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The Character In Octavia Butler's Kindred

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The Character In Octavia Butler's Kindred
Dana is teleported back to the Antebellum South for the second time and finds Rufus near burning draperies. She quickly pulls the boy away and finds herself in a conversation with him. She finds out the young boy’s name is Rufus. The conversation continues and Dana begins to realize that the boy she just met, Rufus, is related to her. Dana then says to herself, “Was that why I was here? To insure my family’s survival, to insure my own birth?” (page 29). What Dana says is a crucial part in the novel. Butler wants the reader to get a clue of why she is there and why she needs to do everything she can to survive. Therefore, she is not only surviving for her family’s sake, but for her own

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