“And I began to realize why Kevin and I had fitted so easily into this time. We weren’t really in. We were observers watching a show. We were watching history happen around us. And we were actors. While we waited to go home, we humored the people around us by pretending to be like them. But we were poor actors. We never really got into our roles. We never forgot that we were acting” (98).
I found this quote to be especially interesting because I feel that Dana is completely wrong in this respect. The reason she and Kevin fit in so well is because they have fully become integrated in their antebellum roles. There are numerous instances when we see how easy Dana seems to forget certain aspects about 1976. For example, when Nigel asks her to read she is completely caught off guard: “The request surprised me, then I was ashamed of my surprise. It seemed such a natural request” (98). It's evident that she is already forgetting typical behavior and questions that she would hear in 1976.
Additionally, when Dana returns to 1976 without Kevin, she finds it impossible to fully live her old life. During the eight days she spends home, her behavior implies that she is waiting to return to the South, rather than enjoying her last days of freedom before she returns back to the South. She has grown used to living in this world of cruelty. I think she’s conditioned herself to accept being treated as a slave and has forgotten certain behaviors from 1976. When she returns to California, she has a difficult time slipping back into her twentieth-century self.
I also found that quote intriguing and somewhat frightening. Dana and Kevin are slowly changing and transforming into their fake identities of slave and slaveholder to a point where they can no longer live their actual lives in 1976 comfortably. In my post, I talk about the same concept--losing oneself in a role. I wonder if we would be any different if the same thing happened to us though.
ReplyDeleteI also disagree with Dana's quote, "we were observers watching a show". To me, being whipped and being abused both verbally and physically on a daily basis are not observing and watching. Whether it is "real life" or not, Dana is suffering from the harsh realities first hand.
ReplyDeleteI also believe that Kevin and Dana lose their identities as they go back to the antebellum south. They keep their personalities and traits, however lose their right to speak and basic rights. Identities are more so stripped from them as they move backward in time.