What do you do when your life is full of problems and you can't seem to get past it? The book Kindred from Octavia Butler is about a woman named Dana who time travels and must conform in order to survive, But she has many barriers and obstacles that will try to make her insane and impatient. Octavia Butlers message in Kindred is: Sometimes life is full of barriers, But you must conform in order to survive.
In the book Kindred, Dana conformed to her barrier, which was time traveling without her consent. She was in one place one minute, and the next, BAM, she's gone. "I heard him move toward me, saw a blur of gray pants and blue shirt. Then, just before he would have touched me, he vanished." (Pg. 13) This quote explains how Dana time traveled the first time to the past, She saw everything disappear with a blink of an eye. Although I've never time traveled or done anything of this sort, but I've had to diffuse problems. They escalate to their boiling point and I put then out and at the end it's like they weren't ever there.
A second scenario where Dana conforms to her barrier is when she time traveled to the present without her husband, Kevin and he was stuck in the past. "I lifted my head, started to sit up, and my back suddenly caught fire. I fell forward, hit my head hard on the bare floor at the bathroom. My bathroom. I was home." This quote shows how she time traveled back to her home. She returned home real hurt and without her husband beside her. I can relate to this quote because When I got my wisdom teeth extracted they sedated me and I didn't fully wake up until about three hours later the extraction. When the anesthetic wore off completely I found myself in my house, In my couch with my blanket on me.
A third scenario where Dana conforms to her barrier is when she time travels with her husband and he had to pretend to be her master and she had to pretend to be a slave because it was the time period when slavery wasn't abolished yet. "I glanced at Kevin, not wanting to contradict what he had said. He gave me a slight nod, and I assumed I was free to make up my own lies." This quote shows that both Dana and her husband, Kevin were both pretending to be something they weren't in order to survive because if they didn't they could have been killed by someone. I can relate to this quote as well because when I'm speaking to someone I don't know I wait for my sister to give me the nod and or look so I can approach them.
In conclusion, I would just like to state once again that Octavia Butlers message was: Sometimes life is full of barriers, but you must conform in order to survive. I think we all sometimes conform to our barriers just because our life is shaped a certain way or because we think that we can't overcome a barrier, but we can... We must just put our mind to it and believe that we can overcome anything. We sometimes think that the only way to overcome something with the help of others, but sometimes it's better to work alone. A quote from Kindred that really caught my eye while reading was, "One of the women from the agency told me the typical slave- market candor that he and I were, 'the weirdest- looking couple' she had ever seen." (Pg.57)
