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.
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
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.)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
There's a sincerity to Kindred that's almost unnerving after all the irony (or, as my mom describes it, "mental masturbation") we've experienced this semester. There was impact in Ragtime, Mumbo Jumbo, Slaughterhouse 5, but it was the jolting, matter-of-fact kind. Kindred hurts more honestly, more achingly, more _vividly_--and for me, more lastingly. I'm going to keep and reread this book. Its meaning and the connections I've felt throughout are going to stick with me.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you that Kindred is different than most of the other books we've read because its easy to get wrapped up into the plot line and sympathize with the characters,thats what has made this book one of my favorites to read so far. I also really like how the introduction is writing, leaving the reader wondering the whole novel how Dana lost a limb, and finally answering it in the conclusion.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most striking aspects of Dana's time travel has to do with the fact that she has no control over when she's "called back" to the past. In addition to the severe physical wounds you describe, she loses all sense of safety, even when she has "escaped" to the 20th century (much as an escaped slave would feel no sense of security, even after crossing the border to a non-slave state). So even when she's bathing her wounds, she's afraid of suddenly being snatched back to the past, unprepared. (Also why she won't drive or do anything in public, at this point.) She literally can't allow herself to forget about this past, because it *isn't* the past for her--it's a clear and present danger.
ReplyDelete