Dana is a young black woman living in California with her white husband, Kevin. They’re both writers and met at a temp agency trying to pay their bills. They both have a desire for a future together. Then unexpectedly, their world gets turned upside down when Dana immediately gets dizzy and transports into the 1800’s. When she awakes she finds herself at the banks of the river, in the midst of things she hears commotion nearby and spots a younger white male drowning she rushes against time to save his life. Abruptly, she finds herself back in her tiny apartment with Kevin standing there completely astonished at what just happened, he was so upset being under the impression that she was leaving him because she just vanished into thin air and this caused a rift between the two. She becomes angered because she thinks he is trying to force her to stop thinking about the incident before she has a chance to take it all in, she truly had no knowledge of how long these flashbacks would occur but she was hoping it wasn't for long.
A few days have passed and the dizziness Dana had once experienced had reoccurred. She traveled back in time and the same boy she saved from drowning she now finds herself saving him from a fire. She later comes ascertain with Rufus Weylin, the boy who she keeps coming to. The weylins live on a plantation in maryland, this is where she keeps traveling back to. Rufus has took after his dad and strongly believes that are blacks are slaves even the free ones, such as Dana. This causes great tension and extreme issues for all parties involved.
My immediate reaction to “Kindred” was how traumatic and vivid the story line was. Its portrayed all throughout the novel about how black people have been dehumanized since the 1800’s. The violence is intense and it ranges from many variations of gruesome incidents such as slaves being whipped until they were oozing with blood , families separated, women threatened with rape by the slaveholders, and then sold to other plantations all over. The graphic novel made me realize how much race, gender, and power complicated things in this time period. It truly showcases the severity of these terms.
The author of “Kindred” uses many literary analysis techniques. Such as foreshadowing whenever Dana is worried about kevin being affected by the 19th century and then it turned out he most definitely was affected from the time period. He becomes quieter, angrier, and more aware of how real the racialized past is. Another example of foreshadowing is when in the beginning of the book states “Dana has lost an arm “ and at the end of the book the last time she goes back to the plantation and comes back to reality she really loses it. Another technique used was imagery, it was heavily enforced. Dana observed many slave beatings, and this caused a horrific image to stay burned into her brain. She was forced to watch one of the slaves that lived with the Weylins, she could smell the blood and sweat, she could hear the whip lashing against his body and could clearly see his body convulsing. One of the most powerful uses of imagery was whenever Dana stabbed Rufus , he then fell on top of her and she instantly got transported back into the present day. The arm that he was touching fuses into the wall, and this created a very vivid image.
There are many themes throughout the story such as; the effects of slavery, motherhood, and power. The theme of slavery is brutalizing and it affects whites, and blacks. White