Kindred Argumentative Essay Love is more addictive than drugs. It exploits a person’s weakness. Love consumes a person and opens the gate to a number of overwhelming feelings that wouldn’t open for anything else. It is uncontrollable no matter how hard a person will resist from it. In the book, Kindred, by Octavia E. Butler, a black woman named Dana, who lives in the late 1970’s, time travels to a boy with a death wish in the early 1800’s. Later as the plot continues, it is revealed that this boy, Rufus, is in fact her ancestor, and she must protect him for his life and her own. The plot shows off Dana’s neverending courage to survive throughout all the obstacles that are thrown in her way. There are also many issues that are discussed …show more content…
Most people would rather get physically assaulted than go through a breakup. Even when a person broke his/her heart; this alone proves that love is uncontrollable. Kindred is revolved around Dana traveling back in time when Rufus’ life is at risk. She was called back when Rufus was about to get beaten to death and as he was about to drown. In other scenarios, Dana travelled back for the same reason; because Rufus’s being was in danger. But at the last travel, there was something different than the other times. Rufus wasn’t being hurt physically. Dana was teleported right when after Rufus discovers a woman that hung herself, Alice, whom he loved despite how insane his actions were towards her. Some people thought that Rufus was only obsessed with her and loved the idea of having her, not actually loving Alice. This shows how much Rufus truly loved Alice, no matter how much people try to argue against it. The reason why Dana travelled back was merely because Rufus’s life was at stake when he knew that Alice was dead. He couldn’t live without her. One can’t get rid of any emotions that they had towards another previously; it always sticks with them. A person can’t forget about a heartbreak or a loss; that’s what makes love so
Using time travel, Octavia Butler creates a new view of racism in her novel, Kindred, by having Dana experience the life of a slave from an outsider's perspective. Though Dana’s present is far from a race utopia, it has drastically improved the problems of the past. In the past, Dana is surprised to find herself growing used to the injustices which surround her. Overall, traveling gives Dana first-hand experience at how slavery warped slaves’ perception of freedom.
So he started giving them to her even though it pained him to see her getting hurt. Even after he gave her very pleasant memories the bad ones had already
Kindred In the novel Kindred, the author uses the source of time travel to travel back to the nineteenth century in the United States, to experience the lifestyle of enslaved African Americans by the Whites. Traveling back in time, the author uses Dana to revert to slavery, experiencing abuse and having to adapt quickly to the environment. Readers can experience both mental and psychical experiences the antebellum slaves experienced during this time, though treatment varied from master to master, the diurnal living of a slave was still difficult. Throughout the novel, differences of the modern and past time are illustrated to see how the society has changed with time and how it responds to the decision and the way of life of others.
In Kindred, Octavia E. Butler talks about a young African American aspiring writer that goes on a dangerous journey to Maryland in the eighteen hundreds. The eighteen hundreds was a time where slavery was a common thing in America. Dana, the main character, has a connection with a young white boy from the eighteen hundreds, named Rufus. As the story unfolds, we learn that Rufus would bring Dana back in time when he was in danger. Unfortunately, Dana’s experience in the eighteen hundreds was far from an adventure.
She is only transported back through time when his life is in danger. Since Dana is a Black woman and Kevin, her husband is White, she would have to adjust to things that perhaps she wouldn't have thought about. In the past it was a terribly, unusual thing. Dana says, “You, uh ... don’t have any relatives or anything who’ll give you a hard time about me, do you?”
With Denny’s wife Eve dying, his daughter Zoey being taken away, and being accused of crime, Denny’s story teaches the message that grief changes people. Denny started realizing that the time spent with Eve was precious. That night when Enzo and Denny left the twins house (really Eve’s parents) unknowing to them that Eve would pass away that night. Enzo could feel it in his bones that she left. “She died that night.
Respondent three is 24 years old and identify himself as Caucasian. He is unemployed and has only completed his sophomore year in high school. He is single but has a three years old daughter named Ada. He was in a relationship with his daughter’s mom when he was 19 or 20 years old. He grew up in New Port Richey, Florida.
Maybe in that moment, she became aware that Gilbert had no choice to stay here till the end of his life and had no ability to carry the weight of love and hope. He could only consider that Becky was a temporary dream of freedom for him. But she returned him her love deeply even though she knew that one day she has to go and he could only stay here. Believing that’s so hard for a girl in hot love to accept the truth easily that they will be divided soon.
In Kindred, Dana’s narrative entirely revolves around the slaveholding American narrative of Rufus which illustrates the second fiddle notion of Dana’s identities. The fact that she can only time travel when white man, Rufus, mortally needs her demonstrates that her entire story regardless of time is dictated by the White Man (Butler 12). Furthermore regarding time fragmentation, the imagery of Dana’s body being in a constant state of scars, bruises, and general crisis in 1976 and 1819 while Rufus’ body and life continues in a progressive linear state depicts how the white historical narrative continues to strut along time whereas the black, female, American narrative continues to be an unhealed wound discarded alongside white-American-male chronology. This notion is expressed when Dana puts her bodily pain to the side in order to sexually usher love and welcoming to Kevin’s five year journey in Antebellum south (Butler 190). Essentially Dana’s body politics do not exist in a state of paradox because through Butler’s textual portrayal of embodiment, she was and still remains as an
THE COURSE OF LOVE It is generally recognized that the course of love rarely runs smoothly. But it took two university professors to plot the course that love takes in the lives of actual young people. Professors Kirkpatrick and Caplow found that the most usual course of love is one starting with mutual indifference and moving upward through attraction to love, and then either dropping again to indifference, with the broken love affair, or remaining in love at a high level of mutual involvement. One out of every five love affairs studied is irregular in its course, with unpredictable shifts from love to hate to indifference to liking in various combinations throughout the history of the relationship.
In this case George has been in jail and has not been able to see his mother but in my opinion with her just sending him food he could feel her close to him. No matter the distance the small things are the things that make us feel the love from our loved ones. Also on page 99. on January 12,1967 George wrote a letter to his mother saying that he received her letter and that for many years he has never felt this close to her. When George writes back to his mother he asks why she left him struggling on his own for so long, but then he starts to assume some possible answers.
In death she no longer has to face any consequences. Later, after Alice died, in his grief Rufus tries to make a move on Dana. Dana decides to grab her knife in a desperate move to escape being raped. “A slave was a slave. Anything could be done to her.
Ultimately, The moment of resolution and forgiveness, as well Elaine’s acknowledgement of the bond between herself and Cordelia, is strongly framed in
Dana confronts him about his lies of sending the letter, asking, “are you planning to hide more lies from me?” (Butler 179). By not mailing the letters as he told Dana he would, Rufus broke his promise, a promise that was extremely important to Dana. In doing so, Rufus broke not only broke his promise but subsequently destroyed Dana’s trust in him. As a result of Dana not being able to trust Rufus, when Rufus attempts to rape her, Dana is unable to guarantee her safety and is consequently forced to stab him.
And she even goes on to say when he tried to kill himself with rat poison and then by successfully killing himself by a gun shot in the mouth was love too. Then Laura says “Well, Nick and I know what love is—For us, I mean” but never really explains it but uses a gesture of a kiss on Laura’s hand to describe it. Then Mel tells a story where an old couple was in an accident due to a drunk teenager and was bad off with “multiple fractures, internal injuries, hemorrhaging, contusions, and lacerations” “Giving them a fifty-fifty chance, maybe less than that for her” to survive (Carver 178-180).