Friday, November 6, 2009
Aura x 9
There is a point in the book when Fuentes says that "Aura is living in this house: to perpetuate the illusion of youth and beauty in that poor, crazed old lady." Thinking about this theory made me more and more convinced that that was the reason (or at least a major part) why Consuelo created Aura. She made her so when she became old and sick she would have some youth around her. To prove this statement more, I thought about how the cats fit into this story. Cats have 9 lives, something Consuelo could be jealous of. And that jealousy was being portrayed in the way she treated the cats when she was young (a.k.a. strangleing them). She is passed a 100 years old and very sick; the only thing keeping her going to finding a "general" for Aura.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
A Nonlinear Life
A hot topic in class while reading Kindred was whether or not Dana would still be born if she had not gone back in time and saved Rufus. I think that without Dana, Rufus would have died and without Rufus, Dana would have died (or would have never been born).
Dana was always a part of Rufus' life even though she was living in her time and going back in time to his time. In the book Rufus' life is in the past, but in his present time as a character, Dana is real. In order for Rufus to live the life he was meant to live, Dana had to be there- and in order for Dana to be there, she had to be born. Neither Dana nor Rufus could survive without the other.
Some people in class believe that Dana would have still been born even if she hadn't gone into the past to save Rufus, but this doesn't make any sense. If Rufus would have died then he and Alice would have never had their children and Dana would have never been born. Dana had to go back in time and save Rufus in order to be born.
Just as Dana had to rely on Rufus to be alive, Rufus has to rely on Dana to also be alive. They both need each other in order to survive and they both rely on Dana's ability to go back in time to survive.
Dana was always a part of Rufus' life even though she was living in her time and going back in time to his time. In the book Rufus' life is in the past, but in his present time as a character, Dana is real. In order for Rufus to live the life he was meant to live, Dana had to be there- and in order for Dana to be there, she had to be born. Neither Dana nor Rufus could survive without the other.
Some people in class believe that Dana would have still been born even if she hadn't gone into the past to save Rufus, but this doesn't make any sense. If Rufus would have died then he and Alice would have never had their children and Dana would have never been born. Dana had to go back in time and save Rufus in order to be born.
Just as Dana had to rely on Rufus to be alive, Rufus has to rely on Dana to also be alive. They both need each other in order to survive and they both rely on Dana's ability to go back in time to survive.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Deadly Love
Dana experiences much abuse and discrimination at Rufus’s hands, yet despite this, she retains the capacity to love him. However, this love proves detrimental not only to the people on the plantation but especially to Rufus himself.
At first, Dana’s love appears beneficial to Rufus, whose mother’s and father’s opposite styles of parenting fail to provide a stable upbringing. Dana hopes to instill morals in Rufus so that he will not grow into the rigid slaveholder reflected in his father. But this is a naïve and hopeless attempt. While Rufus needs stable and consistent love, he also requires a firm authority figure, one who can administer consequences aside from whipping. As she poses as a slave, Dana cannot hold this power. The only punishments Dana can use against him are guilt and abandonment, both passive techniques that cannot teach a headstrong child like Rufus. Therefore, Dana’s motherly actions are only half attempts lacking a fundamental task of parenting much like Rufus’s real mother.
While her authority is weak, the tender side of Dana’s love is neither smothering nor absent. Thus, Rufus clings to her love because it is the most nurturing love available to him. He comes to depend on it, and as he grows, feels he has a right to own it just as he “owns” Dana. This notion grows from Dana’s limitless love for him and the absence of an ethical law dictating how he should treat her. He believes that, no matter how vile his actions, Dana will always forgive him and feels confident in this thinking because Dana is legally subservient to him. Without an enforcement system, he grows up without respect for Dana and harbors instead the psyche of a master.
However, Dana fails to see this dangerous consciousness forming in Rufus. Alice warns her, “The more you give him, the more he wants,” but Dana ignores the caution. She continues giving Rufus her love, which he covets. Without the central authority, this outpouring translates to permission for Rufus to continue hurting slaves such as Sam. Thus, her love feeds his already supreme power, failing to achieve its original purpose: to teach Rufus kindness and compassion towards slaves. Rufus then steps beyond what little passive control she had over him as a child, believing he holds immunity to punishment. However, when he attempts to rape Dana, he finds his mistake too late. Dana, though she had saved and nurtured him his entire life, is forced to kill him in self-defense. Rufus had become dependent on her love because she offered it freely, and when he tries to take it, the attempt ends in his death. Thus, Dana’s love destroys Rufus, just as Rufus’s love nearly destroys Dana.
At first, Dana’s love appears beneficial to Rufus, whose mother’s and father’s opposite styles of parenting fail to provide a stable upbringing. Dana hopes to instill morals in Rufus so that he will not grow into the rigid slaveholder reflected in his father. But this is a naïve and hopeless attempt. While Rufus needs stable and consistent love, he also requires a firm authority figure, one who can administer consequences aside from whipping. As she poses as a slave, Dana cannot hold this power. The only punishments Dana can use against him are guilt and abandonment, both passive techniques that cannot teach a headstrong child like Rufus. Therefore, Dana’s motherly actions are only half attempts lacking a fundamental task of parenting much like Rufus’s real mother.
While her authority is weak, the tender side of Dana’s love is neither smothering nor absent. Thus, Rufus clings to her love because it is the most nurturing love available to him. He comes to depend on it, and as he grows, feels he has a right to own it just as he “owns” Dana. This notion grows from Dana’s limitless love for him and the absence of an ethical law dictating how he should treat her. He believes that, no matter how vile his actions, Dana will always forgive him and feels confident in this thinking because Dana is legally subservient to him. Without an enforcement system, he grows up without respect for Dana and harbors instead the psyche of a master.
However, Dana fails to see this dangerous consciousness forming in Rufus. Alice warns her, “The more you give him, the more he wants,” but Dana ignores the caution. She continues giving Rufus her love, which he covets. Without the central authority, this outpouring translates to permission for Rufus to continue hurting slaves such as Sam. Thus, her love feeds his already supreme power, failing to achieve its original purpose: to teach Rufus kindness and compassion towards slaves. Rufus then steps beyond what little passive control she had over him as a child, believing he holds immunity to punishment. However, when he attempts to rape Dana, he finds his mistake too late. Dana, though she had saved and nurtured him his entire life, is forced to kill him in self-defense. Rufus had become dependent on her love because she offered it freely, and when he tries to take it, the attempt ends in his death. Thus, Dana’s love destroys Rufus, just as Rufus’s love nearly destroys Dana.
Kindre(a)d: This is a reader's guide
1. What is the purpose of Dana's time travels?
2. "I could recall feeling relief at seeing the Weylin house, feeling that I had come home." (109) Why does Dana find a sense a comfort at returning to the Weylin house when she travels back in time?
3. What is the significance of Dana arriving back in time wearing "mens clothing"--i.e. pants and a blouse
4. What were the reasons for Alice's suicide? Do you think Alice would have done the same thing had Dana been there?
5. Why did Dana have to endure physical pain and destroy her own body so much to ensure she would be born? would she have been born if she did not go through with it?
6. how does Dana's naivete and ability to love affect the story? Are these traits beneficial or detrimental to Rufus, Alice, and the others of the plantation?
7. did the first person narrative have a stronger effect on the reader? how would the story have come across differently if not from the perspective of Dana?
8. although this story deals with a real history, it presents this history to the reader through the science fiction of time travel in a very unrealistic way, what effect does this have on the novel as a whole? how does this hinder the readers experience or enhance it.
9. How does Dana's going into the 1800's with a 1970's mind set affect her persona?
10. "how do you think Dana and Kevin's views of racism in their own time (1970's) have been affected by their experiences in the 1800's?
11. Should the environment or context that kindred is read in alter the reaction that readers have towards the text? For example does reading Kindred in 1979 publication date be different than when reading it today?moreover what might the novel say about todays society?
12. Race and time are critical forces within kindred. these are issues faced by each character.
A. Inferring from the text how would Dana and Kevin's experiences be different in the 1800's had their race been switched with Dana as a white woman and Kevin as a black man?
B. Referring to "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien, what does Dana "carry" through time?
Colorrrs
Time travel is something that I've always personally considered impossible, complete fiction. Yet I found the book Kindred to be incredibly realistic, and so at first I wondered why the author would fictionalize the story more by including this Sci-Fi element. This topic sort of got brought up in class however. Kindred brings up one of the most awkward issues to deal with, and that is the one of race. I think that through the book, the author shows that even though we as a society think that we are no longer anyway similar to back in the slave days, most of us still see in color, even though we can't help it. When Dana goes back in time, she is at first disgusted with society, and the way she is treated. She longs to go back home, and be in a society where there is no race issues. Yet after a closer observation we see this is not true. There are similarities between Rufus and Kevin. Both ask her to write for them. It says that Kevin, her husband "asked me to do some typing for him three times. I'd done it the first time, grudgingly, not telling him how much I hated typing...The second time he asked , thoughh, I told him and I refused. he was annoyed. the third time when I refuesed again he was angry. " He seemed to think it was her place to type for him, and got angry when she refused. He automatically assumed that Dana would willingly type all his work, which mirrors Rufus's attitude about Dana.
On another note, there are some interesting things that I found in the reading. One was the fact that when Dana goes back, she is wearing pants. I think this was no accident on the authors part; Dana is dressed in masculine clothing because she is different from all the other women in the novel. She wears men's clothing because she is a leader, and doesn't adapt to normal conventions. It's very symbolic because Dana is the most respected black woman in the book. Yeah maybe you find something else to add about this, but I found that pretty important.
"she didn't want to meet you wouldn't have you in her house- or me either if I married you. "
Monday, November 2, 2009
Not to totally kill my discussion questions but....
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 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.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Eureka!
Note: This post has nothing to do with the book that we are reading in class. It deals with an experience outside of the class.
I had no idea that I could use the knowledge of truth and lies of English Literature in the real world. I was so excited when I did! LUCAP does hunger relief every Sunday, providing sandwiches, fruit, and snacks for the homeless people at a particular homeless shelter. So, I went last Sunday and after about an hour, watching the men playing dominoes, cracking jokes, and laughing. I started to look around and see other homeless people behaving in a similar fashion then it suddenly hit me, these people know their life is depressing, but they enjoy the little things they have friends, having clothes on their back, and having some sort roof over their head. To a civilized society seeing that they're living their life like slum-dogs is the actual truth in the real world. These strangers that suffering in the depths of poverty become family to one another by sticking together being like a family unit, and having a sense of togetherness doesn't make their life seem so bad. The joy they have in their miserable life is their truth. This joy they have with the company of each other is the force that keeps them going. The miserable life that we, civilized young adults, see through our eyes is a lie to them.
There is another truth and lie that exists in the realm of the poor and civilized. We are really overprotected by our civilized society, our families or other people that influence our lives. They have always drilled the fact that homeless people are disgusting savages, and we should avoid them at all costs because we are superior to them. To me that is a lie.
This is only my second trip in three months that I have gone to the hunger relief activity. What surprised me the most during my recent trip to the homeless shelter was that they did not treat us, students, with the same cold shoulder we usually treat them out on the streets. It's like they are forcing us to see we are not savages, we are just like you, our life just...sucks! It's like I don't know, you meet them and they treat you like you have always been in their family. This protective superior society makes the judgment call based on what they see on the outside, the way they are dressed, their smell, and their etiquette's. I wish there wasn't such a misconception of these people. At least by interacting with them I can see the truth for myself and not carry such a misconception on my shoulders. That is the actual truth in my eyes.
Although, this whole trip was out of my comfort zone, who knew that this class would make me see things in life like this. Kudos to you Dr. Schwartz, keep up the great work!
I had no idea that I could use the knowledge of truth and lies of English Literature in the real world. I was so excited when I did! LUCAP does hunger relief every Sunday, providing sandwiches, fruit, and snacks for the homeless people at a particular homeless shelter. So, I went last Sunday and after about an hour, watching the men playing dominoes, cracking jokes, and laughing. I started to look around and see other homeless people behaving in a similar fashion then it suddenly hit me, these people know their life is depressing, but they enjoy the little things they have friends, having clothes on their back, and having some sort roof over their head. To a civilized society seeing that they're living their life like slum-dogs is the actual truth in the real world. These strangers that suffering in the depths of poverty become family to one another by sticking together being like a family unit, and having a sense of togetherness doesn't make their life seem so bad. The joy they have in their miserable life is their truth. This joy they have with the company of each other is the force that keeps them going. The miserable life that we, civilized young adults, see through our eyes is a lie to them.
There is another truth and lie that exists in the realm of the poor and civilized. We are really overprotected by our civilized society, our families or other people that influence our lives. They have always drilled the fact that homeless people are disgusting savages, and we should avoid them at all costs because we are superior to them. To me that is a lie.
This is only my second trip in three months that I have gone to the hunger relief activity. What surprised me the most during my recent trip to the homeless shelter was that they did not treat us, students, with the same cold shoulder we usually treat them out on the streets. It's like they are forcing us to see we are not savages, we are just like you, our life just...sucks! It's like I don't know, you meet them and they treat you like you have always been in their family. This protective superior society makes the judgment call based on what they see on the outside, the way they are dressed, their smell, and their etiquette's. I wish there wasn't such a misconception of these people. At least by interacting with them I can see the truth for myself and not carry such a misconception on my shoulders. That is the actual truth in my eyes.
Although, this whole trip was out of my comfort zone, who knew that this class would make me see things in life like this. Kudos to you Dr. Schwartz, keep up the great work!
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