Octavia Butler's Take on the Theme of Choice in Kindred
Octavia Butler's Take on the Theme of Choice in Kindred By: Mateo Hernandez Octavia E. Butler’s novel was a novel that I enjoyed and was disgusted by at the same time. It’s a unique story that follows Dana, a young African American writer living in 1976. One day, while in the process of moving into a new apartment with her husband Kevin, she undergoes a sickness and finds herself back in the early 1800s, saving a boy who called her for help. The novel highlights many themes, but mainly focuses on the idea of what it would be like to live in this time period of slavery, where oppression and violence are real, especially as a black woman. One theme that I want to dive into is the theme of choice, which is portrayed differently for all kinds of people in this time period. For slaves, it is nonexistent, and for white individuals who own them, they are the ones who create the suppression, which leads to no choice. To begin with, Dana’s view of choice evolves throughout the novel. At ...