Race
As is to be expected in a novel about slavery, race is
a key motif. Indeed, Butler stresses the wearisome constancy of
race as a motif in Dana’s life, and in the life of other African-Americans
on the Weylin plantation. In Maryland, the color of Dana’s skin
is the key fact about her. Her intelligence, her youth, her independence,
her personality—these qualities certainly change the experience
she has and give her a different life than, say, Alice’s. But in
the eyes of both black and white characters, her race defines her.
It is what dooms her to servitude at the Weylins’. It is also what
links her to the best and strongest people around her, as Carrie
suggests when she rubs Dana’s cheek to show her that her skin color
doesn’t come off. Race defines Butler’s white characters too. Over
and over, we see that white skin excuses all ills.
Violence
Kindred is a bloody novel, filled with
whippings, rape, hangings, dog attacks, and various other brutalities.
Butler crams her novel with violent episodes not to shock or titillate
but to bring to life the omnipresent terror that African-Americans
lived with in the 1800s. The threat of violence
informs all of her characters’ decisions and shapes their personalities.
The white characters believe it is their right, and even their duty,
to inflict bodily harm, and they are coarsened as a result of this
belief. The black characters know that any spark of rebelliousness,
independence, or cleverness may be rewarded with a whipping, or
worse. They are often cowed by this knowledge. Butler argues that
violence warps everyone, victim and perpetrator alike.
Home
Butler’s novel toggles back and forth between Dana’s homes.
Most obviously, Dana’s homes are her house in California and the
Weylin plantation in Maryland. However, the idea of home also applies
to the two time periods in which she lives. By the end of the novel, Dana
is more at home at the Weylin plantation in the 1800s
than she is in her own house in the 1970s.
Butler suggests that with time, any place, and any historical era,
can come to feel like home. Even those situations that are initially
strange and hateful can eventually seem ordinary and even comfortable.
The ability to adapt to new homes, as Dana does, can aid in survival.
It is not an entirely desirable ability, though. Butler argues that
it is the ability to adapt to anything, to feel at home in any mode,
that can make whole societies accept shockingly immoral behavior.
Time Travel
The motif of time travel gives structure to each section
of Kindred. Episodes open with Dana’s travels backward
in time to 1800s Maryland and close with
her travels forward in time to 1970s California.
Butler does not linger over the fantastical aspects of time travel,
or its mechanics. Instead of exploring exactly how Dana’s temporal
leaps work, Butler focuses on the results of those leaps. Indeed,
as the novel progresses, the otherworldly nature of time travel
ceases to be surprising. For us and for Dana, time travel becomes
expected, even ordinary. This shift reflects how shockingly easy
it is for modern-day people to accept slavery. Just as Dana quickly
gets used to the initially bewildering sensation of time travel,
she quickly gets used to the initially unthinkable institution of
slavery. Butler also stresses Dana’s inability to control her travels. Just
as Dana cannot control her fate in Maryland, she cannot control
the frequency or duration of her journeys back in time.
