Findings and Discussion
Findings and Discussion
Though she is depicted as African American on the various covers that have been used for Kindred, Dana is not revealed as black until her second interaction in the past with Rufus. Rufus mentions that his mother referred to Dana as an n-word (Butler 24) when referencing the first time Dana saved him. Dana, still not entirely clear of where or when she is, is shocked by the casual use of the term and corrects Rufus on the usage. Later, during a flashback to an early conversation between Dana and her future husband, Kevin, a co-worker refers to them derogatorily as “Chocolate and vanilla” (Butler 56). When Dana and Kevin decide to get married, they discuss how they think their families will react. Kevin, perhaps naively, assumes his sister will be accepting of Dana; Dana, however, knows that her only surviving relatives, an aunt and uncle, will not welcome a white husband, and tell her exactly that (Butler 109-111). The novel’s setting of 1976 California also clues the reader in to the era that Dana is living in, after the 1960s fight for Civil Rights and the height of the Black Power movement, but still a time of social and economic segregation.
Conversely in Fledgling, Shori is identified immediately as a brown skinned person (Butler 4). When she has a chance to look at herself in a mirror, she sees that she is narrow faced, brown skinned, and has fuzzy black hair and the body of a child (Butler 18). She is suffering from amnesia and does not know who or where she is, but she is aware that she is different from her companion, who is a white male. As Shori gathers humans to protect her, and to feed on them, the majority of them are white, as are the other Ina. Shori has dark skin because she is part of a biological experiment to cross white Ina with darker skinned humans so that the resulting offspring will both blend in better with humans and have some melanin protection from the sun.
Neither Dana nor Shori index themselves as African American through their speech patterns, vocabulary, word formation, or word choice.
African American Women’s Language
In Denise Troutman’s analysis of African American women’s speech, she identifies several characteristics that define and separate AAWL (African American Women’s Language) from the speech characteristics of African American men. Two characteristics, the use of the Culturally-toned diminutives such as “girl” “honey” “sister” and so on as expressions of familiarity and solidarity, and the use of “little” to emphasize that something that is actually important or a big deal (216-217). Neither Dana nor Shori use these expressions with their male or female companions. Though Dana does grow to feel great affection for the other black people that she interacts with in the Weylin household, she never really relaxes with them enough to express such familiarity. Shori, though indicated to have the body of a child, is significantly older due to the slow aging of the Ina (Butler 64) and speaks and thinks as an adult. As Shori slowly integrates herself with her new companions, she speaks with them as equals, but does not use any colloquial terms of endearment for them. I believe Butler used the lack of these expressions to show Dana’s real isolation from the black people on the farm, even though they spent a great deal of time protecting and caring for each other, and to emphasize Shori as a separate entity, not like her human or Ina companions.
Dana’s Language
Dana, like Butler herself, is a writer. She lives language every day. Dana’s refusal to modify her speech, language, or accent when she is in the past is a reflection of both her refusal to give in to the subjugation of the time period and, I believe, her refusal to accept that she will be there for any length of time. When she is introduced to the female in charge of the cookhouse, she refuses to call her “Aunt Sarah,” likening the nickname as too much like “Mammy” (Butler 86). Her unusual, and anachronistic, accent is referred to regularly, as she is told she talks funny, doesn’t talk like she is from “around here,” and talks like a “white folks” (Butler 40, 60, 74) as she has deliberately not assumed an accent because she isn’t any good at them, even though she recognizes in the long run her unique speech will make things more difficult for her (Butler 74). Though we cannot hear her accent, her words as written show no indication that Dana’s speech features any typical AAVE features such as dropping the possessive ‘s, the use of habitual be, interdental fricative stop (dis for this), or metathesis (aks for ask), and this may be a reflection of Butler’s own personal speech patterns.
Feminism
Though the word “feminism” never appears in Kindred, Dana embodies the independent mind and spirit of a 1970s feminist, during the peak of both the feminist and the Black Power movements. As much as she wishes to quit her job and focus more on her writing, she does not wish to owe anything to anyone (Butler 108). Her refusal to type Kevin’s papers leads to a fight about his assumption that she should be willing to do so (109). As an intelligent, independent, black woman in 1970s America, she is in a perpetual position of fighting to belong in a society that does not wish to accept her (Bailey-Johnson 84). This implied feminism, and her refusal to accept her place in the Weylin household in the 1800s also influences her language choice: She refuses to use the term “Master” in reference to either Rufus or Mr.Weylin, instead calling Rufus by his first name and his father “Mister.” Mrs. Weylin sees Dana as a threat, especially because her son Rufus cares for her. Mrs. Weylin responds to Dana by ordering her around, shouting at her, calling her names, and even throwing hot coffee at her. This underscores the divide between white women and black women because “the seeds of the mistrust that African American women have for White women were sown in slavery when White women were seen as participants “ (Bailey-Johnson 94). Though she does not talk back, as she does not wish to endanger herself any more than she already is endangered, she does not grovel or simper. She responds simply to questions and commands, and often meets angry outbursts with a response of silence, itself a language choice that indicates her strength and sense of self.
Shori's Language
Due to Shori's amnesia, and because she does not meet other beings like her until halfway through the book, she has a rich inner monologue as she tries to discover her place in the world. She spends more time talking to herself internally than she does speaking to anyone else. The language of these internal musings are not those of a child, even though she has a child’s body, and indicate that she is intelligent and perceptive, intuiting the world and people around her far more than the outsiders understand. Though her skin is brown, she does not have any reference to herself as an African American, nor does she remember her life before, either with her human family or her Ina relatives. Because of this, she does not index herself as an African American person through her speech or vocabulary, but she does innately see herself as superior to those around her due to her strength and abilities.
In thinking on her lost memory and her past, Shori says "The person I had been was gone. I couldn't bring anyone back, not even myself...I would restore what could be restored" (Butler 310). This is the language and thought process of an adult woman, mourning a life that once was but still looking forward to a future. This could also parallel the lost past of African Americans, their lineages lost to time, but still looking forward to a future of strength and purpose.