Kindred by Octavia E. Butler provides an exclusive and in depth look into the lives of slaves during the Ante Bellum South. What I find interesting about this book is the way Butler encapsulates the spit image of slavery from the dialogue down to the smells and textures. For me, this is the trade of a good historical novel, one that can bring to life the horrors of the past by enveloping the reader in every possible sense.
One scene Butler does an amazing job of bringing to life is the scene in The Fire where she hides in the bushes while some white people beat up Alice's mom and dad. While this scene is so gruesome by itself, Butler adds descriptions of the beating of the man tied to the tree. "The man's body convulsed, but the only sound he made was a gasp. He took several more blows with no outcry, but I could hear his breathing, hard and quick." (page 36). These two sentences capitalize mostly on sound and while there is no dialogue added, the description is enough to inflict emotions in the reader. When I read this, my mind turned to disgust and my stomach flipped over, which are pretty serious emotions when reading a book. The next few sentences, "Behind him, his child wept noisily against her mother's leg, but the woman, like her husband, was silent. She clutched the child to her and stood, head down, refusing to watch the beating." Again, Butler brings in the use of sound to emphasize how destructive this scene is to the man's family. She enforces the pain and disgusting-ness of the whipping by using descriptions of one of the senses so the reader is also drawn into the book. The next few sentences appear to be the most destructive of them all, "Then the man's resolve broke. He began to moan - low gut-wrenching sounds torn from him against his will. Finally, he began to scream. I could literally smell his sweat, hear every ragged breath, every cry, every cut of the whip. I could see his body jerking, convulsing, straining against the rope as his screaming went on and on. My stomach heaved...". The scene already started out super gruesome and disturbing, but Butler takes it to the next level by adding even more descriptions of the senses. She already invoked sound, but now she uses smell. She also adds internal bodily movements ("my stomach heaved") which really impacts the reader. Butler seems to be using the idea of sympathy puking, where if one person pukes, the next person pukes out of sympathy. While the man and Dana are not puking yet, using "heaved" to describe the first action your stomach does before puking can trigger the sympathy puking response in the reader. This invokes really strong emotions in the reader and engrosses them into the feelings and the actual events of the scene. I think this is super clever, even though Butler may not have intentionally using the word "heave" with the intention of making the reader sick.
One thing I like so much about this book, is that it really transports the reader into the same time setting of the novel. Butler does an amazing job of captivating the reader for more than just one chapter.
One scene Butler does an amazing job of bringing to life is the scene in The Fire where she hides in the bushes while some white people beat up Alice's mom and dad. While this scene is so gruesome by itself, Butler adds descriptions of the beating of the man tied to the tree. "The man's body convulsed, but the only sound he made was a gasp. He took several more blows with no outcry, but I could hear his breathing, hard and quick." (page 36). These two sentences capitalize mostly on sound and while there is no dialogue added, the description is enough to inflict emotions in the reader. When I read this, my mind turned to disgust and my stomach flipped over, which are pretty serious emotions when reading a book. The next few sentences, "Behind him, his child wept noisily against her mother's leg, but the woman, like her husband, was silent. She clutched the child to her and stood, head down, refusing to watch the beating." Again, Butler brings in the use of sound to emphasize how destructive this scene is to the man's family. She enforces the pain and disgusting-ness of the whipping by using descriptions of one of the senses so the reader is also drawn into the book. The next few sentences appear to be the most destructive of them all, "Then the man's resolve broke. He began to moan - low gut-wrenching sounds torn from him against his will. Finally, he began to scream. I could literally smell his sweat, hear every ragged breath, every cry, every cut of the whip. I could see his body jerking, convulsing, straining against the rope as his screaming went on and on. My stomach heaved...". The scene already started out super gruesome and disturbing, but Butler takes it to the next level by adding even more descriptions of the senses. She already invoked sound, but now she uses smell. She also adds internal bodily movements ("my stomach heaved") which really impacts the reader. Butler seems to be using the idea of sympathy puking, where if one person pukes, the next person pukes out of sympathy. While the man and Dana are not puking yet, using "heaved" to describe the first action your stomach does before puking can trigger the sympathy puking response in the reader. This invokes really strong emotions in the reader and engrosses them into the feelings and the actual events of the scene. I think this is super clever, even though Butler may not have intentionally using the word "heave" with the intention of making the reader sick.
One thing I like so much about this book, is that it really transports the reader into the same time setting of the novel. Butler does an amazing job of captivating the reader for more than just one chapter.
I totally agree with you! That scene in particular was such a visceral, emotional scene that I'm pretty sure I started crying mid-read. Butler does that really well throughout the book, she involves all of your senses, and obviously while we'll never understand what slavery was like, she gives us a much clearer picture than we could have gotten from say, a history textbook. That's one of the reason Kindred was so compelling for me.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! Both the description of the scene using sound and the description of how Dana has a physical reaction makes the scene and the book as whole really powerful. This post also reminded me of how Dana gets nauseous when she travels in time. I'm not sure how or if that nausea relates to the nausea in this scene, maybe it's also her body's involuntary reaction to something she can't stop.
ReplyDeleteNice post! You chose a really good section of the book to articulate your point about how Butler fully engrosses the reader into what it was like in that era. Obviously, we will never completely understand that horrors of slavery, but evoking senses like sound and smell provides a captivating and gruesome description of a human atrocity.
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