of Survival in Kindred by showing…

Words 778 - Pages 4

Octavia Butler's Kindred: An Analysis

many different traumas a person can be exposed to that may not only affect the body physically, but also mentally. The aspect of trauma is further illustrated in Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred, which tells the enticing story of Dana. Dana is an African American woman living in California during the 1970s. One day, Dana finds herself mysteriously transported back in time to a pre-Civil War South. At this time she is met by her ancestor, Rufus, who is a white slaveholder. Dana’s travels become more frequent…

Words 311 - Pages 2

Racism In Kindred

thing that has not changed in Kindred by Octavia Butler and The Help by Kathryn Stockett is the shame and the comments made towards African Americans. In Kindred Dana, and African American woman, travels back in time to the 1850’s when slavery is in full swing in the south. This predicament happens to her so she can save her ancestor Rufus, a white slave master, from dying before her preceding ancestor is born. This time period leads to many conflicts between Dana and her ancestor Rufus. The Help…

Words 971 - Pages 4

Peer Pressure In Kindred

good side to it. In Kindred by Octavia E. Butler and the Scholastic article Peer Pressure: Its Influence on Teens and Decision Making, they both have some sort of driving force or peer pressure that causes characters to make bad decisions or take bad actions. Anyone can be peer pressured weather it is by other people or the setting you are in. While peer pressure can be a bad thing, there can be good that comes out of it. Overall, peer pressure is portrayed in the book Kindred and the article Peer…

Words 878 - Pages 4

Comparing Octavia Butler's Get Out And Kindred

Books like Kindred written by Octavia Butler portrays the harsh reality of enslaved black individuals in the 19th century is perceived by a modern African American woman, Dana, who travels back in time to save her white ancestor. Meanwhile, director and producer Jordan Peele convey and gives the 21st century audience an insight in how pervasive racism is still felt by a colored man, Chris, in his motion picture Get Out. Within Get Out and Kindred interracial relationships encounter challenges with…

Words 1876 - Pages 8

Archetype Of Kindred Hero's Journey

Octavia Butler’s novel Kindred tells the story of Dana Franklin, an African-American woman who gets called back into the past during the time of slavery to preserve her family history by saving her ancestor, the son of a plantation owner, from death. It is a long, painful journey for her, but ultimately she succeeds. Using an archetypal critical lens to analyze this work can reveal the way Dana’s story fits into the archetype of the hero’s journey. Throughout the novel, she moves through, in one…

Words 1948 - Pages 8

Kindred: Slavery and Real Slave Market Essay

Paragraph Analysis Kindred is historical fiction because it travels through time. African American, Dana, main character and narrator of the story lives with her (American) husband, Kevin in 1976 in Los Angeles. Though her marriage is an unusual in 1976 it’s definitely not allowed in the 1800’s. She travels on and off between 1970’s and 1800’s, but primarily the book takes place in the 1800s where slavery was still in place. The author’s vivid ideas about slavery is clear throughout the book…

Words 526 - Pages 3

Xd Yuuu Kno Essay

Michael Bell Period F English 3 Annotated Bibliography Hua, Linh. Reproducing Time, Reproducing History: Love and Black Feminist sentimentality in Octavia Butler’s Kindred. California: Journal, 2011. This article was helpful because it gave a good outlook on black feminist. It also gave information on people’s outlook on the African American race which in this article talks about how females were look upon. The way female African American woman were look upon was totally different from how…

Words 582 - Pages 3