Dana's Left (Behind) Arm

Although part of me feels incomplete without knowing why Dana time travels, like the other books we’ve read in this class, I still (again) enjoyed Kindred. The final section of the novel, “The Rope,” is intense and sort of scary as well. Dana losing an arm is not what I found scary, mostly since Butler told us that would occur in the prologue. Rather, I found it scary that Rufus tried to rape Dana—and even more so that Dana was almost okay with it. Throughout the novel, Dana resists integrating into the 1800s antebellum south culture, yet she slowly begins to feel more at "home" there and begins to become friends with Sarah, Carrie, and others. The science fiction aspect of time travel emphasizes how Dana, who belongs to the 20^th century, can become influenced to leave her 20^th century ideas and unwillingly adopt the antebellum south lifestyle. Even though (unlike Vonnegut's postmodern description of the Tralfamadorians) Butler never goes into detail regarding why the sci fi aspects happen—the time travel and Dana's arm becoming part of the wall—occur, both science fictions aspects seem to have significant roles in part of Butler's point in writing Kindred. As I've already delved into the topic of time travel on a previous post, I will focus this one on Dana's arm.

After injuring Rufus, Dana time travels back to 1976 and finds herself “joined to the wall as though [her] arm were growing out of it—or into it” (261). She then “[pulls her] arm towards [herself]”and no longer has her arm “from the spot where Rufus’ fingers had grasped it” and down (261). The first thing that I find curious is why Butler chose to have Dana’s arm become stuck in a wall, rather a part of the wall. On the surface, the wall may seem to represent the end to Dana’s time traveling as a literal boundary between the past and the present. Yet, the notion of a separation between the past and the present seems contradictory to Butler’s motive throughout the rest of the novel—which is, to write a story that gives readers a more tangible understanding of the slavery institution in the antebellum south. Therefore, I think that her connection to the wall is not as a boundary. Instead the wall represents something that is unchanging, like the past with Rufus that Dana experienced. I think it is important that Rufus, as he is dying or becoming “cold and nonliving,” (like a wall,) is holding Dana’s arm as she time travels. By comparing Rufus in the 19^th century to a stationary wall that Dana is literally joined with at the point where Rufus was holding her, Butler emphasizes that like the wall, the past exists and is connected to Dana as much as she is connected to it. Although Rufus is not living in 1976 California, he is a closer part of Dana than she may believe.

Butler’s choice to have Dana loose her left arm also intrigues me. Butler says that she “couldn’t let Dana return whole,” because Dana was so changed by her experiences in the 19^th century. Before knowing about this quote, I was curious as to why not let Dana bring something back from the past. Aside from possibly being somewhat cliché and uninteresting with the tool of science fiction, bringing something or gaining something from the past may be more natural to understand, as Dana gains a better understanding of her relatives' experiences in the antebellum south. Losing an arm, however, seems to take this idea one step forward, as well as emphasizing that Dana has changed. Yes, her arm is gone, but it is part of her history, as are her relatives. Although her arm, like people from the past, are not present in the same century or place or year, it (they) are relevant to Dana's life and their actions/beliefs continue to shape the constantly changing society. Deciding not to live with knowledge of their experience may be like living physically whole but intellectually/emotionally incomplete, possibly similar to feeling incomplete without all information regarding the Kennedy assassination. I am still wondering about any further meanings that Dana's arm may have...any thoughts?

Continuous Time Travel: For Comparisons and a Pillar of Salt

I am very much enjoying Kindred so far, especially because of Butler’s deep character development, where she depicts complex controversies between and within characters. Also, I really like Dana (the protagonist) especially because of her strength and willingness to help others throughout the oppressive situations when she time travels back to the early 19^th century antebellum south. So far, Dana has travelled back in time five times and has returned to the present (1976) four times. Unlike Marty in Back to the Future (a reference to which was made during class recently) who travels back in time once, Dana is constantly switching between centuries. It is curious as to why and how Dana is able to do this, but even more intriguing is to wonder why Butler decided to do this to Dana.

The first reason that comes to mind for why Butler has Dana travel back and forth through time is to give a blatant and understandable comparison of the early 19^th century with the 20^th century. Though, as readers, we are told about the violence that occurs towards slaves in the antebellum south at this time, Dana makes the violence comprehensible by saying “that most of the people around Rufus know more about real violence than the screenwriters of today will know” (48). By making a comparison of the 19^th century violence to the fairly gory movies that are produced, Butler is able to help readers understand the level of violence better than a history textbook description of violence could. Also, by placing the background to Dana and Kevin’s relationship right after a glimpse of the oppressive, white supremacist violence used against Dana and other slaves, Butler seems to point to the continuation of racist views that stem from the 19^th century. (There appears to be a connection between white male dominance in the Weylin home as well as with Kevin, where Kevin practically forces—with a threat of separation—Dana to type for him even though Dana “hated typing” (109). Even though with the context, it may seem that Kevin thinks he can tell Dana what to do because of race, I think it’s more a matter of gender than race.)

After reading Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, another main motivation for Dana’s multiple time travels may be to emphasize that history is not just a part of the past, rather it has shaped the present culture and society, so, like Lot and Billy’s actions, people of the current day should look back at the past. Although Kevin initially tells Dana to forget about her first time travel to the past, she (and later Kevin as well) increasingly realize that it is hard to forget about that “shadowy and threatening” “dream” (18). Each time Dana returns, the 19^th century occupies more of her thoughts, even though she and Kevin remind themselves that they are just “playing the part” to avoid being influenced by the antebellum south culture (79). It can be seen that Dana is still an actress in the 1800s antebellum south because she packs “props” in her bag to use in the past, but these items can also be seen as luggage that she is taking to her new “home” (as she refers to Weylin’s on 190). Yet, we see that Dana is influenced by the past and even admits that “it takes time…for things to fall back into place” after returning from the past (194). But, will things seem the same as they did before to Dana now that she has taken a deeper look into America’s history?