Octavia Butler Kindred Themes

Octavia Butler, author of the novel Kindred, focuses on the main issues surrounding race and gender, and their effects on the experiences the characters in the story as they face slavery. The novel focuses on how the system of slavery shapes its central characters, emphasizing society’s power to effect a change in identities through certain race and gender. The construction of the concept of "race" and its connections to slavery are central themes in Butler’s novel. Butler uses the work of time travel in the novel to emphasize the preservation of past racial discrimination and its continuous display in present time.
The story begins in 1976 with an interracial couple moving into their new Southern California apartment. Dana, the protagonist and narrator of the novel, is married to Kevin Franklin, who is presented as a relatively progressive white man for marrying a black woman, despite the objections of his family. In presenting an interracial relationship, establishing the story’s core idea, Kindred challenges the traditional mindset associated with race. The disapproving actions of characters in the past and the present towards Dana and Kevin’s integrated relationship represents the inseparability of whites and blacks in America and highlights the traditional racism presented in both communities.
Dana first
The threat of violence hinders all of the character’s decisions, as well as, shapes their personalities. The white characters in the novel, predominately the males, believe it is their born right and duty to inflict harm on the African American slaves they control, and in which they view as nothing more than a piece of property. This fear of violence provides the African American characters the knowledge that any act of rebelliousness, independence, or cleverness will result in a wide degree of