Dana and The Subprime

 Caulia Washington

Ms. Harris

1 May 2023

ENGL 2017-64187

Dana and The Subprime

            In the book, “Kindred” by Octavia Butler and the show based off the book, the main character, Dana, is able to time travel to the past. She learns that she is sent back to help her ancestors survive. The book depicts the subprime by demonstrating the exploitation of enslaved black people and the continuing systematic racism in the United States. The show based on the book implies that being able to travel through time is a generational gift brought onto the women in Dana’s family after they’ve turned twenty-six. Dana and the women before her are unwilling contributors to their ancestors. The mystery on how they are able to time travel contributes to the black gothic through Dana’s experience of trauma and oppression on the plantation.

            Butler wanted readers to explore the complex history of slavery and its ongoing impact on today’s society. “...effects on African-American consciousness, employing a time travel device to contrast then and now” (Richard 119). Traveling between time periods lets us see how times have changed but certain standards are still the same. As a black woman, Butler was aware that slavery and racism shaped the United States and illustrated the connection in her book. “Attesting that slavery remains an open wound in American culture.” given that reparations are still needed for the trauma of enslaved black people (Vint 242). Aside from Dana being able to time travel, Butler shows the reader how two worlds collide and there are new rules.

            Dana is brought into the past by a psychic link to Rufus Weylin, who is her great grandfather. She has to make sure he stays alive so her family bloodline can be born. Her first encounter with Rufus ends with a gun to her head simply because she is a black woman interfering with a white boy. In her present time, she is married to a white man therefore she sees nothing wrong with helping a little white boy. “The idea that different worlds abide by different rules is fundamental…” given that Butler wanted to emphasize Dana’s mental transition from one time period to another (Parham 1319). This transition is a link to black women of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. “Butler offers a bridge between the past and the present through time travels of her heroine, Dana.” (Mitchell 52) Dana’s experiences in the antebellum south haunt her even when she returns to her own time period, which highlights the trauma that continues to impact black people.

            Lastly, the portrayal of slavery is a horrific and traumatic experience contributing to the black gothic of exploring darker aspects of african american history. Butler portrayed a sense of unease with witnesses of brutalities of slavery through Dana’s eyes. “She must survive in an era that assumes the inferiority, availability, and enslavement of black women.” given that Dana is not seen as a person in this era but seen simply as a forcefully owned slave (LaCroix 110).

            In conclusion, Octavia Butler uses “Kindred” to illustrate the complexity of slavery and how slavery shaped the United States today. She wanted readers to see how this still has an ongoing effect on society. The book depicted the subprime by demonstrating the exploitation of the continuing systematic racism in the United States and enslaved black people. The mystery on how Dana and her ancestors are able to time travel contributes to the black gothic through Dana’s experience of trauma and oppression on the plantation. This book remains a powerful exploration of these themes and continues to resonate with today’s society.

 

 

Work Cited Page

LaCroix, David. “To Touch Solid Evidence: The Implicity of Past and Present in Octavia E. Butler’s ‘Kindred.’” The Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association, vol. 40, no. 1, 2007, pp. 109–19. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20464214. Accessed 1 May 2023.

Mitchell, Angelyn. “Not Enough of the Past: Feminist Revisions of Slavery in Octavia E. Butler’s ‘Kindred.’” MELUS, vol. 26, no. 3, 2001, pp. 51–75. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3185557. Accessed 1 May 2023.

Parham, Marisa. “Saying ‘Yes’: Textual Traumas in Octavia Butler’s ‘Kindred.’” Callaloo, vol. 32, no. 4, 2009, pp. 1315–31. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27743151. Accessed 1 May 2023.

Richard, Thelma Shinn. “Defining Kindred: Octavia Butler’s Postcolonial Perspective.” Obsidian III, vol. 6/7, 2005, pp. 118–34. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44511666. Accessed 1 May 2023.

Sherryl Vint. “‘Only by Experience’: Embodiment and the Limitations of Realism in Neo-Slave Narratives.” Science Fiction Studies, vol. 34, no. 2, 2007, pp. 241–61. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4241524. Accessed 1 May 2023.