When Dana gets caught teaching Nigel and Carrie to read, Tom Weylin whips her savagely, which triggers Dana’s travel back to 1976 alone. Dana wants to make sure young Rufus does not end up as evil as his parents. They also meet Rufus’s parents, Tom and Margaret Weylin, the cruel plantation owners. They meet other enslaved people such as Sarah, the plantation cook Nigel, Rufus’s enslaved friend Luke, Nigel’s father and the Black overseer of enslaved people Carrie, Sarah’s daughter who has a speech disorder and Alice, Rufus’s friend, eventual lover, and Dana’s ancestor as well. Together, they must fit into the roles of the period: Dana must pretend to be an enslaved person, and Kevin must pretend to be her owner. When Rufus falls out of a tree, Dana arrives, this time with Kevin as her companion. Dana also learns that she travels back home when she believes her life is in danger. Rufus is her ancestor, and he subconsciously calls her whenever he is in danger, sending her traveling through time to save him. Later that day, Dana time travels again to extinguish a fire Rufus has just started and learns she is in antebellum Maryland. She saves him and learns his name is Rufus moments before his father points a gun at her, sending her back to the present.

While unpacking, she suddenly feels disoriented and finds herself outside watching a young white boy drown. The story begins in 1976 when Black protagonist Dana turns 26 and moves into a new Los Angeles home with her white husband, Kevin Franklin. Butler’s use of time travel highlights the importance of keeping the past present because the trauma left behind continues to shape our daily lives.Ĭontent Warning: The source material includes scenes depicting suicide, sexual assault including rape, sexual coercion, and other instances of graphic violence. The novel has been praised for its raw and compelling depiction of slavery, bringing it to the forefront to remind us to never forget the sins of our past.

Kindred book octavia butler