I am still amazed at how real Kindred is. Butler doesn't pull any punches and keeps Dana as real as it gets, Kevin too.
I know, its sci-fi, how is it even remotely real? Hold your laughing for a moment and let me explain.
In Kindred Dana becomes a slave. She doesn't buck the system and she doesn't do what most "conventional" authors would have her do. Yes, she is horrified by the lives of the slaves, yes, she hates Tom Weylin and, in the end, Rufus too. But she becomes an obedient slave. Kevin becomes an abolitionist, true, but he also recognizes the slave-master dynamic and accepts it as part of the time he is living in.
Everyone of us would like to think that if we got drawn back into some undesirable time period that we would rebel against the time, stick to our modern roots of equality and what not. But in all honesty there are few people strong enough not to be changed by the dominant culture. We'd all like to think that if we were drawn back to the ante-bellum south that we would help free slaves and burn down plantations and become vocal abolitionists. Or if we had the unlucky circumstance to become a slave that we would be disobedient and would run away at our earliest convenience.
Butler knows better. She knows that the easiest path is that of least resistance and that most people flow that way. Butler doesn't presume to create a superhuman character who doesn't fear for her life or for her flesh. This understanding creates Dana, who is about as average a human as you can get. Above average intelligence, but average mortal fear.
I'd like to sit here and think that I'd rather get horse whipped than submit to a master, a person who is operating under the assumption that they OWN me. But in the back of my head I know that I love my own skin too much and am no glutton for pain. Butler writes in Dana a woman that is like most women, like most of the human race, a self-preservationist.
This is probably one of the most realistic texts yet.
I completely agree with everything that you wrote. I know personally if I was African American and went back in time to the ante-bellum South, I would conform to that society despite my want to go against it.
ReplyDeleteThis conformity can be seen in modern society today, as well. If you were moved away from the city that you grew up in for your whole life and were placed in a town where everyone rode horses everywhere and worshipped Zeus, it would be incredibly hard to go against the norm in that society- it would just make your life harder. This is exactly what happens to Dana. It was easier and safer for her to conform to this society no matter how much she hated it.
You bring up many good points in your blog, and I have to agree that Butler’s realistic portrayal of Dana is best, even though I was dying for Dana to give Rufus a good punch throughout the novel. But while she is not obstinately rebellious, which would be suicide, she never completely succumbs to Rufus’s will, either. Whenever he makes her angry enough, she threatens to turn her back on him the next time his life is in danger, though perhaps this is more implied than stated. Until the very end, this tactic works. Also, the ending proves that Dana has her limits and will not be ruled by her fear of Rufus. She resolutely refuses to allow him to rape her, and this gives her the courage to finally kill him in self-defense. So, while fear may be the ultimate force that wins her submission, I think she also chooses her battles.
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