Kindred, and Butler's unique use of a common plot device

Time travel is a pretty common motif in popular media; however, where many texts or films will use time travel to take the protagonist on fun or lighthearted adventures, Kindred uses this plot device to examine the thought experiment of how modern day people would react when truly faced with the horrors of antebellum slavery. Time travel also works very differently in Kindred than in other pieces of media, with Dana being involuntarily transported back to the past whenever her distant ancestor, Rufus, is in danger. Dana is completely powerless as to when she is transported, and she also has no control over how long she stays, with her longest experiences possibly being upwards of a week. This process is very physically and mentally taxing on Dana; she never returns unscathed. Whether it be disorientation and exhaustion, or even physical injuries, like her lost arm. All of this is to say that in Kindred, time travel is especially harsh, and meant to reflect the brutality of slavery and Dana’s ethical dilemmas in dealing with it.

While Kindred uses the plot device of time travel in a very unique way, compared to other works I know, one aspect that felt familiar was the plotline of Dana trying to protect her lineage, and the moral dilemma of having to help Rufus rape Alice in order for one of her direct ancestors, Hagar, to be born. I feel bad making this comparison, given Kindred’s emotional weight and historical significance, but this plotline of Dana trying to ‘protect her ancestry’ so that she and her relatives exist kind of reminds me of a twisted version of Back to the Future. 

For those unaware, Back to the Future centers around the protagonist Marty McFly, who accidentally travels 30 years into the past and interferes with the event where his parents met. Before he can return to the present, Marty now has to bring his parents together and make them fall in love so that he is born. Kindred features the twisted, antebellum slavery version of this plot line, in which Dana has to help her master rape another one of his slaves (who is kind of her friend). This example of Back to the Future shows how even though Kindred uses a relatively common plot device, the book feels so unique because of how this time travel is contextualized.


- Sahnan

 

Comments

  1. ShannaNovember 28, 2025 at 9:08 PM

    Hi Sahnan! I really like the way you describe how harsh and disorienting Dana’s time travel is, and how it mirrors the violence and pressure she faces in the past. Your "Back to the Future" comparison works surprisingly well! I like how it shows how Butler takes a familiar idea and turns it into something far more serious and painful. You make it easy to see why Kindred stands out even though it uses a plot device we see all the time. Overall, great blog!

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  2. Olly EarlsDecember 1, 2025 at 10:23 AM

    Hey Sahnan! This post is really interesting; I found your take on the novel through a modern lens to be refreshing and insightful. Time travel in Kindred is definitely ahead of its time. I personally found it brilliant how Butler uses this modern tool to look at the past without losing focus. Great post!

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  3. JessyDecember 1, 2025 at 1:39 PM

    Hey Sahnan, I agree, I found it interesting on the usage of time travel in this book. not as something fun or adventurous, but as a brutal reminder of the realities of slavery. Your comparison to Back to the future was smart; clearly showed how Butler twists a familiar trope into something morally heavy and emotionally complex. Great blog.

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  4. TuckerDecember 2, 2025 at 6:05 AM

    Hello Sahnan, I have never seen time travel used in this horrific way as a plot device. The acceptance of time travel here I think deglorifies the time travel happening. If there were some explanation for what was happening, the goal would not be to live or survive in the times, but to stop the loop. It allows for the focus to be on Dana's life in the past rather than the attempts to example.

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  5. MitchellDecember 3, 2025 at 12:21 PM

    Oh wow, it is true that there are some discomfiting parallels between McFly's dilemma and Dana's, and you're right that the TONE in these examples couldn't be more different--although we get an even more disturbing flirtation with the incest theme as Rufus attempts to rape Dana, and she briefly wonders if she could "forgive him even this." One significant difference is that the "past" in the movie is a relatively nostalgic and mostly apolitical evocation of the 1950s, like an episode of "Happy Days" on TV. By sending Dana SO much farther back in the past, and to a place where she is entirely subjugated and without rights of any kind, we get a much more scary and dangerous version of the "ensure your family line" narrative. I keep emphasizing it in class, but it's clearly a deliberate intentional choice for Butler to compel Dana to affirm BOTH Rufus and Alice as equally her ancestors. And this means that she pretty much has to be complicit in Rufus's systematic rape of her great-great-great-great-grandmother. So yeah, a little different from _Back to the Future_--but it's definitely the most "postmodern" aspect of this novel to have Butler just drop this conspicuously fictional time-travel trope right into the middle of her historical narrative.

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  6. JayDecember 7, 2025 at 8:05 AM

    Hi Sahnan, great post! I agree with the comparison you're making (I remember you making it during class). It's also interesting how Butler uses Dana's time travel--in particular, Dana's lack of power over the entire process--to highlight how absurd and soul-crushing slavery was for the slaves. In comparison to the other hero's journey tropes, where time travel grants the protagonist with a boon, Dana's left only with a missing arm, further highlighting the cruelty.

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