Term Paper

Term Paper: Kindred

This book really touched me in a way that I wasn’t expecting it to. I have read many books in my lifetime, but this one really affected my feelings. I have read about slavery throughout our history, but for some reason this book really put it into perspective for me. I choose the pages 169 – 179 and in these ten pages, for me, it really goes into great detail the risks that some slaves took in order to be free. This paper will talk about the book and its meaning from a text-self stage, text-text stage, and text-world stage.
In the book, Dana time travels back into the era of slavery. She is a black woman and in present time she is married to a white man. Dana travels back to the era, but Kevin decided to tag along. When Dana returns to the present, Kevin isn’t able to return with her; leaving him stuck in the past for five years. She finally comes back and tries to find him to bring him home, but doesn’t know where he is. Now that you understand what has happened up till now, I am going to discuss my ten pages and why I choose them.
This is the stage of text-self reading where I will discuss the book from an “I” point of view. It starts out with Dana contemplating whether she should try and run away or stay and be a slave? She was still worried about Kevin, but stopped asking Rufus for his help. He started to control Dana by threatening others. He would sell the other slaves just to make sure that Dana stayed on the plantation. This next part is where I find it to be very interesting. Dana decides she is going to run away after she finds out that Rufus never sent the letters to Kevin. She gets the courage to follow through with her plans and to me that says she is a fighter. She understood what would happen to her if she got caught, but that wasn’t going to stop her from trying to get to Kevin.
She finds herself walking down a pitch dark road in the middle of the night praying that nothing or no one would find her. She’s scared to death about what could happen, but she keeps walking on down the road. I think this really puts into perspective what really happened. I’ve learned in history classes about slavery, but that’s just the basics. When reading this section I really truly felt that every slave tried to run away at least once. That was the only hope they had in life; thinking that maybe this one time could be my way out. She showed great courage to walk down that road and never look back.
The book continues on a few more pages about her walking down the road, but then it moves on to an event that got my emotions raised. Dana sees two horsemen coming towards her slowly. She darts into the woods and hides behind a large bush. She knows that if she makes a sound she’s done for, so she huddles into a ball and holds her breath. During this whole scene I find myself picturing what it must have been if it was me in Dana’s shoes. The scene was written in great detail that it was hard not to picture yourself in that situation. The minute they stopped in front of her bush I knew she was found. “He couldn’t have seen me, couldn’t have seen anything other than a possible hiding place. He plunged his horse into bushes that hid me, plunged it in to either trample me or drive me out”. He drove her out and tackled her to the ground and told her “you didn’t have to do it.” Rufus liked Dana so in that regards I feel that’s why her life was saved that day. This whole scene was very intense for me. I found myself holding my breath as I read the part about Rufus plunging his horse into the bushes that hid Dana. I was terrified for her, even though it is just a book, I can’t help but feel that somebody did go through something like this during this era.
The next section for me really touched on the relationship factor that was created between Rufus and Dana. He really admired her for some reason, but I feel that in order for him to be respected by fellow white men, he needed to be mean and violent like his father. A part of me felt that he really didn’t want to hurt anyone, but had no choice because society was pressuring him to be somebody he wasn’t. After Dana was found, she rode back with Rufus. He had tied her feet and hands together, but at one point he untied her. This to me was his soft side coming through. He didn’t want her in any more pain then what she already was in. Dana’s side was killing her and he noticed, so when she got back on his horse he told her “will you lean back on me before you fall off! You got more pride then sense.” His gentleness towards Dana gives a little twist into what I already thought of Rufus. It made me realize that people can change and maybe for the better. Since Dana had to be punished for leaving, Rufus warned her that she would get the cowhide and she did. She was tied from her wrist and hung from the barn ceiling. She was unaware that Rufus was the one that cut her down and brought her to Carrie’s and Nigel’s cabin to help her. He demanded them to help Dana get better. “How he demanded that everything used on me be clean, how he insisted on the deep ugly wound in my side-the scratch-being carefully cleaned and bandaged.”(Kindred, pg. 176 – 177) The fact that he cares about how she is taken care shoes that he does have a heart and the only person he shows that to is Dana.

I will now talk about my text-text stage which deals with the analysis of Kindred and another text. I choose the text, “Uncritical Exuberance”? by Judith Butler to discuss the similarities between both of her writings along with discussing how Kindred relates to the movie The Butterfly Effect.
I found an article written by Judith Butler called “Uncritical Exuberance?” In the article she discusses this years election between McCain and Obama. She mainly focuses on Obama and how the United States would be affected if he was elected President. She states that he will give hope to all races, but more importantly he will show the light to those who may not get the chance to see it. He is the symbol of success and hope to all minorities from all over the world. There was a phrase that really stuck out for me and it made me think about how it relates to Kindred.

“We are a nation of many races, of mixed races; and he offers us the occasion to recognize who we have become and what we have yet to be, and in this way a certain split between the representative function of the presidency and the populace represented appears to be overcome.” (Uncritical Exuberance, ¶ 6)

After reading this passage, I instantly thought about Dana and the other slaves. Dana is from an era where many different ethnicity and races mix together on a daily basis. When she returns back to the Weylin’s plantation, she brings that culture back with her. She is the example of what life could be. She didn’t have the limitations they have, which allowed her to life her life the way she wanted. She gives hope to the others that maybe one day they too can read or write and be free from slavery. She makes them believe that there is more to life then slavery. The sentence, “and he offers us the occasion to recognize who we have become and what we have yet to be,” really pinpoints the message. Butler is telling us that Obama is making us realize who we have become. Our society has kept us in a certain culture for way too long and now we need change. He needs us to realize that we can be better people if make efforts to be better. That same message is hidden in Kindred. Throughout the story, you witness how the others are okay with their jobs. At one point Sarah says she’s only good in the kitchen and Dana realizes that she’s only good doing housework. After doing a certain job for so long, you start to think that’s all you’re good at. When Dana teaches Nigel to read, she helps him realize that he is more then somebody who does all the handy work on the plantation; he is capable of much more.
Throughout the whole article on Obama, Butler really drives home the feeling that as Americans, we have power, we have freedom, no matter what race or ethnicity. She lets us know that we can do whatever we want if we work hard at it. She wants us to realize that we do have futures of our own and that we don’t have to rely on anybody else to help us. We have the power to control ourselves. The book really teaches us that same concept. Dana gave hope and the will to believe in yourself to the other slaves on the plantation, she allowed them to understand they are in control on their own lives.
Now I would like to compare this book to the movie The Butterfly Affect. This movie deals with similar concepts. The main character Evan, suffers from flashbacks as well, but the only difference is he goes back to when the memory started. Evan relives the memory just as it happened, over and over again. Dana isn’t able to control her flashbacks, she was controlled by Rufus. Evan’s problem is when he has a flashback, he has the chance to change the outcome, but with that comes consequences. Dana can’t change the fact that slavery happened or the fact that Rufus Weylin was a slave owner. All Dana could do was help the others survive. The movie deals with making the right decisions. If Evan would have done something different the first time, then maybe the outcome wouldn’t have been so bad.
You’ve read about my text-self stage and my text-text stage of reading, but now you will read my final stage in text-world. Kindred is about a women who time travels back to the antebellum South, but its also about our nations history on slavery. To think that something like slavery still exists in today’s society is mind boggling, but the truth is its still happening.
Darfur is a southwest region in Sudan and for the past six years they have been under- attack by their own people. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed so far. (The Genocide in Darfur, pg. 1) Many are fleeing to near by countries, but most are stuck in Darfur. The ones who are stuck there are being turned into slaves. Women and children are being separated every day and in some cases children are being turned into mini-soldiers. Young or old, female or male, it doesn’t matter to them. They see human beings as slaves and that’s all they want them for.
While reading Kindred, I thought instantly of Darfur. These people have no escape; they are trapped in their own world. In the book, it really showed slavery at its worse, but the sad thing is it’s really happening. In Kindred, we read about how the Weylin’s sold off Sarah’s children and when they would have auctions. Slave owners had no remorse for slaves that had families. They didn’t care if it broke apart families and lovers. That same concept is happening right now in Darfur. Children are growing up without either parents or even family because someone else is making up how their lives should be lived.
There are some cases in Darfur that deal with women being slaved into sex. I found an article that expresses this issue from four young women who escaped from the slavery of sex.

"The Janjaweed were out attacking another village. So we ran. We hid in the trees at night, and walked during the day. It was many days before we arrived at a refugee camp where, to my joy, I found my husband. We cried and cried--we both thought the other was dead--and I told him everything. He accepted me back. We are trying to piece together our lives again." (We Escaped Sex Slavery in Darfur, pg 2)

These women had to start all over. In Kindred, you saw a glimpse of this same issue between Rufus and Alice. Alice at first resisted Rufus, but then he basically forced her to be with him. She figured why fight it; she couldn’t avoid him forever. Rufus owned her and if she didn’t obey him then she either was beaten or starved for days. The women in Darfur and the women that lived through slavery in the United States have gone through something that nobody should have to go through.
When reading the book we only got an idea of what it really was like, but we have proof of what it was like by looking at the images of Darfur. People having nothing to eat, drink or to even cloth themselves; what do they have to live for? Many just want to give up on life because if this is what life is all about, they want no part of it. The slavery in Darfur has survived for six years now and doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. Everyday more and more people are being killed or being turned into slaves. When is it all going to end before there is nobody left? It really puts into perspective of how lucky we all are for living here in the United States. Yes we still do have our own issues, but we have our freedom; that’s all they want, but some of us take that for granted. Some of them would die for their freedom and that’s the truth.
When looking back on my journey in my reading so far, I have realized that I have opened my mind to other possibilities. I would have never thought that Darfur and Kindred would be one of the same or how movies can relate to stories even if they’re not about them. I have really enjoyed this class because it has given me a different outlook on literature. I now look at a piece of literature and think what else is it saying? I really enjoy finding the hidden meanings in a book and thanks to this class I now enjoy reading more often.

Works Cited
Butler, Octavia E. Kindred. Boston: Beacon Press, 2003.
Butler, Octavia E. “ Uncritical Exuberance”. Indymedia. 2008. Retrieved on Nov 20, 2008 from http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/11/05/18549195.php
Dominguez, Juliette. “We Escaped Sex Slavery in Darfur.” Glamour. 2008. Retrieved on Nov 20, 2008 from http://www.glamour.com/magazine/2008/02/sex-slaves-in-darfur?currentPage=1
“The Genocide in Darfur – Briefing Paper.” Saving Darfur. 2008. Retrieved on Nov 16, 2008 from http://www.savedarfur.org/pages/background/.