Albert Einstein refers to time as an illusion of sorts. He argued
that it could vary for different
observers depending on their speed
through space. According to
him, time is a three-dimensional ground
that provides coordinates to a traveler.
Length, height and width show location
and the dimensions. Time also provides
the dimension of direction though conventionally, it only moves forward.
The concept of time travel is one that has sparked
debate with scientists, philosophers and other
theorists coming up with
their ideologies to it. Time travel is an act of moving amid different points in time. It has been
a very popular and divergent topic
for the past
decades among science fiction
proponents. There have even been movies,
novels and also
stories that have come up over time incorporating the concept of time travel.
Examples of famous movies franchised with the notion of time travel
are Star trek, Doctor who and
even back to the future. In most
of these thrillers, the humans use a time
machine of sorts that is like
a vehicle that enables them
to move from one time to the next. Either
from present to the future or the
past and back
(Nahin & Paul).
In her book “Kindred†Octavia E. Butler uses the concept
of time travel to bring out a fiction story of slavery and
slave trade. It has been an important
and clear show
of the notion of time travel. From the book, one
can be able to deduct some of the accruing
advantages of time travelling
and also the
problems or shortcomings that come with it.
Butler builds on the idea of time
travel to uncover the impact of human
bondage in the American society. She is in a witty way able
to keep readers unaware of the intention
of the time travel since she does
not directly expose that the main
character is a black woman
that can time travel. Dana, a
black woman that is in the present married to a white man Kevin is involuntarily transported
back from 1976. She finds herself in a Maryland plantation
in the early early-nineteenth-century.
She arrives in that time just
in time to rescue a drowning white boy called Rufus Weylin whose mother had been
unable to save. Unfortunately, even after saving the boy
and trying to do some resuscitation, the white mother immediately
brands Dana as attempting to kill the kid.
She traveled back to the present
just when things
were getting ugly on her. With time travel, it has a great
advantage in that one can use the
knowledge and skills gained in the
future or present
to make things better to the past
(Rosenberg & Donna).
After the incident with
Rufus, it is like Dana is now
necessitated to protect Rufus
regularly since she keeps going to the
past when he
needs her. His fate was to survive and
unfortunately rape a slave girl called
Alice who in turn gives birth to Hagar, Dana’s
foremother. The book is more or less
a fantasy time travel, not exactly a science fictional one since it does not involve
a time machine of any sort, and
there is very minimal recovery time. Dana is taken back in time
by Rufus, who keeps on recalling her to save his life since he happens
to be her ancestor. Though the book offers
no explanations as to why exactly Dana and
not everyone else. It is unique how not even
the characters question why they
are being subjected to the time travel
and not like everyone else. Even when lying
at the hospital they are sure that
people will not understand or believe what
they are saying, so they are silent
about it. Butner also does not shed any
light on the reasons as to why the couple started
experiencing the time travelling instances. When the episodes
of time travelling ends with the death of Rufus the couple just
moves on with life (Butler).
The time travel
can clearly bring out a picture of the differences
between life in the past and life
as it in the present (Thorne & Kip). The book has a scene where
Dana confronts Rufus for selling a slave and
Rufus assets his masterhood by hitting her. Dana was so irritated
by the cat that
she chose to slit her wrist so as to travel back to the
present. The only way that
she was coming
home is if she
was in a near death experience. She was, however,
so much agitated
by the acts of Rufus that she chose
to inflict pain on herself just to be away from him. The slaves in the
past however are obedient to the slave
master and are not seen as being assertive
or defiant seeming as is Dana
from the present. She assets her woman authority though she
faces the horrible
experience of the slave trade era.
Kevin, who is also a white man upon travelling back in time, he
goes ahead to tray and set
free the slaves
instead of joining the masters in enslaving
the black people. He has even married
and respects a black woman, Dana in the present and is disgusted
by his ancestors for treating the black people with so much
indignity.
With time travel individuals can be able to trace back their history to appreciate where they
are from (Mortimer). They can be able
also to be able to uncover and relive memories of their lives that matter in their present lives. It
can help people appreciate their current and anticipate their future. At what instance
Dana and Kevin travel back in time together
only to find Rufus writhing
with pain due to a broken leg. Just
next to him was Nigel a
you8ng black boy who they send to ask
for help. Upon enquiring who Kevin was, Dana informs him that it
was her husband. Rufus is evidently angry and
filled with rage. At that, it was
a taboo for a white person to marry a black woman who is supposed
to be a slave. They are necessitated to explain to him that they bare
from the future and proves it
by showing some coins that they
had dated the future. That is the
only way they
can calm Rufus down, and he promises
to keep their identity a secret. From there on when they travel
to the past they would masquerade as master and slave
to avoid a confrontation.
Weylin comes to get Rufus and upon introducing himself, Kevin
is invited to join him on his
plantation. They witness the inhuman treatment that the slaves are subjected to, and
Dana, pretending to be a slave to Kevin, was not spared. At a point, Weylin finds her reading, and he mercilessly whips her and, as a result, she travels
back to the future without Kevin.
After the incident with the slave masters,
Dana remembers the kind of resistance that they faced
with Kevin when they fell in love. They
met opposition from both of their families due to their racial variance. She recounts
how she met
Kevin while she was still working
at a small job at an
auto-parts warehouse. Due to
their similar attributes like
their shared love and passion for
writing and also that they
were both orphaned they got attracted
to each other. When Kevin decides that they should get
married, they face all sorts
of resistance. Kevin’s sister
was a major prejudice against the
African-Americans while, on the
other hand, Dana’s uncle could not bear the thought of a white man inheriting his [property. It is only
the aunt to Dana that supports the marriage.
Despite the disapproval, they go ahead
and tie the
knot. Dana later goes back in time
only to find Rufus being beaten up by Isaac the husband to Alice after he attempted to rape.
Dana intervenes and Isaac run
away with Isaac. She begins nursing Rufus in the promise that
he would deliver a letter to Kevin about her return to
Maryland since she finds that she was
away for five years, and Kevin had
long left the
place. Less than a week later Alice and
Isaac caught on the run, are severely beaten. Isaac mutilated and sold off to traders
from Mississippi. Rufus now asks
Dana to convince Alice to be his concubine
so that he
would spare her.
Through time travelling, we
can be able to see ourselves living through centuries and therefore
it is a one of a kind chance to note the
change and progress
in our lives. We are also so much
able to be able to be
empathetic of the situations and also of the
things that happened in the past (Mortimer). The firsthand experience of the way of living,
a culture and also of systems can enable one not to judge a particular age of people. It is easier
to be able to get the circumstances surrounding making of individual decisions and also can get
the events that led individuals to act in certain ways.
Dana was able to experience the kind
of cruelty subjected to her
fellow colored people. With the experience, she
is in a position to understand
why they were
left behind in other aspects years after the decline of the
human slave trade. If at all also she felt any form of
judgmental feeling to the women for not being assertive and also not being considered as part
of change, she experienced the violence and level of demeaning that they experienced and so could
understand. She even ends
up acting like one of those bitter and angry
women when she
stops the time
travel by killing Rufus the same person
she so much
set out to protect and saved him more
than once.
Many times we
are tempted to believe that living at the
moment I all that matters to a person. The assumption that by judging the past as archaic, unruly or even as in dignified is the best form of establishing the superiority of the present and thus we are better or brighter than our ancestors is ill informed.
If we however,
hold the premise that we are successors of a living, effervescent past, and that the understanding of the history is vital
to the understanding we hold in the present and also precede our future then that is the most powerful way to experience time
travelling. It is a tool
to use to be able to experience life from the past, present
and the future
and also it
shapes our thinking and understanding of things (Mortimer 292). It is the only way
to become generative since we
learn from the mistakes made in the
past. For the couple that travelled to the past could not engage in some of the mistakes that their ancestors made.
However, they got to appreciate the events that occurred
all their lives. For Dana, for example, she
got to understand why it took
having such a ruthless ancestor as Rufus and why he
had to remain alive to cause all the havoc in the
people’s; lives. She appreciates his being around since thanks to his acts her lineage came into
existence, and thus she owes
her existence to Rufus regardless
of the fact that he was
ruthless.
Time travel whether to the future
or to the past
remains an unsubstantiated theory (Nahin & Paul). It continues the concept
of moving between varying points in space using
a theoretical and also fiction framework
or mechanism. It, however inspires
a lot of literature with authors exploring the possibilities and manipulating the
fantastic speculative device to advance their ideas and also
to pass messages in a way that is entertaining and clear to understand.
Octavia Butler was not left
behind and clearly studied the field
to write a masterpiece that apparently cautioned and brought out the
intensity of slavery in
America. It was of sheer clarity and
at the same time sensitive to the ideologies of others across the board.
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