Kindred
Octavia Butler
Although the book Kindred is a science fiction novel about time travel, it is so realistic that it simply seemed like it was a non-fictional novel. I have read many books on time traveling and slavery, but this book includes both topics. Dana, the protagonist, is a time traveler who goes back to 1815, the time period when slavery was still a huge issue. She only returns when Rufus, a boy she rescued drowning during her first time travel back into the past, gets into accidents or scrapes. Having her to rescue Rufus several times, she was soon taken to his home where she was treated racially because she was a black woman while Rufus’ family was white.
As her life was in danger, she was able to time travel back to her own time period in 1972, but that wasn’t for long. She returned to the past, this time along with her husband, Kevin, to of where Rufus was and it had already been years since she last visited. Being ‘invited’ into Rufus’ house, they introduced themselves by saying that Dana was Kevin’s slave to match the time period as well as to hide that they were from the future. As time passes by, Dana is treated fully like a slave and is treated brutally by Rufus’ father because he feared her knowledge. He feared that her education would bring his other slaves to fight back against him. The book itself is basically about Dana’s experience in slavery having her to understand the situation better. Her experience also did make her courageous since she had to go through all the hardship. I do enjoy reading non-fictions because it tells me a story of our history and Kindred is much of a historical story with an idea of time traveling which I find it very interesting. There are lot of people who enjoy reading fictional books because it tend to give them entertainments, but those books are ‘fictional’ and it does not really teach of us about the world we are living in. This novel simply gives us the excitement in reading a science fictional novel, however also allow us to know the world we were living in. Slavery surely was a huge issue in the past that it is a topic we should never avoid since we have to accept that racism was a huge issue and it still is.
The subtlety of time traveling in Kindred is very similar to the time traveling in The Time Traveler’s Wife. Both of these novels do not show the ‘good side’ of time traveling. When I was much younger, I always thought of time traveling as something very exciting, something that people would want to do to go back in time to change something the way you would want it to change. In these two books, the protagonists weren’t wishing to time travel, but rather was something that happened naturally that it simply gave us a negative aspect of time traveling. I think it was much more effective by showing time traveling in a negative way because it does connect with the world we are living in now. It’s so realistic that it gives us an idea that all those we thought were awesome as a child may not be so great.
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