Kindred vs. Man in the High Castle

While reading Kindred, I couldn't help but compare it to the other novels we have read this semester. What stuck with me were the connections I made to Man in the High Castle. In both novels, there is the issue of multiple realities and how the characters deal with and live in these realities. Both novels also deal with race.

In Man in the High Castle, the characters live in a world in which the Axis Powers won the war, but are also presented with an alternate reality in The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, a reality that we come to recognize as "true" by the end of the novel. In Kindred, Dana is forced to live in the harsh reality of the antebellum south, while continuing to hold the knowledge of what life is like in the 1970s. I thought it was interesting that in both novels the characters live in one reality but are aware of another.

Another similarity that struck me was that both novels deal with the issue of race. In Kindred, the characters are confronted with slavery and the unequal treatment of blacks, whereas characters in MITHC are oppressed by the Germans and the Japanese.

More interestingly, though, was that in both novels the characters facing discrimination had knowledge of of an alternate reality, and in these realities racial tensions were not the same. For example, in the reality of The Grasshopper Lies Heavy whites would not have been discriminated against, and in Dana's life in the 1970s slavery was outlawed and racial tensions, although still present, had been eased. However, regardless of this knowledge, characters in both books find themselves adjusting to their position as an inferior race. As Dana said, "I never realized how easily people could be trained to accept slavery." I found this concept to be disturbing, and I thought it was interesting that both novels touch on this subject.