Kim DuongProfessor GoyalEng M104D5 May 2014Dana's Consent to Slavery: A Different PerspectiveKim Duong, Kindred, addresses slavery in a contemporary yet historical context. In traditional slave narratives, the time period is set at nearly one hundred years ago, but in this book, through the use of time travel to blend the present with the past, it allows the audience to have a closer connection to both the characters. and the content. This is because readers go through the journey with the main character, Dana, in a relatable way. The first time Dana travels back in time to the slave era and meets Rufus, she is completely confused by what is happening. He is found unconscious, she saves his life and returns to the present time - that's all he knows. Kevin asks, “What the hell… how did you get there?” She replies: “I don't know” (14). Starting the novel with this framework allows you to understand and identify with the strangeness and confusion of the entire situation. She is no more familiar with the past than we readers are. Because of this, we are able to capture the nuances of his transformation and character development throughout his travels. We learn that there is much more to the fight against slavery than actual civil war and physical resistance. At the beginning, Dana is expressly defiant against the conventions of the slave period. This is shown after Kevin accidentally returns to the past with Dana and Rufus screams after finding out that they are married: "Niggers can't marry white people!" and Dana replies, “I don't like that word, remember? Try calling me black or nigger or even colored... Rufe, would you like people to call you white trash when they talk to you?" "What?' He was sure... mid-paper... that the reason she could deal with it was because she was just an observer, but one day she says to Kevin, "But every now and then... I can't keep my distance . I'm dragged until I'm eighteen and nineteen and I don't know what to do… I never realized how easily people could be trained to accept slavery” (101). of their home.Their present becomes their past and readers can effortlessly visualize the plight While traditional historical accounts of slavery leave a wall between the narrative and readers because we view it as something unidentifiable in the distant past, Kindred. breaks down the barrier of space and time to show readers the complicated dynamics of slavery. Of course it does not justify it, but it deepens the understanding of the situation and the relationship between master and slave.