Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

Octavia Estelle Butler was an American science fiction writer, iodin of very few African-American women in the field. In 1979, she published Kindred, a novel which uses the science fiction technique of time travel to search slavery in the United States.THESIS STATEMENTButler takes on and redrafts the Slave narrative by portraying the true circumstances of slavery as a coarse dark period during which the blacks were denied individuality and even humanity.INTRODUCTION TO THE TEXTThe novel relates the story of Dana, an African American woman living in 1976 who is repeatedly thrown backbone in time to the ante-bellum south. She is summoned by her root, Rufus, from the time he is a pincer through to adulthood. Rufus is white and from a slave owning family. Dana is placed in the nasty position of making certain that Rufus and Alice have a baby bird, Hagar, who is Danas direct ancestor Each time she travels back in time, she stays longer, and comes back solitary(prenominal) when he r life is in danger. She stops getting sent back in time after she kills Rufus.Jobs assigned to the slaves in the house and in the fieldsEnslaved heap had to clear new land, dig ditches, cut and haul wood, slaughter livestock, and off repairs to buildings and tools. In many instances, they worked as mechanics, blacksmiths, drivers, carpenters, and in other skilled trades. blue women carried the additional burden of caring for their families by cooking and taking plow of the children, as well as spinning, weaving, and sewing.The family structure of the slaves and the social relationships among the slavesSlaves married, had children, and worked hard to harbor their families together. wispy men, women, and children developed an underground culture through which they affirmed their humanity. stand servants would come down from the big house and give news of the senior pilot and mistress, or keep people laughing with their imitations of the whites.the relationship between slaves and their mastersBecause they lived and worked in much(prenominal) close proximity, house servants and their owners tended to form more complex relationships. Black and white children were especially in a position to form bonds with separately other. Black children might also become attached to white caretakers, such as the mistress, and white children to their black nannies. Because they were so young, they would have no ground of the system they were born into, as Dana reveals, Without knowing it, they prepared me to survive (pg94 Kindred) African American women had to endure the threat and the practice of sexual exploitation.There were no safeguards to foster them from being sexually stalked, harassed, or raped, or to be used as long-term concubines by masters and overseers. Soon after her last child is born, Alice runs away again because she fears that she will turn into just what people chat her (pg 235 Kindred). She fears that she will lose her sense of self and accept he r position as sexual chattel.CONCLUSIONSince the beginning of anti-African American reaction through our live contemporary society, slavery carries on to be a contentious and inappropriate issue. Slavery affects each individual living within the United States borders and throughout our world.No subject in the American past has provoked great discussion and inflamed more controversy than slavery. From the arrival of the first Africans at Jamestown in 1619, through the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, to contemporary historical debates, the presence and enslavement of Africans has been defended, attacked and analyzed.WORKS CITEDOctavia E. Butler (1979) Kindred, Page 94 and 235. Retrieved on first November 2006