Kindred Observations

Unlike the other books we've read, Kindred is in first-person and the reader isn't given information that the characters within it won't know about. However there is an exception to this in that the book begins with a prologue scene that takes place later on in the story. This prologue sets up the book's premise and introduces two of the main characters without explaining the reasons behind everything that's happening, but also lets the reader know a few events that will take place at some point. So as the book progresses, we know that Kevin will eventually return home and that Dana will lose a limb, but we don't know how everything will get to that point. The intrigue of the reading comes from not finding out what the ending is but finding out how things will get to the ending (or almost to the end.) 

Also unlike the previous books, Kindred takes a more personal and emotional approach to telling a story and conveying themes. The scariness and brutality of plantation life is conveyed not through the irony of a narrator but through the experiences of its characters. We see how Dana lives on the Weylin plantation and works alongside Sarah in the kitchen, and we get to know what her thoughts are about the things she sees and the things that happen to her. Dana feels like she's going to be sick when she sees Alices' father being whipped and thinks about how she'd seen people hurt in fictional media but had never "lain nearby and smelled their sweat or heard them pleading and praying" (36). When Dana is caught with a book after trying to teach Nigel, she describes her fear; "I felt myself trembling, and I tried to be still" (106). After being whipped we see Dana as she tries to recover at home, taking a bath that becomes pink from her messy wounds. Giving a description like this gives an idea of the reality of hurt and suffering that getting whipped causes, and helps to show how dangerous slave life is. Showing what's happening through a character's experiences is what makes Kindred's narrative have an impact on the reader. 

Tralfamadorian Philosophy

I first read this book back in subbie year and I'm a little surprised at how much of what happens in it I have forgotten. Billy being lost behind enemy lines with Ronald Weary, Billy talking to the newspapers and upsetting his daughter, even Billy being placed in an alien zoo--all these things I just haven't thought about until reading through the book again and refreshing my memory. This doesn't mean I've completely forgotten everyone--Before reading again I could recall the nonlinear nature of the novel and a general sense of it being an entertaining read, but I think what has stuck with me most are the descriptions of the Tralfamadorians' way of seeing the world.
The Tralfamadorians are able to see past, present, and future all at once. They "can see where each star has been and where it is going, so that the heavens are filled with rarefied, luminous spaghetti" (110). I found this idea fascinating because I've always been interested in imagining ways the world could be perceived differently than how we already see it. Since their perception of time isn't limited, the Tralfamadorians know how the universe is destroyed--one of their own accidentally blows it up by pressing a button. The interesting part is that they don't mind. Billy asks if they can prevent the universe's destruction this from happening, to which the aliens respond, "He has always pressed it, and he always will. We always let him and we always will let him. The moment is structured that way" (149). Of war, they add, "There isn't anything we can do about them, so we simply don't look at them. We spend eternity looking at pleasant moments--like today at the zoo" (150). Given their omnipresent perception, the Tralfamadorians don't question what will happen in the future and take a nonchalant view towards the end of all life. They are able to focus on the good times without fear of what they know will happen later.
These ideas have stuck with me because I found them interesting and unordinary, but what do they mean in the context of a novel that's based on the author's war experiences? Maybe the Tralfamadorians' ideals allude to the way one might cope with trauma. When something traumatic happens the mind may just blot it out from memory, like how the aliens ignore unpleasant moments. Accepting that a traumatic event can't be changed is also a part of coping. Alternatively, the Tralfamadorian's outlook on the world could represent the way people view history. When we read about historical events, we understand that we're reading about the past and that we are unable to change it. Additionally, many things we read about we didn't experience firsthand ourselves. From a position where everything has already happened (and where we weren't a part of what happene), we can look at events in the disassociated way that the Tralfamadorians do. I think part of the Tralfamadorians might be Vonnegut incorporating the views of people that didn't experience the war or the firebombing of Dresden into his novel.