Unique Perspective

            So far, I am really enjoying Kindred by Octavia Butler. The story is really interesting, and it gives a new perspective on slavery that I have not read before. The narrator Dana travels through time to experience slavery, and because it is not her natural surroundings, she is able to give a more understandable perspective to her readers, who have also not experienced slavery first-hand. She realizes that without experiencing it we cannot truly comprehend the situation, as demonstrated by Dana when she is describing her first experience with slavery to her husband: “most of the people around Rufus know more about real violence than the screenwriters of today will ever know” (Butler 48). By “the people around Rufus,” Dana is referring to the people she saw on Rufus’ father’s plantation in 1815 who live controlled by the institution of slavery, and “the screenwriters of today” are people who think they understand situations like slavery that they have not experienced, and who she now knows will never have as good of an understanding of the violence of slavery as the people who lived it.

In her attempts to show the reader a time which she knows they will not fully comprehend, Butler’s story keeps reminding me of Cynthia Ozick’s “The Shawl,” where Ozick uses a unique tone and style to present to the readers an experience that she knows they will never truly understand. Ozick uses strange metaphors, and a unique writing style that attempts to put the reader in the situation of her characters by omitting basic information and providing details in unexpected language and ways, to help bridge the translation gap between those who know what it is like to experience a concentration camp, and those who do not. Butler tries to bridge this gap by telling her readers straight-up that her narrator Dana, even though she is well educated on the history of slavery, was shocked by the reality of slavery. By telling us this, Butler is showing us that we might not understand slavery as the people who lived it do, but we can still try to sympathize with and comprehend the violence and fear provoked by slavery.

One thing I find interesting about these two stories is that neither of the narrators experienced first-hand the time and situation that they are expressing to us through their narratives. Perhaps they are showing humility, in saying that even though they are writing about a certain time period and know a lot about it, they realize that it is impossible for them to understand it as well as the people who lived it. And perhaps they are hoping to instill humility in the readers, showing that they may have read and learned a lot about something, but they should not assume that they know what it is like to experience things like being held in a concentration camp, or being a slave.

Whatever the reason for writing the stories this way, I think they were both affective in portraying a certain time period with enough detail and information for me to understand the situation, without me thinking that I know what it is like to live in the situation. I have enjoyed both of these stories, and I appreciate the unique perspective both of the authors brought to their respective time periods.

Butler, Octavia E. Kindred. Boston, Massachusettes; Beacon Press, 2003. Print.