If I were just sitting on a couch one day and suddenly was ripped away from my normal environment and life and thrown into another time period to a place where I would be constantly in great danger, I’m pretty sure I would have a nervous breakdown. The shock of time travel, combined with the terror of living in a place where people can beat and control me, would definitely be enough to send me “over the edge”. Dana, remarkably, is not only able to control her panic, but she is also able to concentrate and think through her actions enough so that she manages to protect herself and her identity from harm.
Aside from the fact that she is forced to think clearly at all times in antebellum south in order to survive, Dana also adjusts quickly to her environment under the pressures of social norms. As the story progresses, Dana assimilates more into the life of a true slave. It seems to me that she willingly makes these accommodations, in order to be accepted by the other slaves of the household. There is clearly a clique of slaves, and Dana must abide by certain social norms in order to fit in with this group. Indeed, at first, she faces immediate judgment by other slaves for her unusual clothes and educated speaking ability. While hints of her former personality occasionally shine through her new “slave” self, Dana struggles to keep herself very similar to the other slaves. Dana wants to stay sleeping in the attic with the other slaves. She accepts the demeaning role as Kevin’s “personal” slave. She eats and does chores with the rest of the slaves. Dana has no reason to please her co-workers, yet she changes herself under the pressures of social norms to fit in with the rest of her apparent class in this society.
The power of social norms influences all of us, all the time. Kindred is an extreme example of a person acting under societal pressures, yet its extremity is what renders us able to view this pressure so clearly. Butler has managed to take a woman from one reality and place her into an entirely different reality, while having her “fit in” with both realities. Because the realities are quite contrasting, in order for Dana to live comfortably in both, Dana must be the one to change herself to fit with reality. How she changes herself is clearly dictated by the unspoken rules of society, which shows the undue pressure people are burdened with by social norms.
I think what is really interesting in Kindred, which was highlighted in class today, is that the two realities you mention in the last paragraph are not so far apart. Yes, socially and culturally we have developed past the ante-bellum South, but at the same time I don't think this world is as equal and color blind as society makes it out to be. There are many aspects of Kevin and Dana's relationship in the present that hint at the tensions that will become intensified in the past. Yet, most people in class seemed to think that Kevin was race-blind and an overall good, moral man. Although he is in contrast to Tom Weylin (or at least he is insofar as I have read), we still haven't achieved the equality that people want to believe that they see nowadays. So although the realities are "quite contrasting," I think the interesting points in the novel are going to be how quite similar they are.
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