Convoluted Kinship in Kindred

kin·dred [kin-drid]

noun

1. a person's relatives collectively; kinfolk; kin.

2. a group of persons related to another; family, tribe, or race.

3. relationship by birth or descent, or sometimes by marriage; kinship.

4. natural relationship; affinity.

           As I was reading Kindred, I wondered why Octavia Butler chose this title for her book. There could have been so many different titles relating to slavery, to violence, to prejudice, or any number of other themes in the novel. So why Kindred? In the Reader’s Guide at the back of the book, this question was also brought up in number 17. Kinship is clearly a huge theme in the story, but most importantly Butler challenges our societal norms and conceptions about family and how kinship plays a role now. In our current world and society, family is viewed as a person’s rock and foundational support. Rarely is family seen as dangerous, and we have a very closed minded view of what we call the ‘nuclear family’. However, Butler challenges these ideals. In Kindred, Dana’s closest family becomes her ancestors from the days of slavery; she comes to know family members both oppressive and oppressed.

           There comes a strange selfishness based on necessity for Dana. She must preserve her ancestors so that they can produce offspring, eventually leading, years later, to her birth. Thus, Dana must protect and save Rufus, her family. “Still, now I had a special reason for being glad I had been able to save him. After all... after all, what would have happened to me, to my mother’s family, if I hadn’t saved him?” (Butler 29) In modern day, it would be expected that one would of course want to protect their kin. Yet what happens when your family is oppressive to you, as Rufus becomes to Dana? Are they still family, and how are you supposed to act towards them?

What IS family?

           Margaret Weylin is faced with this dilemma due to her husband’s sexual abuse towards his slaves. Mrs. Weylin is painfully aware of the slave children who her husband fathered, yet must turn a blind eye to them. “They had different mothers, but there was a definite resemblance between them. I’d seen Margaret Weylin slap one of them hard across the face. The child had done nothing more than toddle into her path” (Butler 85). Margaret Weylin dealt with this grey area of family through violence, channelling her hurt and anger at her husband into abuse toward children that perhaps could have been hers.

           I have come to the conclusion that the title "Kindred" is filled with challenging of societal norms, double meanings, and irony. Butler challenged what it means to be kin in this novel, and the lengths we sometimes must go to protect our family. The title is also literal, in that Kindred is a story about family ties, family history, and what the definition of family is. We place such importance on kinship in our current society that we often forget about the grey area it can sometimes be accompanied by. This book was full of convoluted interactions and ideas about family, and I believe that Butler did this to remind us that family is often larger than we might think. Dana began in Kindred with one family member; her husband. However, through her experiences in the past, she gained family members in her actual ancestors, however violent they may have been, as well as gaining family in the slave community on the Weyland plantation. Kinship does not have to be the nuclear family that we believe it to be in America today. Family can be, as shown in the fourth dictionary definition, a "natural relationship or affinity".