Octavia Butler's Kindred involves two central themes of time travel and slavery. Published in 1979, the novel focuses on many issues surrounding slavery in the 1800s, including the abuse of power, gender hierarchy, and the outcome of racial conflict. The novel features a 20th-century black woman, Dana, who is able to travel to the 1800s when necessary to save her white ancestor. She encounters and discovers the complex destiny of being a black woman at this time and the necessities of her survival. Kindred by Octavia Butler establishes a strong link between the past and the present by presenting traces of the past in the present and the present in the past to emphasize similarities and connections by focusing specifically on the evolution of history and racial issues or statuses in both periods. in Kindred.Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”? Get an original essay Focusing on the historical aspect of the relationship between the past and the present, in the 1970s, the civil rights movement had just stopped and in the United States, tensions remain between blacks and whites. Although it emerged from segregation, society was still segregated. Blacks and whites were allowed to live in the same places, but society continued to view them as completely separate. Historically, the 1960s and 1970s were marked by themes of racial inequality, gender inequality, and racial domination. Butler's novel includes these themes, covered in both time periods to show readers where the problems arise. Dana, the main character and narrator of the novel, is a young black woman living in 1976 in Los Angeles, married to a white man, Kevin. where they are both authors. On her twenty-sixth birthday, Dana finds herself whisked away to the antebellum South in the 19th century, an opposing world with similarities in which she must struggle to establish an identity and live in freedom. Her goal is to save her ancestor, Rufus, the son of a plantation owner, in times of danger and danger, otherwise she will cease to exist in the future. During his experience, Butler draws a connection between the past of the 1800s and the present of 1976 to depict a strong connection between the two. The first relationship of past to present and present to past is depicted through Rufus. Dana and Rufus' relationship becomes more complex as Rufus ages. Rufus is not portrayed as a typical white man in the 19th century. He does not bear the characteristics of his father or other slave owners. He has his own complex history that goes against everything that history claims white men are. Another comparison involving Rufus is his relationship with Dana. It is built on the basis of respect and negotiation. Rufus has admired Dana and her intellect since the beginning of their relationship. However, there is a difference in Dana's action compared to the same scenario. Kevin asks Dana to type his manuscripts, which she refuses while Rufus asks Dana to write for him, and she must agree or else she will be punished. This is significant because it demonstrates the racial hierarchy, but also the importance of such moments because in the present, a black woman has the choice to refuse, whereas in the past this was considered disrespectful and single women were not allowed to no choice. choice, but black women ultimately had no say in objecting to not doing something that a white person, much less a white man, would order. Given the relationship between Kevin and Dana, Kevin is important to thereader's perception of the present and how we understand how relevant the present is. Kevin is a white man from 1976 in Kindred and his ideals reflect those of the present and past. He and Dana fight the stereotype that black and white people can't be together equally. Being married presents problems for the couple, including family disagreements over their marriage. At the time, society was still hesitant to accept interracial marriage and interactions. Butler uses the relationship between Kevin and Dana as an example of how the past still affects society. Compared to the past, in which Rufus was not allowed to love a black woman in public, Kevin and Dana were seen in a negative light by their families because they married the opposite race. This creates a racial division and contributes to the racial hierarchy in society that the two main characters were trying to break during the two periods and allows us to understand that this complex destiny will remain perceived in a negative way. Since Kevin and Dana are able to experience the past in a real-life setting, they grasp the complexity of both periods and their effects where society is based solely on the status of the racial hierarchy. Society cannot reach back into the past like Kevin and Dana do, so it must rely on history and, meanwhile, the society following the Civil War to make sense of it. This perpetuates the hurt because the version of history the present knows leaves out many details except the remaining pain of slavery and opposition. Butler introduces Kevin in an interesting way. She intentionally hides her race later in the novel. In the first section of "The Fall", the reader finally learns that Kevin is white, in which Butler states: "He was a white man of unusual appearance, his face young, almost without wrinkles, but his hair completely gray and his eyes so pale. to the point of being almost colorless. This creates a change in the novel as Kevin is now a big comparison to Rufus since both are important aspects of Dana's life. Kevin, although very different from Rufus, reacts in a way that has been shaped by his upbringing and society. His understanding of history is just as distorted as Dana's. Schmitt argues that Kevin and Dana live in a complex world. Schmitt states, "The blandness of their interracial relationship, its lack of meaningful exchange, is also indicative of the oblivion Dana must engage in in order to have a potentially meaningful relationship with him." Schmitt describes that this type of “forgetting” is what society is doing on a larger scale around Kevin and Dana. Butler points these things out to the reader so that the connection to the past can be made and processed through Dana. Kevin, in many ways, mirrors these actions. He doesn't see Dana differently because of her color, but he looks at Dana the way Butler wanted Rufus to be shaped at the end of the novel. The comparison between Kevin and Rufus, in relation to the past in the present, and the present in the past is their connection to women of color. Kevin's bond with Dana is stronger than Rufus' relationship with Alice because of their mutual need to work on racial issues and the tension of gender hierarchy. Kevin and Dana continue to stay together throughout the problems that arise in 1976. After Dana's trip to the 1800s, she returns to Kevin, who is worried and holds her tightly, hurting Dana without realizing it (Butler 15). When she tells Kevin that he is hurting her, he tries and helps her, which Butler states, "We were sitting together on the floor, me wrapped in the towel and Kevin with his arm around.