Kindred By Octavia Butler: Literary Analysis

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While I was reading “The Fall” from the book Kindred by Octavia Butler, it caught my attention the differences between the past and present. In this chapter, Dana went to the past once again to deal with Rufus accompanied accidentally with her husband, Kevin. At that time, Black and White people were not allowed to be together, in order to Dana and Kevin fit in and safely go back to where they belong they had to fake two characters. However, along the way, some circumstances and obstacles came in their way jeopardizing their identities and well-being. One of the differences was that back then when people were injured, they use whiskey as a replacement for alcohol to clean their wounds and as a disinfectant. “I’d heard of early nineteenth-century medicine, they were going to pour some whiskey down him and play tug of war with his leg.” (Butler, p.66) Also a drug was used as a painkiller called opium which reminds me that now doctors use morphine to calm the pain down. Opium was brought to the U.S. by Chinese immigrants. “The doctor gave him some opium, but the pain seemed to reach him right through it.” (Butler, p.78) …show more content…
But, during that time children were expected to do exactly what the elderly told them, and education was not a right. Schools were only for boys. There was not any interest of children to go to school. “I don’t think Margaret likes educated slaves any better than her husband does…he can barely read and write.” (Butler, p.82) At that time, the majority of people were lack of education. Something that also made me think is the child abuse that back then were common between all kinds of children. “I’d seen Margaret Weylin slap one of them hard across the face. The child had done nothing more than toddle into her path.” (Butler, p.85) This really emphasis the way kid slaves were treated if they made such a simple
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