Why and When does Dana Time Travel Back To the Present - Kindred
In each chapter of Kindred, we see Dana travel back
and forth between the past and the present because she is being called by
Rufus' fear of dying. Throughout the book, we see Dana become progressively
more attached to the past and the people in it as she stays in the past for
longer periods of time. However, what is obscure is what events send Dana back
to the present. Although the events that send Dana home are unique to each
situation, they all break a barrier in Dana’s mind.
In our class discussions we talk about how Dana has
almost become more submissive over time to the characters in the past. If we
are to compare how Dana is treated at the beginning of the book compared to the
end, there is a stark difference in the treatment as she slowly becomes a
regular slave Rufus owns. Throughout this transformation, she is pulled back
and forth between the past and the present. However, a common problem within
the novel was the inconsistency of when Dana would return to the present. This begs
the question of why and when does Dana returns? I believe that Dana is pulled
back to the present when two requirements are fulfilled: 1) when Dana feels her
life is in danger and 2) when something happens that she never thought could
happen to her.
In the first two chapters (The River and The Fire)
before Dana returns to the present, she feels her life is in danger when Tom
Weylin raises a rifle to her head and when she is alone with the patrol
officer. However, before these events, she wasn't accustomed to the world she
was in; therefore, being threatened with death it was an entirely foreign topic
to her as she is accustomed to living in the 21st century. As a
result of this mental line being crossed, she returned home. Granted, there are
similar events that return Dana to the present, however those situations also
come with a barrier that is broken.
At the end of the next chapter, The Fall, Dana was
caught teaching Nigel how to read. Tom Weylin then whips Dana as punishment for
attempting to educate the slaves which leads to Dana traveling back to the
present. Like the other events, Dana was scared about losing her life but also,
in her mind, a line was crossed that she never thought could happen to her.
When Dana became aware of the time she was traveling back to, she knew African
Americans were whipped and beaten. However, while living at the Weylin estate,
she thought she was under Rufus' protection and wouldn't be whipped. This was
also her rationale when she started to teach Nigel how to read. Then when she
was whipped and experienced that pain, something she thought would never happen
to her did. Therefore, she traveled back to the present. However, now that she
has experienced this type of pain, when she is whipped in the next chapter, she
is not teleported back to the present because this barrier has already been
broken.
These mental barriers are broken once again when
Rufus raises a rifle to Dana's head almost killing her in the following chapter
The Fight. Although no physical harm was done to her, Dana never would've
imagined that Rufus, a child a few chapters ago, would've attempted to harm
her. However, in the next chapter, The Storm, he hits her which is something
she made clear that he would never do. Finally in the last chapter, Rufus
attempts to rape Dana. All these lines that Rufus crossed that Dana made clear
to herself wouldn’t happen, caused this mystical force to send her back to the
present.
All these events were things that she thought would never happen to her. Although she saw these types of actions being done to other slaves, she thought she was different because she was from the present and under the protection of Rufus. However, they still happened and because of that broken line, she constantly travelled back to the present.
Great post, Deven! I've pondered this title question myself, and I think it ties all into the thread of slavery as an object of permanence. It persists, lingers through time - and that is why even in the present, Dana is plagued with the horrors of the distant past.
ReplyDeleteHi Deven,
ReplyDeleteNice post! I agree that the time travel is a little odd, but in the book it is thrown in as if it were a normal part of life. Butler's indifference to the time travel mechanism suggests that the time travel itself is not the focus of the novel, but rather what happens afterwards. However, time travel does hold significance and should be examined for its effects on Dana and Kevin's lives.
Very detailed analysis of the book. It seems that as Dana experiences more and more trips back to the past, she slowly becomes accustomed to being a slave of Rufus. With every trip back home, with unique perspectives of a slave, Dana is slowly getting trapped in the past as all the actions that seemed foreign to her are becoming something common.
ReplyDeleteGreat Post Deven, I agree that the time travel in kindred is very confusing, and although it's one of the more unexplained threads in the book i've never actually sat down and thought about why it actually happened, which is why I think your blog post is great. Keep up the great work!!
ReplyDeleteNice post, Deven! I think that Butler leaves this time travel phenomenon largely unexplained, and it can get confusing as to how it works exactly. I would mostly agree with the two requirements you point out, except in the case of how she goes back in "The Storm". The fact that Rufus slapped her was not what caused her to go back to 1976, but the fact that she cut her wrists afterward in an attempt towards transportation. While you could make the case that the slap caused her to act in that way, I think this case indicates that it's primarily a life-threatening situation that causes her to go back.
ReplyDeleteInteresting take. The concept of time travel is perplexing and unusual in this setting. Butler, on the other hand, does an excellent job at bringing it into everyday life and employing git to construct story. Furthermore, as the novel unfolds, Dana time travels more regularly, providing a clearer explanation for her time travel.
ReplyDeleteGood analysis Deven! The existence of time travel is meant much more to be a plot device rather than a scientific phenomenon - it could be said that the time travel is literally the manifestation of plot armor - but nevertheless maintains patterns which are very nicely deconstructed here.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting post, and I've never thought about these distinctions between the incidents that seem to send Dana "home" before. Early on, she and Kevin speculate that it concerns her *genuine* fear of imminent death--so they can't "trigger" it if she doesn't truly believe her life is in danger. But you're right that the threat of whipping and Rufus pointing the gun at her don't have quite the same life-threatening qualities as the earlier example--even though in both we have a Weylin pointing a gun at her. But she does seem especially upset that it is RUFUS threatening her in this way, and whether she really fears for her life or not (she dares him to fire, and it's clear he's bluffing and doesn't want to shoot), it is an example where her shock and surprise seems to be the thing that sends her back. It is interesting to think of the mechanism of time travel being triggered in part by Dana finding out that she's not immune to or separate from the worst aspects of slavery.
ReplyDeleteThis post was very interesting. While I was aware that she was sent home when her life was in severe danger, I had not made the connection that it was when she was in danger in a way that she didn't expect. However, how does that come into play when she intentionally hurts herself in order to be sent home near the end of the book?
ReplyDelete