Kindred: A Story of Alienation
Kindred: A Story of Alienation
Since the dawn of time, society’s views on inequalities have been its greatest shortcoming. The fact of the matter is, there are several aspects in society that determines these inequalities. In the novel Kindred by Octavia Butler, Dana is alienated from society through race, class, and gender. Thus, she faced much hardships and tribulations throughout the novel.
Society's outlook of African Americans caused Dana to be abused on many different levels, especially when she travels to the time of slavery. When Dana is in the 1800`s she is reduced to a slave. She is called not by her name, but is rather referred to as a nigger by her master and even some of the fellow slaves. She fights with Rufus to call her by her politically correct title of "black." She explains to him "I'm a black woman, Rufus. If you have to call me something other than my name, that's it." Her ancestor, Alice, implies to her that she has brown-nosed the white man so much that she has forgotten the color of her own skin. In the eleventh chapter of The Fight, Alice tells Dana "You ought to be ashamed of yourself, whining and crying after some poor white trash of a man, black as you are. You always try to act so white. White nigger, turning against your own people!" Dana's thoughts and feelings regarding equality for blacks and whites alike has caused her to be disdained by her own race. She is also besmirched in her own time period of the 1970's. When she is seen with Kevin by her employer, he makes rude comments concerning the two creating "chocolate and vanilla porn." Dana is outcaste in both worlds, causing her freedom, pride, and respect to be ripped away from her. Her race even determines her class.
Dana is isolated in society due to her social standing in the two time periods that she travels between. When she first arrived in the antebellum South, she was acting, but when she began to assume her role, she discovered that it was beginning to feel
Since the dawn of time, society’s views on inequalities have been its greatest shortcoming. The fact of the matter is, there are several aspects in society that determines these inequalities. In the novel Kindred by Octavia Butler, Dana is alienated from society through race, class, and gender. Thus, she faced much hardships and tribulations throughout the novel.
Society's outlook of African Americans caused Dana to be abused on many different levels, especially when she travels to the time of slavery. When Dana is in the 1800`s she is reduced to a slave. She is called not by her name, but is rather referred to as a nigger by her master and even some of the fellow slaves. She fights with Rufus to call her by her politically correct title of "black." She explains to him "I'm a black woman, Rufus. If you have to call me something other than my name, that's it." Her ancestor, Alice, implies to her that she has brown-nosed the white man so much that she has forgotten the color of her own skin. In the eleventh chapter of The Fight, Alice tells Dana "You ought to be ashamed of yourself, whining and crying after some poor white trash of a man, black as you are. You always try to act so white. White nigger, turning against your own people!" Dana's thoughts and feelings regarding equality for blacks and whites alike has caused her to be disdained by her own race. She is also besmirched in her own time period of the 1970's. When she is seen with Kevin by her employer, he makes rude comments concerning the two creating "chocolate and vanilla porn." Dana is outcaste in both worlds, causing her freedom, pride, and respect to be ripped away from her. Her race even determines her class.
Dana is isolated in society due to her social standing in the two time periods that she travels between. When she first arrived in the antebellum South, she was acting, but when she began to assume her role, she discovered that it was beginning to feel