Subject: KINDRED by Octavia E. Butler Book Review by C. Douglas Baker

From: [email-masked] (cb52)
Date: 11 Nov 93 02:26:27 GMT

KINDRED by Octavia E. Butler
                 Book Review by C. Douglas Baker
                            [Spoiler]

     KINDRED is one of those rare novels that grabs you by the
throat and doesn't let you go till the very end.  From the first
sentence, Butler's simple, straightforward prose moves the story
quickly making it nearly impossible for the reader to put down.

     Dana, a black woman living in Los Angeles in 1976, is
inexplicably transported to 1815 to save the life of a small,
red-haired boy on Maryland's Eastern Shore.  It turns out this
small boy, Rufus, is one of her slaveowning white ancestors, who
she knows very little about.  Dana continues to be called to save
Rufus, and frequently stays long periods of time in the
slaveowning South.  The only way she can get back to 1976 is to
be in a life threatening situation.  During her stays in the past
she is forced to assume the role of a slave to survive.  She is
whipped.  She is beaten.  She is nearly raped, twice.  She is
forced to watch whippings and families being broken up.  She
learns to enjoy hard work as an escape from the other horrors of
slave life.  And she watches as a fairly unassuming small son of
a plantation owner grows up to a be a cruel, capricious, hot-
tempered slave owner in his own right.  And to be her great-
grandfather many generations removed.

     KINDRED is about slavery and the scars it has inflicted on
American society.  There are really three key factors Butler
focuses on that reveal the ability of the South to
institutionalize slavery.  First there is the physical abuse. 
The constant work, especially the physically exhausting work of a
field hand, kept slaves too tired to run or become insolent. 
Being ever on the verge of a lash or two for minor offenses kept
slaves working to avoid punishment.  Being beaten nearly to death
after escape attempts made a slave reluctant to try again;
especially if this is coupled with the abuse of the slave's
family.  Then there is the psychological abuse.  The continual
threat of being beaten or watching others be beaten broke the
spirits of those in bondage.  The worst punishment was sometimes
having to watch a family member abused for your transgression.
Encouraging slaves to marry and have children also deadened their
desire to escape.  Families made the slave settle down, gave him
or her something to protect and care for.  The selling off of a
few family members had a damping effect on a slave's spirit.  A
most poignant example is the slave Sarah, the primary house
slave; "Weylin had sold only three of her children--left her one
to live for and protect".  She rarely questioned slavery, thought
little of freedom, because "she had lost all she could stand to
lose".  The risk of losing the one daughter she had left was too
great.  Slaves that escaped had to be willing to risk not only
their own life but possibly the lives of their family.  

     The physical and psychological abuse imposed on the slave
made it so much easier to accept one's lot in life and avoid the
unpleasantries that recalcitrance entailed.  The ease with which
Dana falls into the routines of everyday life as a slave shocks
her.  Work is a refuge from the other toils of slave life and the
patterns become the norm.  There is even an ambiguous feeling
toward the slaveowner.  The slaveowner is hated for the physical
and psychological abuse imposed on the slave.  But at the same
time the slave loved the owner in a familial sense, even though
the slaveowner was seldom worthy of this.  Thus slavery became
for many the accepted norm of life, even if this acceptance was a
tenuous and unhappy one at best.  This acceptance was
generational.  Dana at one point espies children playing at
selling each other on the auction block and haggling over price. 

     Many times throughout history sheer terror has been used to
subdue a population and sap it of its strength.  One only has to
look at the Tsar's of Russia like Ivan the Terrible, Peter the
Great, and Stalin to realize the extent to which terror can be
used to subjugate a people.  The Southern aristocracy of the
United States practiced a similar terror till 1864 and beyond.
   
     There is much historical evidence for the Butler's depiction
of slavery and its effects.  KINDRED is patterned after the slave
narratives becoming more widely read today.  These include
Frederick Douglass' NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS,
AN AMERICAN SLAVE and Harriet A. Jacobs INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF
A SLAVE GIRL.  Butler could have depicted the beatings and
physical abuse in more graphic detail to have a greater impact on
the reader.  
  
     Slavery even has its effects in 1976.  The scars Dana brings
back to 1976 are symbolic of the scars slavery has left on
contemporary society.  Some will heal with time.  Some can never
heal.  Others will scab over and be just below the surface.  But
they are all there.  But in another sense healing has taken
place.  Dana is married to a white man, Kevin, who is transported
to 1815 with her once.  While there they both fall easily into
the pattern or act of slaveowner and slave concubine, roles they
must assume to survive.  The ease with which they fall into these
roles brings about a greater consciousness of their ethnicity. 
But through this relationship Butler leaves the reader with hope.
Dana's love for Kevin is what really pulls her through the most
harrowing terrors she faces and in the end gives her the strength
to survive this horrible test.

     KINDRED is written at the young adult level and moves along
at a brisk pace.  I highly recommend it for teenagers and adults.

%T Kindred
%A Octavia E. Butler
%C Boston
%D 1979
%I Beacon Press
%G ISBN 0-8070-8305-4 (pbk)
%P 264

C. DOUGLAS BAKER
Email: [email-masked]