The Bestselling Novel: Currents in American History and Culture Main Menu Introduction Intersectionality and Power Relations in Bestsellerism An 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 Chains The 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 Society Inspecting 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 Stick The Struggle of the Black Woman Across the Centuries Brief summaries of course texts

The Portrayal of Dana vs. Kevin

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The novel Kindred, by Octavia E. Butler, mainly focuses on the two themes of race and gender. These two themes are reflected in how the main characters Dana and Kevin try to maintain their relationship in the present and the past. Their story represents gender in different times, the past in 1800’s and the present in the 1970’s. In the present, the married couple lives in Los Angeles and has just moved into a new apartment. Although they are married, there are many situations concerning race that show ways in which they cannot relate to each other.

           
An example of this is when Dana is discussing her time travels with Kevin:

You mean you could forgive me for having been raped?
Dana, I lived there. I know what those people were like”(245).

It might seem that her husband is trying to be accepting of whatever might happen to her in the past. However, he does not seem to understand the fact that is not right, that no women should be put in any of these kinds of situations whether it is in the past or the present. Therefore, he is not supposed to tell her whether he is going to forgive her or not as it is not his right to do so.

Moreover, the fact that Dana and Kevin are forced to act as a slave and slave owner reveals additional divisions in their relationship. Kevin does not seem to understand Dana’s point of view in the quote above. He is not only acting as a man when he told her that he would forgive her, he has also been acting as a white man who readily acknowledges what happens to these slaves.
          
Moreover, the author must have thought that is important to show the readers how Kevin can not relate with Dana in order to spread awareness in the present about the aspects of racism and gendered violence. To explain, there are two points the author had wanted to portray that are foreshadowed by Kevin's gender and race.  Kevin as a white man is not able to understand Dana although she is his wife. That inability to relate and understand someone that is so close proves that even in Dana and Kevin's present, society has still not reached a point where gender and race are not used to make assumptions. These ideologies are restraining individuals with different racial and gender identities from understanding each other as equal human beings. 


Reference
  1. Butler, Octavia E. Kindred. Beacon Press, 2003

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  1. Gendered Violence and Racism: The Short End of the Stick Students in ENG 410: American Novel, an upper-level undergraduate seminar

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