A Reflection on Kindred

Understanding is more than just an Award

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Blog tenth is one of my favorites because I was able to pick one of my previous blogs that I feel proud of doing. This is a hard question to answer due to the amount of time, thoughts and knowledge I have dedicated to all of them. However, blog eighth “Domestic Violence Equals Modern Slavery” have been stocked in my head for quite a while and the things that I have learned from that blog are amazing. In this blog, I was able to deeply analyze how domestic violence can be the same term as modern slavery and how women are treated like animals even though we are in the twenty first century.

From the in class readings and quizzes of the story Kindred, I have learned about slavery in the United States during different periods of times. I have learned how people were treated back in that time, analyzed the relationship between slaves and masters and compared it with how people are treated nowadays, especially women. Another remarkable thing I have learned is how old masters molded their young white kids to be masters. The quiz on literary terms helped me to understand better the story I was reading. It helped me to analyze the story from different perspectives; identify the different characters in the story and understand the types of narrator from this story. The setting played an important role in this story, it was a little confusing and at the same time is exciting, but it kept me hooked and focused into what was going to happen next.

My blogs comments and feedback from my classmates have been helpful. By commenting on other blogs we are able to improve what we have done wrong and shape us as better writers.  Most of my classmates have done a good job because they were able to respond what we were asked for and provide good ideas. However, other classmates were only able to respond only part of the assignments and left it unfinished.

Definition of Heroism



Torture of a female slave
Image from historycooperative.org

This is blog ninth for my English class 102. On this blog we are going to take into account the definition of Heroism that Karen Joy Fowler uses in her tribute to Octavia Butler. Also, we are going to plot in this definition on each of this three main characters, Dana, Alice and Sarah, by bringing out their endurances and sacrifices in a way that are being consider heroism.

Most slaves, especially women slaves, were forced to endure constant exploitation and degradation. The author in kindred uses three of her major character to show the different ways how women were exploited and degraded. One of these characters was Alice, who suffered tremendous amount of pain from the abuses of her master. Rufus, who was obsessively in love with her, used to treat Alice like an animal. He took advantage by raping and whipping her whenever she refused him. She was also punished many times for trying to run away from him but every time she did she was caught. Another character who had suffer tremendously was Sarah, however she had opted to live a passive live and accept that she was a slave. She saw how her master Weylin destroyed her family, took away her children and sold them to different bidders. He left her with only one child, Carrie, who was mute, so this way he could make sure that Sarah was not going to escape. Dana’s case was worst because she was from a different time of life; she was not used to the life style of the 1800’s. She had to suffer all types of punishment, from being whipped, insulted, to almost being raped. She could not talk back to the master or any other member of the Weylin family because she was a black woman; this was unacceptable behavior for the slaves. Dana was accustomed to talk back and defend herself if she felt attacked by another person; she had to sacrifice her freedom and life style. The only way Dana was able to escape from the past was by putting herself in danger situations. 

In my point of view, Dana was the most heroic person of the three. Even though she lived in a different time in life, she was able to manage all the punishments she received and still continued to save the life of Rufus every time he was in danger. She was only the black person who was well educated and knew how to read and write. She was able to teach these skills to some slaves of the plantation who she was allowed teach to. At the end, she was able to overcome her fears and killed Rufus while he was trying to rape her

Domestic Violence Equals Modern Slavery



Slaves Violence
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Domestic Violence
Image from jhsph.edu



Equals

My eighth blog for my English 102 class is about an interesting story that we are reading in class, the store is named “Kindred”. The story makes emphasis of two major problems we have been facing for many years around the world. These two problems are Domestic Violence and Slavery, which in fact become one big problem that affects many people. At the beginning of the story, the author makes the readers believe that Dana is a victim of domestic violence in her own house. By doing this, the author tries to catch the attention of the readers so that they think that the story is about domestic violence. However, later in the story we realize that Dana is being transported to the past; to the slavery time. On one of her returns to the present, Dana came back horribly beaten up; she had been whipped by her master, Tom Weylin. When she comes back, her relative, who assumes that Dana is being beaten by her husband, asks her why is she letting this happens to her.

In the story, the author wants to emphasize a problem that has been going on during many years. She addresses that some people adapt to domestic violence after they have suffered it a few times, especially those who are in love with the aggressor. After a couple of times of being physically abused, Dana’s and other slaves’ body get accustomed to the whips and this kind of violence suffer becomes a routine. Today, people who are victims of domestic violence also get used to be beaten all the time. In addition, because the love the aggressor, they decide to not do anything about this situation.

The author uses this scenario to compare domestic violence with slavery. These issues are both similar, almost the same issue. Domestic violence is the abusive behavior in the modern epoch and slavery is what they used to call it in the old days. Even after black slaves were badly whipped and tortured by their masters, they would still serve to them. Even though some slaves did not want to continue to serve their masters, they had no other choice. The same way, a woman who gets beaten by her partner is afraid to run away because she believes that if he catches her he may kill her.










The Fight

Rufus' manipulative love
Image from go-self-sufficient.com

My seventh blog for my Eng 102 class talks about the decisions and attitudes of the characters in the narrative story Kindred by Octavia Butler. One of the characters, whose name is Rufus, is a selfish and manipulating young man who wants everything to go his way. He does not care if he hurts someone along his way. He thinks that the way of loving someone is to mandate and dictate them for his will.

The author refers to Rufus as a "destructive single-minded love" (Butler 180) who shapes the lives of two of the characters who he loves; Alice and Dana. Alice, a free black, is Rufus’ friend and Dana is Rufu’s savior, mentor and friend who have to suffer the cruelty of his way of loving. He has always found a way to accomplish his wills by threating them with something they care about. Rufus have molded their lives according to his desires and wills, making them prisoners of his caprices.

Dana and Alice do not have other choice than confront Rufus' love and try to be submissive to his will. Rufus forces Dana to help him to convince Alice to go to his bed and Alice has to let him rape her. If Alice does not do what he has ordered to do voluntarily, she can easily get whipped in a cruel manner or be forced to have sex. She could escape but it would cost her life if he catches her. Dana desires and need to see her husband again; he is the only one that knows where she is. She cannot escape either because Rufus would kill her if he catches her.

Being the only way for them to not get hurt so brutally by Rufus, I stronly agree with the choices both Dana and Alice have made. This may sound bad, but I believe that is the only way for them to survive. Rufus would whip, rape and kill Alice if she goes against his will. And Dana would not be able to see her husband Kevin again if she does not help Rufus and act as his friend.

A Slave more educated than her Master

Slave owners began to fear the power of an educated slave.
Image from howstuffworks.com

In this blog I will explain the reason why I think Tom Weylin believes that Dana is trouble to his family and his plantation. Tom Weylin thinks that Dana is trouble for several reasons but mostly because of Dana’s ability to read and write, and her educated and proper manner to speak to others. She respects white people the same way she respects other people of her race, treating everyone at the plantation equally. However, he resents her education and dislikes the idea that a black woman could read and write better than him. He also dislikes the fact that Dana comes from a free state and she is an independent woman. The way Dana talks to him is considered inappropriate; he believes that as the master she should refer to him as if she is a slave and that she should feel afraid.  Tom Weylin is not only surprised by the way she acts but by the way she dresses; he disapproves the fact that she wears pants. Women in the 1800’s did not wear this kind of clothes, because at that time they believed that only man should wear pants.

Tom Weylin thinks that she is dangerous to the way of life in the Weylin household because he thinks that she is going teach the slaves freedom ideas and therefore they would be able to escape. In addition, he knows that because she is well educated, the slaves would admire her and feel motivated to learn and explore new things. She is also danger to the family because Dana is attached to the kid and she could change the way he should be treating the slaves in the future when Rufus takes control of the family slaves.

Slave Families Life

Slave Auction

Michele Bachmann's Family Values, circa 1861.

blogs.forbes.com

 

Family life in the United States at the epoch of slavery had no value. People were treated as piece of animals and sold to the highers bidder. Master and owners of slaves didn't care about their feelings nor their working ethic, they just wanted to make easy money by selling their whole family wife, children and babies. The states at this epoch had no legal protection for the slaves and their marriage. Kids and mom could be separated at any time and send any where without their concern or care. Most of  the families that were separated never got to see their family again. Slave families were taken to auctions an sold as if the were sheep or lamb. They were even sold by pounds and age. Their physical appearance made them worth more in the eyes of the bidders. The worst thing about it is the owners of these slave didn't even let them say goodbye and always made sure to send to saep[arte the families as much as they could by selling them to different states.

Learning Experience

Learning Experience
maitlandconnects.blogspot.com

  

My fourth blog is kind of interesting. It consists on me picking one of my previous blogs that I believe I have done a good job and I am proud of it. However, it is hard for me to just pick one because I believe that I have done well and proud of all of them. It has been a learning experience for me as writer, since I did not know much about literary terms and did not read poems before. It is been quite rough, I am not going to lie, but the overall progress has kept me motivated to do more. After writing the first 3 blogs, I can say that I have strengthened my skills as a writer impressively. Blogs 1 through 3, each and every one of them has been special.  

Let's start with the first one which was about choosing a passage about roses. This first blog taught me too many things at once. From the beginning it was a challenge since I have never done it before. The picking of the images, setting up my blog with a cool template design, quoting up the passage as a block quote, giving an introduction to the passage were the easy ones. But when it got to explaining the poem, trying to understand it and learning how to interpret the meaning of a word (symbols and/or allusion) that poet often use to suggest something greater than its literal meaning the task became quite hard and complicated. My second blog was somewhat the same just that this one was at a bigger scale. This time was a whole poem rather than just a quote like the first one.  On my third blog I learned great things too; how to paraphrase poem, picking key words and interpreting them and most valuable understanding the tone of a speaker. All these blogs together have made my experience in class greater, even though it is been tough I have learned a lot.

The projects we have done in class so far have been great. The professor has made it real interesting by creating houses in the class, something I have never done before. Working with My Plath House members have been excellent.  We have shared experience, learned from each other and understood better the class projects with the help of each other.

My experience evaluating the member of my house was great. They all are great writers and it was hard for me to find things wrong in their papers. By evaluating the member of my house I inspire my classmates to improve their skills. Also I have the opportunity to give and receive feedback from someone other than the professor. Lastly, this evaluation can help the member of the team to gather new ideas that they may have not tough before.