The wonderful book Kindred, by Octavia Butler was very interesting. Kindred is a science fiction novel that is written in a first person narrative. We follow the life of Dana Franklin, who was a young African American woman, who made her name for herself as a published author. The setting of the book takes place in 1976, but then Dana is pulled back into her ancestors past in 1819. Dana is married to a Caucasian man, which was very uncommon for this time period.
The way the author breaks the story up is by different sections. The River, The Fall, The Fight, The Storm, and The Rope. Within each of these stories, we follow the life of Dana's ancestor Rufus. Rufus was a slave owner at the time and was Rufus is not portrayed as the best man, he abuses his slaves. We also come to find that Rufus has a deep obsession for his slave Alice. Rufus took advantage of Alice and as a result she tried to run away. Rufus then sent the four children that she had with him with away to teach her a lesson. As a result Alice kills herself. This was a turning point and very tragic event within the story.
The story was very interesting and I enjoyed reading it a lot. As we all realize that slavery was bad and a time of major pain and suffering for the African American culture, Butler takes us on a journey through the eyes of a passionate and suspenseful story. On he opposing side, I feel that some ideas within the story were difficult to connect too (science fiction), but it opened my eyes to a new perspective on writing. I feel that Kindred was a very good book and I feel as if it is a story that should be shared with many others!!!
1 comment:
I liked the way the author broke up the book into sections also, however it really did take me a minute to get into the flow of the book. to be honest, i kept thinking that she was dreaming up until i got to about page 50. I know its silly, but i do like the themes about survival and race and love though
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