A Chilling Comparison

Dana's first trip of significant length to the ante bellum south is a jarring experience for her. She is struck by what she perceives to be the stark contrast between 1976 California and 1815 Maryland. At first, she is very out of place in the south and doesn't foresee any possible way that she will ever become truly acclimated to the past. However, throughout the course of the novel, this perceived distance between 1976 and 1815 collapses and Dana and Kevin become more a part of the past than they ever thought possible. It is easy to look back on history from a distance and claim you would so something differently. Dana finds that it is much harder to actually follow up on that if given the chance. For the sake of her own survival, she begins to play the role of the slave. After one beating she thinks to herself "See how easily slaves are made?" (177). After only a few months, Dana begins to assimilate, although grudgingly, to the culture of the 1815. Kevin gets so used to the early eighteen teens during his 5 year stay that he experiences a kind of culture shock all over again when he is transported back to 1976. When he returns with her he "had a slight accent, [she] realized. Nothing really noticeable, but he did sound a little like Rufus or Tom Weylin." (190).

So why is it so easy for these characters to learn to fit into a world that is so different from their own? Perhaps it is because the two different worlds are not so different after all. Although there is no slavery in 1976, the US is still not as progressive as laws may suggest. Butler draws many comparisons between the the ante bellum south and 1976 California. Dana and Kevin's marriage, which is considered sinful in the past, is still something that many people consider to be shameful in the present. They got married in Las Vegas with no friends or family since their families were offended by the idea of marriage between a white man and a black woman. As much as Dana and Kevin like to think they are progressive, some tension due to the difference in race is still found in their relationship. Kevin automatically expects Dana to do his typing for him, in much the same way that Rufus wants her to write his letters for him. In addition, Kevin, the more successful writer, feels obligated to support Dana economically, similarly in a way to Weylin supporting slaves, although far more benign. On a larger scale, Dana notices that such a racist and brutal thing as slavery happened quite recently in the past. About Nazi concentration camps she had heard "stories of beatings, starvation, filth, disease, torture, every possible degradation. As though the Germans had been trying to do in only a few years what the Americans had worked at for nearly two hundred." (116).  Butler's at times disturbing comparisons between the two times as well as Dana's time travel serve to collapse the distance between 1976 and the eighteen teens. She shows that the history of slavery and the early 1800's feels far away in the past, but is in reality not so far back in the past, and the racial inequalities from the past are still very present in 1976.