Kindred analysis

The author is not crusading for any form of reparations to those African -Americans who suffered under the mercies of the white colonialists but is rather sympathetic with the victims (Gump, 44). Butler thus vehemently condemns the severe domestic slavery and violence that was inflicted and imposed on the black strata of the American region. Apart from slavery and domestic violence, the novel is also a replete of the different forms of atrocities and hatred that were exercised upon the black population, on the grounds of ethnicity and racial discrimination. The misery of the blacks was not as a result slavery or any form of discrimination but also emanated from the gaps that existed between spouses and which rendered communication ineffective (Graff, 250).

Butler passes her message of the plight of the black population in the American land by using Dana as the protagonist, who makes the whole novel flow in an aesthetical manner, creating a mixed feeling of fiction and an elaborate understanding (Wilkerson, 28). The intergenerational theory of trauma also elucidates on the meaning of slavery in the psychological perspective and the manner in which the slavery expanded from the narrow tobacco plantations in Maryland and Virginia to the west and south, a series of events that took place during the period between 1790 and 1860’s (Taylor, 132). The most common form of torture during this time was the labor control practices that had been imposed on the African American slaves in the plantations with serious punishment to those who failed to meet the needed quota.

All these encounters of the slaves in the American soils is well presented by the manner in which Dana suffers under the traumatizing conditions which she had been subjected to by her master. This situation was not however permanent because later after she assimilates to the culture of slavery, her body is finally treated as a human instead of being treated as an object, a change that occurred during the twentieth century (Felsen, 37). Butler writes to reveal the physical trauma that befell the African-Americans. However, Butler brings out the negative consequence that originated from such relationships when men started using the women for their material gains (Lang et al, 165). An example of this is when the author tells us that Rufus who’s on interested in lovemaking relationship with Alice when she was alive.

On top of the slavery which all these people were subjected to, Alice explains to Dana about the mental and physical abuse that she received from Rufus. Alice thus lacks that much freedom as compared to Dana, who had a lot of freedom even in comparison with the other salves, as claimed by Felsen, (59). Butler brings out the theory of trauma as a product of slavery, which is presented in a very complex way. This clearly depicts misery that befell the helpless black people in the hands of the Caucasians. However, even though Tess has lost a touch with her children, she still believes it is okay to adhere to the orders and wishes of this white master. “The massive whipping that Dana, Tess, and Alice received from Tom is a clear picture of the existence of domestic violence and butchery that the black Americans received from their white masters” (Butler, 150).