In the chapter the Fire Dana is home recovering from her first encounter in another dimension, however, as she is recovering she begins to feel dizzy and sick again, then she appears in a room with a boy who is playing with fire. As Dana watches the boy she sees that the stick he is holding has ambers of fire, as do the curtains. Dana acts quickly by disposing of them, the boy then notices her she begins to question if it’s Rufus. As they get acquainted we discover the boy is Rufus however he is a couple years older, during this encounter Dana discovers what year it is. In addition to finding out the year, she finds out that Rufus could be a very great grandfather and a woman named Alice could be her very great grandmother. Knowing that Dana can not stay in Rufus house for long she ask the child if there is a safe place for her to take refuge, he directs her to Alice’s house. While at Alice’s house she encounters a patroller and has a very vicious fight with him luckily getting away and back with her husband who begins to form a plan to keep her safe if she goes back to that era.…
Dana goes back to the past, she goes back as an educated black woman who is powerful due to her knowledge and ability she has to read and write. Dana also…
1. Rufus had grown comfortable enough to Dana to know that she could not resist helping others and not seeing others getting punished harshly without due. He used that against her when he threatened to have Alice whipped if she didn’t talk to her about having sex with Rufus.…
Dana is teleported back to the Antebellum South for the second time and finds Rufus near burning draperies. She quickly pulls the boy away and finds herself in a conversation with him. She finds out the young boy’s name is Rufus. The conversation continues and Dana begins to realize that the boy she just met, Rufus, is related to her. Dana then says to herself, “Was that why I was here? To insure my family’s survival, to insure my own birth?” (page 29). What Dana says is a crucial part in the novel. Butler wants the reader to get a clue of why she is there and why she needs to do everything she can to survive. Therefore, she is not only surviving for her family’s sake, but for her own…
While reading the short story "Everyday Use" written by Alice Walker, shallow and selfish come to mind as the story describes the oldest sister, Dee. Critics will argue on how selfish she really is though. According to Nancy Tuten, author of "Alice Walker's Everyday Use," Dee, the oldest sister, has grown accustom to getting her way and not sure how to act when she is told NO. Where Susan Farrell says in her article, "Fight vs. Flight: A Re-evaluation of Dee in Alice Walker's Everyday use," Dee is not as selfish as most people believe. Susan Farrell still says that Dee is selfish, but to a point, the rest is her view of her heritage and new way of copping with the oppressed society that they live in.…
In a country with a violent, complicated past, stories are passed on from mothers to daughters to preserve a sense of history and create a record for the future. In “The Missing Peace,” Emilie tells Lamort they should write down what has happened for posterity, but Lamort answers that she has posterity in the form of her family. She means that she has inherited her mother’s and her grandmother’s experiences, and when she is old, her own daughters will inherit her experiences. Similarly, Josephine’s mother tells her in “Nineteen Thirty-Seven” that her birth made up for her grandmother’s death. Death broke one link in the family chain, but a new one was formed. Many of the characters in Krik? Krak! sense the presence of their dead ancestors and feel connected to their pain. They understand their place in the world in terms of their mothers’ and ancestors’ experiences, and they pass these…
William Gibson once said, “Time moves in one direction, memory in another”. This is especially true in the film, Still Alice, where the audience is shown the progression of early onset Alzheimer’s in Dr. Alice Howland, a linguistics professor at Columbia University, and mother of three. Throughout the film the audience sees the slow deterioration of Alice and it not only affects her mental state but also in her physical appearance as well.…
“she used to read to us without pity; forcing words, lies, other folks’ habits, whole lives upon us two, sitting trapped and ignorant underneath her voice.” Mama says the words towards Dee and her past years in the house ever since she left. Dee has come back after many years, and she is coming back for her family’s heritage artifacts, that have been passed down for generations. Instead of coming back to her family, she only wants these items because she believes that this generation of her family is a disgrace. As Dee has come back she has actually started her own heritage and begins it like a tradition. Dee cannot see the family legacy of her name she was given at birth and changed to Wangero, which Dee believes is a more accurate symbol…
The exact spot where Rufus had held her in his final moments marked the loss of her arm, “from the elbow to the ends of the fingers,” It is unknown whether or not Dana’s arm is left in the past, still held between the cold fingers of the dead, as Rufus’ body was believed to be burned to ashes and never found, along with the Weylin estate. Dana’s graphic physical loss shows what slavery truly is outside of popular novels, history books, and dramatized television where the actors practice the pain and suffering that their ancestors dealt with. The loss of her arm shows many different things, like how even though African Americans today have been removed from slavery over time, who they are today was planted and rooted in the past. Also, slaves had constantly suffered from both emotional and physical abuse at the hands of their owners, yet they were extremely dependent of their owners. Dana is subjected to horrific pain at the hand of Rufus, yet she still feels pity for him when he comes crawling back to her, as he is both her master and her kin-dred, so she alternates between despising him and feeling empathetic towards him. Lastly, Dana’s severed arm is a horrible loss, and it is meant to capture the horror of slavery. It is also significant that she suffers her injury because Rufus hangs on to her. Like Rufus holding onto Dana, the past has a “hold” on the present, the sacrifices of the past shape the present today. Dana loses an arm which is an important body part, especially for a writer, although she escapes with her life. The slaves of the past had sacrificed skin, bone, and sanity, yet a lot of them escaped, albeit scarred. Dana’s horrific injury makes all of the sacrifices slaves made painfully real in order to make lives better for generations to come. Part of her lies in the…
E. Walker’s state of mind identified in the following quote, shows her perspective on her life thus far; “Black women are called, in the folklore that so aptly identifies one’s status in society, the ‘mule of the world,’ because we have been handed the burdens that everyone else –everyone else- refused to carry.” (source # 1)…
This could mean finding out that your great, great, grandfather died trying to protect your people. This could change your whole view on your life. Ramsey F states “finding out about the past could have a positive influence on you. You could see the world in a different light and maybe even change the way you behave.” Some scientists believed that this could also have an effect on how you feel towards these people and it can also help you understand the hardship that your past relatives went through. As it shows learning about the past could have a positive influence on some people in…
A person’s history can often determine his/her future. Some stories in “Dubliners” use the character’s history as a way of defining their actions. An example of this would be the story “Eveline.”…
In the novel Kindred, it is told through Dana’s point of view. Because of this it has a certain effect on the reader. Dna goes through living a normal life to suddenly time traveling back in time to where her ancestors were born and violence on Blacks was the main topic. Even though she was aware of what happened before she was born, it was different when she had to experience it…
Dana, the main character views slavery from a modern point of view because she is from the 1970’s. As the author sends Dana back into Ante-Bellum times she has her own experiences with racism, abuse and discrimination from her ancestor Rufus. Dana has to help Alice and Rufus through there obstacles, so he great-great grandmother will be born. In Rufus’ time of need, Dana time travels to help him. The line “For a moment, i watched too, and then I woke up, pushed aside the boy, caught the unburned upper part of the draperies and pulled them down. As they feel they smothered some of the flames with themselves, and they exposed a half open window. I picked them up quickly and threw them out the window.” This shows Dana bravery in saving Rufus for the second time. From Dana’s perspective it is her duty to save him and make sure he survives during antebellum times.…
Of Human Bondage by William Somerset Maugham The Women in Philip 's life In the novel Of Human Bondage, the main character, Philip Carey, has a myriad of people whom are very influential in his life. William Somerset Maugham portrays Philip as having three women in his life that are of great importance to Philip 's character. These three women are Mildred Rogers, Norah Nesbit, and Sally Athelny. Mildred is a negative influence on Philip whereas the other two women serve as positive influences in Philip 's life. Of the three, Philip loves Mildred the most, though Mildred loves him not.…