The Bestselling Novel: Currents in American History and CultureMain MenuIntroductionIntersectionality and Power Relations in BestsellerismAn intersectional analysis of the concepts of gender, race and power relationships, highlighting how the overlap between these concepts fueled the novels’ rise as bestsellers.Slavery Beyond ChainsThe Variation of the Forms of Slavery Inflicted on Charlotte in Susanna Rowson's _Charlotte Temple_ and Dana in Octavia Butler's _Kindred_.Perception of Women in SocietyInspecting the ways in which the woman’s default “doomed” status can be blamed on the society's narrow perception of women in Susanna Rowson's Charlotte Temple and Edith Wharton's House of Mirth.Gendered Violence and Racism: The Short End of the StickThe Struggle of the Black Woman Across the CenturiesBrief summaries of course textsStudents in ENG 410: American Novel, an upper-level undergraduate seminar8105943177cf94521fefbbebb901e86333202954
Denounced
12018-05-09T21:53:47-07:00Sarah Darwazehaadbecce0784884a3991ee7eb4bbed74ee0f9c392976111Sarah Darwazehplain2018-05-15T06:13:30-07:00Sarah Darwazehaadbecce0784884a3991ee7eb4bbed74ee0f9c39Both Dana and Charlotte were victims of societal slavery because of the roles they were expected to fulfil. Dana was forced to wear the shoes of the slave because of her race in the century she is trapped in, while Charlotte is expected to be the "perfect-virgin-daddy's-little girl", yet both of them faced dire consequences that were not what they expected.
In Charlotte's situation, when she defied the stereotypical roles of women and eloped with a man, she was denounced as a whore.
No one discusses Montravilles and how he 'eloped' with Charlotte or the fact that he had non-marital sex, yet Charlotte was the one to be blamed and slut-shamed for doing exactly what Montraville did.
It takes two to have sex and it takes two to escape to America, then why is it that only one is blamed?
Because of Charlotte's actions, her reputation and status in society are declined. Just like Nathanial Hawthorne's character Hester Prynne from the Scarlet Letter, Charlotte gets one big A stigmatized on her.
On the other hand, Dana ends up abiding by the expectations of her race, unlike Charlotte who drifted away from the expectations she was brought up with. Dana keeps getting bombarded by various attacks on how white she actually is and how she should act more like a black person, that she ends up learning that "it's [not] possible for a lone black woman—or even a black man—to be protected in that place" (Butler 219). Dana figures out that where she is now is different than where she was, and that being black, whether a man or a woman, automatically makes you inferior to others.
Eventually, Dana starts dressing and acting like the slaves, as well as remaining silent and not defending herself as she used to. For instance, in some scenes, Dana starts kissing up to Margaret Weylin and obeys her needs. Alice seems furious with Dana's actions and tells her, "you don't want to hear me, get out of here. The way you always suckin' up to that woman is enough to make a body sick.”
Was I getting so used to being submissive? (Butler 220)
Dana realizes that she lost her identity and changed from the beginning of the novel to the end, since at the beginning she used to talk back and still had a sense of who she was and where she is from, yet by the end of the novel she starts blindly obeying commands, whether the commands were by Margaret telling her to get her things and sleep in her room, or by Rufus telling her to convince Alice to come sleep with him, Dana became so submissive to the point where it worried her. The fact that Dana was concerned about how submissive she became sheds light on how being submissive is not necessarily by choice but it's a mere form of survival and adapting to society, in Dana's case a way for her to escape the cruelty of the slaveowners if she did not obey their demands.
Butler, Octavia E. Kindred. Beacon Press, 2009.
Rowson. Susanna. Charlotte Temple. 1794. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2011.
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1media/enslavement.png2018-04-18T09:40:38-07:00Students in ENG 410: American Novel, an upper-level undergraduate seminar8105943177cf94521fefbbebb901e86333202954Slavery Beyond ChainsStudents in ENG 410: American Novel, an upper-level undergraduate seminar10The Variation of the Forms of Slavery Inflicted on Charlotte in Susanna Rowson's Charlotte Temple and Dana in Octavia Butler's Kindred.book_splash7181092018-05-21T17:36:17-07:00Students in ENG 410: American Novel, an upper-level undergraduate seminar8105943177cf94521fefbbebb901e86333202954
