Octavia E. Butler’s 1979 science fiction novel Kindred is a powerful tale of one woman’s time-traveling journey through a turbulent period of American history. The story follows Dana, an African-American woman who is being stuck in the past, transitioning between past and present between her home in California in the 1970s and a slave-owning family’s Maryland plantation in the early 1800s.
Throughout her journey, Dana struggles to reconcile her grasp on the present with her increasing awareness of the brutal realities of slavery. She transitions between the two time periods to help a distant relative and discovers she will only return to her own time once her task is completed. The only way for Dana to maintain her survival in the two time periods is to accept she must constantly switch between them. As she slowly comes to accept her position, she also discovers her own hidden strength, as well as the painful prejudices and difficulties of being both a woman and a person of color in a world that simultaneously upholds these injustices and ignores it.
The novel shifts between a few distinct narrative styles. In her own time, Butler writes the story in a matter-of-fact tone, but when Dana is back in her relative’s time, Butler utilizes a lyrical and vivid style well-suited to the graphic descriptions of this period. Butler engages a subtle and comprehensive narrative style that helps encapsulate her characters and relationships in a fully-realized culture.
Butler allows us to follow Dana through her transformation not just as a character, but as a witness to history by exploring the horrors of slavery and its lingering effects throughout the present. While Dana attempts to protect her ancestor from deadly punishments, she simultaneously takes on the role of an unwilling participant in her own suppression and oppression. Throughout her journey, the reader quickly understands how much social progress must occur for Dana and those like her to be truly safe and equal in their own time and in ours.
Aside from its literary merits, Butler’s Kindred also provides historically accurate descriptions of the physical and mental brutality that slaves were subjected to. Butler also delves into themes of memory, identity, and how past tragedies and traumas continue to haunt us in our present—all while emphasizing active advocacy and awareness, especially toward our African-American brethren. Her writing is both poetic and, at times, harrowing, as she recounts all the atrocities of the ancient slave-owning days. Butler’s focus on active empathy and individual thought to undo racism and sexism. In a world often concerned with a sterile sense of social justice, Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred provides an important reminder of the need to individualize acts of compassion and thoughtfulness.
Throughout her journey, Dana becomes aware of her own identity and grows as a more confident reflection of herself and of African-Americans in general. Her widening perspective grants the reader a greater understanding of the role each of us plays in our own and others’ liberation from oppressive forces. Ultimately, Butler conveys the idea that social progress can only be reached when people of all races, genders and backgrounds unite and strive for a unified goal. Her words serve to remind us that through social progress, all people can achieve equality, freedom and a better life for all.
