Identity is never truly lost

It is interesting to recognize a black woman in the antebellum south with a degree of control. As Kindred develops, is it fair to say that Dana maintained her control throughout the novel, if she had control in the first place? Does she lose her identity as she travels through time?

I wanted address this question from the discussion guide the class created because I thought it is an interesting development to analyze. As Dana is passed back through time her roles change drastically. The reader is introduced to a free and strong-willed Dana who showed persistence from the very beginning by breaking family tradition and marrying a white man. This free will follows Dana to the Weylin’s plantation, but only to a degree. Dana gets away with things that the typical slave would not, seen clearly by her frustration towards Tom Weylin, telling him how to take care of his son, his family, and how he ought to treat his slaves. This attitude and wit is slightly tolerated by the Weylin’s strongly due to the fact that to them she is a mysterious and almost scary character. Even though her self is only slightly tolerated, slightly means it was tolerated after all. And Dana had the “slightest” bit of control over herself throughout the book.

She is dragged back to the plantation time after time again by this invisible hand to ultimately save Rufus from his most recent of troubles. Each time she returns to the 1800’s, a little but of her control escapes her. I don’t fully believe she ever loses control over herself, but as she gets more comfortable she gets wiser, and more confident in her free will. For example, becoming a mother like figure to Rufus, Alice, and some of the other slaves gave Dana a sense of control over her situation. As Tom Weylin and others start to become aggravated by her free beliefs, the punishments get harsher, and she begins to have this control stripped from her little by little. One scene in particular that proved that she is losing grip over her own life was when she was put to the field to work, she was whipped, hit, etc.

I think it is unfair to say she loses her identity as she travels back in time, and vice versa. I think she becomes a more conservative thanks to the struggles she was forced to face throughout the text, but her sense of caring never leaves her. I think caring is what she was set out to do and defines Dana’s identity, and she was the caretaker for the plantation, and for Kevin at home in the 1970’s.