Trauma as a theme in Kindred by Octavia E. Butler 

Who knew that time travel could be so traumatizing? In this book by Octavia Butler, we discuss the use of trauma. In this post from my MFA program, we’re going to dig into these ideas.

Kindred by Octavia Butler uses trauma as a central theme. The main story is about Dana and Kevin and Dana’s time unraveling trips to her ancestors in 1815 Maryland. Trauma is used as a central theme in three ways: the travel to the past, existing as a black person during slavery, and then the traumatic returns to the present with the knowledge of the past. 

The trauma builds throughout the book. The first trauma is the ability of Rufus, a white man, to “call” Dana into this world through time and space. This contributes to a constant fear throughout the book. She could be pulled away at any time. Even once it seems like her adventures are over, the fear persists. That is psychological trauma and reinforces trauma as a theme in the book. 

Her trips are traumatic because, in the early part of the book, she has no idea where she is, what year she is in, or why she makes these trips that seem dreamlike but are so very real. Dana, and later Kevin, are pulled into the world of 1815 in Maryland on a plantation, and they, as modern people, are introduced to the brutal world of chattel slavery. Trauma as a theme continues in Dana’s first trips. She is forced to tie a sack of clothing and survival items around her waist so that she could survive in a brutal and unfamiliar world. 

Each trip, even once she gets used to the trips, is traumatic. This reinforces the three main traumas of the book, travel to the past, living in the past, and then the return. As a literary device, this serves as a micro 3-act play each time a trip occurs. She is here in the modern world and then is suddenly pulled back into the world of 1815. Then, upon her return, she is often hurt, dirty, and damaged. The trauma of the past has a direct physical effect on her today. This is a metaphor for how slavery affects black people today. The book’s prologue begins with her in the hospital, having lost her arm during a trip, and having to convince the police that her husband did not harm her. They would not believe the real explanation revealed only pages later. 

Dana and Kevin handle the trauma differently. Dana is a fighter, while Kevin tends to emotionally shut down. Even before Kevin beings traveling with her to the past, Kevin’s reactions to Dana’s physical trauma from her trips are muted. He can’t believe what is happening or why it is happening. It seems like Dana is crazy, but there is physical evidence. This is another metaphor for how people handle trauma. There are three modes: flight, fight and freeze. Dana and Kevin move through all three in the course of the story. However, Dana seems more resilient than Kevin. This could be a metaphor for the resilience of black women and the lack thereof in black men. 

As a literary device picking trauma as the main theme is a risky move, but Octavia Butler handles it beautifully, weaving a complex tale of ancestry (hence the title), day-to-day matters, and the life of Rufus together around this theme of trauma. Trauma doesn’t rise to the level of becoming a character, but Butler exposes her characters to terrible instances after awful situations over and over again. She puts a fine point on the fact that to be black in America is to be in a state of trauma. Not only is living in everyday America, as a person of color, traumatic in its small ways but each of us carries the trauma of our ancestors. Every sold-off child, lost husband, family death, beating, and torture lives in the bones of every slave descendant. This theme of trauma is a fine point on the black experience in America. 

This book confirmed that while I am not looking at writing torture porn, every day is a traumatic day for my black characters. My goal is to show that the psychological trauma of slavery is the worst part, and this book confirms that I am writing along a good path and that I have a unique opportunity to demonstrate how unsafe, unsure. Traumatic the peculiar institution was for the people affected by it both black and white.