Thursday, October 25, 2012
What Characters?
Kindred does a good job of closing the gap between the reader and the horrifying reality of the Antebellum south, but it does this at the cost of character development. Disregarding the prologue (which is devoid of character development), the are only about three paragraphs of introduction / description before Dana is violently thrust into the past. We've barely met her, we don't know what we looks like, and she's already rescuing a drowning baby. This kind of introduction does a great job of gripping the reader, but leaves us feeling like we don't know our protagonist (I still feel like I don't know her, 100 pages later). By her second portal journey, all we find out is that Dana is black. Nothing more. As Mary said, most of the characters in Kindred seem very flat. However, I don't think that is really a big problem. The book is effective as a thriller because it removes traits of Dana and Kevin that could distance the reader from the possibility of being sucked into a portal and any point in time. It reminds me of the Twilight strategy: make a hollow character that the reader can fill and relate to, and tell the story through those eyes. Unlike Stephanie Meyer, however, Octavia Butler uses this power for good rather than evil. She uses it to bring the reader closer to the racism, violence, and ignorance of this time period. She wants to get you so close you feel sick. And she succeeded; I felt nauseous when I read the first part of this book (I also read the first eighty pages in the back of a poorly ventilated Jitney winding through the Adirondacks, but I was sick nonetheless.) Even though it's annoying, Butler's lack of character development is excusable because it contributes to a sense of terror.
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After reading the next section of Kindred for class, I may have to disagree with the supposed lack of character development. Personally, I feel like Dana is growing and changing whenever she is in the past, solely because of the extremely harsh environment. She is dealing with situations she never thought she would have to deal with, and she is adjusting quite well. Rufus also seems to grow in a direction what was quite unexpected for me. I thought that he was going to be her protector in the south as much as she is his, or at least be changed by her more than he is. In this way, I think Butler creates more interesting characters by allowing them to be affected by their environment but also changing them in unexpected ways.
ReplyDeleteI think I may be able to reconcile both of your ideas. I do agree with Michael, in that the beginning of the novel contains very little characterization, and even less personal information about Dana. But characterization is different than character development. The manner in which Dana as a person adapts to life in the Antebellum South is a central focus of the novel, and part of the pleasure of the book is seeing how well Butler gradually develops this change in the character's thought process as the book progresses.
ReplyDeleteNaturally, however, this character development only becomes really evident later on, and the beginning of the novel contains very little outright characterization. While it does seem a little odd, the empty vessel idea that Michael outlined works in her favor. The primary focus of the first part of the novel is on getting the reader to understand and buy into the time travel concept, not necessarily developing the character of the protagonist; she will develop naturally as a result of the time travel.
I totally agree Austin -- after I read a little bit farther I got a better picture of Dana and Kevin, and I think Butler was concentrating more on the time travel devices in the first part of the book.
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