One thing that we haven't really discussed in class is the roles of education and literacy in the book. For Dana, her literacy comes to define her in the 1810's. It gives her power, yet proves to be a disadvantage when whites are scared and confused that she may know too much and have more power than them. Dana also knows a surprising amount about the time period that she has traveled to. This seems almost too convenient to me, yet I guess it can be seen as a way for Butler to show that Dana is well educated. Although Dana has some power through her literacy and education, it seems to help very little and does not help her as much as she would like it to. I noticed this most when Dana realizes that her education through books and maps is ultimately no better than the type of common knowledge that someone like Alice has when faced with surviving a time period that is working against them.
Dana says:
"We were both failures, she and I. We'd both run and been brought back... I probably knew more than she did about the general layout of the Eastern Shore. She knew only the area she'd been born and raised in, and she couldn't read a map...Nothing in my education or knowledge of the future had helped me to escape...What had I done wrong? Why was I still a slave to a man who had repaid me for saving his life by nearly killing me" (177).
Dana's knowledge of books and of her own placement in time does not help her when she is fighting for survival. Slavery defines Dana's life when she is in the Antebellum south and it becomes clear that the skills that she has from the 1970's are only somewhat useful. It becomes clear that in a time where slavery dominates society, education and literacy of little importance.
No comments:
Post a Comment