Essay 4

Mohammed Abdulkareem
Norman Wacker
07/13/2024
English 204
Kindred Interpretations
Octavia E. Butler, the author of the captivating novel “Kindred” spoke many truths about
the world before and its relationship to the world today. According to Nnedi Okorafor
who wrote Kindered’s intro “It is a narrative that deftly connects America’s past, present,
and future through the use of mysterious time travel” (Butler, 9). Octavia transcends
history to gloss over aspects of its records that define the very nature of humanity. The
center of her masterpiece, the Weylin plantation, is her connection to the past during the
early 19th century where she exposes to view the cruelty of slavery, its humiliating
nature, as well as the forces that justified and allowed it to persist for so long. These
forces included economic interests, racial inferiority, and the use of violence and
intimidation. By exposing the reality of slavery, Butler sheds light on the tendency of
human nature to accept injustice and the origins of kinship among the characters of
slavery. In doing so, she draws parallels to modern American society.
To start to understand the themes within this text, it's important to understand the
story. The protagonist Dana is a time traveler that is restricted by her ability to access
the past to specific occasions when her ancestor Rufus Weylin (the son and heir to the
Weylin estate) is in life threatening situations. Through her time travels, Dana sees the
miserable conditions of slavery in the plantation. Dana is horrified by how deplorable the
conditions were of the slaves. She sees how their lives were tightly controlled as
anything from walking outside without papers, reading, choosing who to be in a
relationship with, or defying the word of their masters in any way could warrant the use
of the whip, being sold, or thrown in jail, among other forms of cruel punishment. The
excessive use of violence is portrayed throughout the text. For instance, on her second
visit to the past, Dana went to visit Alice’s house when she accidentally witnessed two
men drag a black man from Alice’s home inspecting the owner’s permission to leave the
plantation. When they didn’t find it, they tied him to a tree and whipped him until he
nearly fainted, then left to return him to the plantation. Violence was a powerful tool that
maintained the structure of slavery, giving slaves no opportunity to question it’s validity
as they were often coerced into accepting it.
Apart from showing the brutality of slavery within the last example, Butler also
expresses the economic forces behind it. It is revealed by Alice’s mother whom the
blackman was whipped for visiting what was the real reason why he didn’t have
permission from his master to visit her. According to her “he never gets a pass because
Weylin wants him to pick a new wife. A slave wife, so he can own all their children”
(Butler, 51). Here, the reality of the situation underlines some of the leading causes of
why slavery was so harsh. As slaves were seen as property by their owners, they were
viewed as capital that was to be invested in order to make the maximum profits possible
so seeing them as people was no longer an important priority as their profitability. Given
that slavery was profitable to the owners, it was more easily accepted despite its
immorality.
Similar to how profits justified slavery, race also played a key role in maintaining
slavery. By viewing slaves as less, owners felt they often needed to keep them in their
place, justifying the use of violence. The text gives readers plenty of opportunity to get
acquainted with how owners viewed their slaves. Among several examples of
degradation to prove superiority, we see Dana reading for Margret (Rufu’s mother) who
was sick at the time, only to get in response a this remark “I swear if I close my eyes
while you talk, I forget your’e a nigger” (Butler, 196). This example shows the extent of
racial inferiority that sets distinct boundaries between races. Black people during that
time were seen of lower status, so much so that it didn’t seem right to Margaret to be
spending time with her. The race factor was clearly influential in getting people to accept
the disparity in status, conditioning people to accept slavery.
The more Dana comes back to the past, the more grueling the experience becomes.
Following her accidental return to the past with her husband Kevin, they are surprised to see
two little black children playing a game where they pretend to sell each other. Dana reacts by
commenting on the nature of humanity. She notes “I never realized how easily people could be
trained to accept slavery” (Butler, 92). Seeing children accept slavery with ease, while ignoring
how unethical the practice was an eye-opener for Dana. She learned from that experience that
people can be trained to accept injustice, even to themselves as those children had shown. This
natural tendency to forget values and accept social norms no matter how unjust is intentionally
incorporated in Butler’s novel to notify readers that slavery and injustice are not just shadows of
US history but are something that can in fact be repeated through conditioning that
overshadows morality. Butler’s warning opens our eyes to such dangers in our modern life
today.
Even Though Dana sees how distinct slaves and their owners are at the Weylin’s estate,
she begins to understand as she lingers there that in a sense the Weylins and their slaves are a
kin to each other through unspoken relationships that lead to children between them. Recurring
examples of such relationships include Weylin who took a female slave named Tress as a
mistress and fathered children from her who he later sold into slavery. A comparatively more
ethical example is Rufus fathering children from a different slave he fell in love with named
Alice. The future of children they had was largely influenced by Dana who took it upon herself to
teach them to read and tried her best to convince Rufus to free them after their mother’s death.
The children of slave owners and their slaves draw parallels to modern society by showing how
closely related Americans have become due to their complicated history.
Overall, Kindred is a marvelous feat of communication by Octavia E. Butler conveys

many themes of the past that people would benefit from learning about in order to steer away
from a bleak future where people accept injustice just because it is the norm. With economic
interests, racial stereotypes, and the use of force, people can be easily conditioned to accept
inequality so it is important to stay mindful of such practices in order to avoid them.
References:
2017 Octavia Butler, Damian Duffy (ed) - kindred - a graphic novel adaptation (illus John
Jennings) - RCWL PDF | PDF | Octavia E. Butler. (n.d.-a).
https://www.scribd.com/document/479147277/2017-Octavia-Butler-Damian-Duffy-ED-Kind
red-A-Graphic-Novel-Adaptation-Illus-John-Jennings-Rcwl-pdf

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Mohammed Abdulkareem

Overall, Kindred is a marvelous feat of communication by Octavia E. Butler conveys

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