Spring 2019, Wild Readers 5 discussion

For this book review I have decided to read Octavia E. Butler’s novel, Kindred. In this novel Dana is the main character and tells her story. The novel takes place in two places in which she finds herself going back and forth, Los Angeles and a civil war plantation in Maryland in the year of 1976. When I first began to read this novel I was confused on the setting and what was really going on at the time. Dana would travel back and forth after having her dizzy faints from Los Angeles 1956 to Maryland in the 1800s. While she is in Maryland in the 1800s she faces the times of slavery. The last time that she goes to Maryland, she brings Kevin, her husband with her. One day Kevin gets tired and moves away due to the bad beatings and slavery that there is. The novel is based on the cruelty that the african american community faced in the 1800s. Being a white husband, Kevin was not able to handle it. Dana stayed behind with some of her ancestors. Times then get rough and she gets beat for teaching the kids how to read. One of the reaches out to Kevin and he risks his life to get them out of Maryland and back to the 1970s in Los Angeles. While Kevin is gone Dana becomes extremely close with Rufus which Kevin was not happy about. Later on, Rufus makes up a lie that causes one of the girls in the plantation to kill herself. That's when things began to get bad for Dana. Rufus wanted to force her to stay by his side and once she tried to free herself to travel back, he gets aggressive and attempts to rape her. In self defense she kills him. Although this book was confusing to me, it symbolizes the struggles that african american women faced in the 1800s, the years of slavery and is important to hear.