So today we were asked by our professor to do another blog about the book Kindred and choose one of the questions from HERE and answer it. I actually really enjoyed reading this book. Even with some of the discussions that we encountered in class that i really did not want to participate in (personal reasons) over all it was a great book. It actually teaches you things that all individuals need to know about.
George F. Kennan once remarked that heroism is “endurance for one moment more.” While others have given up, the true heroic spirit refuses to relent. Instead, they fight and withstand. In Kindred, most of the characters are forced to endure for one reason or another, so in a sense, they are each heroic in their own way. But it was the women of Kindred who were forced to endure the most. Sarah, the cook and den mother to the slaves of the Weylin household was forced to tolerate her share of torment. Her children were sold as slaves and she as only allowed to keep her daughter Carrie because of her shortcomings. She fears losing her daughter, so she suffers in silence. Alice had to endure losing her husband, being a slave and succumbing to a man she did not love. Dana, had to endure the constant fear of being transported to another time, and being a modern woman forced to concede to dated rules. She had to lose herself in order to save herself, because if she allowed Rufus to die, she would invoke a time-travel paradox of epic proportions. Kind of like going back in time and killing your grandmother. If your grandmother died, how were you there in the first place to kill her? Going off subject it is said that such a paradox cannot exist, and the person who wants to kill their grandmother (I don’t know why anyone would want to) would be unable to do so. Back to the subject of heroism, I think that the most heroic character in the book is Sarah. Alice was unable to handle the thought of her kinds being sold and killed herself. And Dana was forced into situations. Sarah, on the other hand, lost her children and endured abuse from her husband as well as having the burden of being a slave. She was heroic, like most women of that period, and stayed true to herself.
Makes sense...Butler would probably agree.
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