Yet Another Paradox

Dana’s fate is contingent upon her compliance to the rules of history. The paradox of the situation is that her presence in the past should in fact alter history, unless of course, she was always present in her past. By not altering her present life, it infers that she was always a part of her ancestors’ history, which inherently contradicts her current existence. This whole cyclical nature of time travel, specifically in this text, is that Dana is constantly fighting to not interfere with history while realizing the impossibility of tampering with events that have already happened. Her fear becomes blatantly obvious when she first comes in contact with Rufus and realizes that, “this child needed special care. If I was to live, if others were to live, he must live. I didn’t dare test the paradox” (29). The complication arises when Dana is transported back into her present day reality and realizes that her life, physically, has been unchanged. Therefore, it stands to reason that there is an alternative reason for Dana to be time traveling, other than to keep her family safe.

            In order to find that alternative reason, one can look at the parallel between the relationships of Rufus and Alice and of Kevin and Dana. The racial similarities as well as the nature of the two relationships mirror one other. Butler appears to be making a commentary on the nature of these relationships. Dana and Kevin are clearly happy together, but will the strain of complying to fill the roles of a past society tear them apart? Kevin must become the slave owner who he claims to be while Dana is forced into a false, yet ever real, captivity. As their roles begin to take shape, the two relationships become compressed on top of each other. The question is, as the time traveling continues, how will their designated roles become exacerbated?