I found this novel to be pretty fascinating, especially the way that Octavia Butler played with taking characters out of thier element to expose how good people and relationships change in different circumstances. When I started reading, I immediately like both the characters of Dana and Kevin. Dana is smart and kind and thoughtful, and Kevin seems so supportive and loving.
Dana, when she first travels back and see rufus, is very practical and stands her ground about her rights to human dignity. As the nvoel progresses, she changes slightly. She, mainly out of fear, becomes servile and reticent. he no longer seems to fight the system though she has strong convictions about the treatment of others.
In the prolong and beginning of the novel we see just how much kevin loves Dana-marrying her despite objections, calming her through this crisis, holds her at night which leads to his own journey back in time. but when he goes back into the south with her, he eventually changes despite his hopes to help free some slaves. He is controlling and unaware of the atrocities in how white people treat black people. Again, this shows how a person can be almopst wholly different in a new place/time.
This nvoel made me think about slavery in different term, as in how much people are own by outside influences. Perhaps we don't own the kind of people we are as much as we'd like to think we do. i'd like to believe that in any situation I would do the right thing. but perhaps instead we are all slaves to the society or circumstances we live in.
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I agree with you. Our society and our different circumstances plays a huge role in who we are. In my Theology class that I am taking this semester we are studying the sacredness of place and how who we are is ultimately determined by where we are. When Dana and Kevin were in their house in 1976 they were both independent and grounded, but when they were back at the Weylin's, they were so dependent on others and could not get a sense of who they truly were because they had to play a certain role whether they liked it or not. I also thought that it was interesting how after Kevin came back from being in the past for 5 years, he no longer grabbed onto Dana when she was starting to get dizzy. I think he changed alot, but then again I don't blame him for not wanting to go back.
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