Kindred

Reading Octaiva Butlers novel, Kindred gives you deep insight to the horrible life involved with slavery. Dana, one of the main characters in the novel, repeatedly gets taken out of her life and put into a life and time that is much earlier. Each time she is taken out of her life, she has to fight to stay out of trouble, or to stay alive. She is an Africian American woman and is also married to a white man, something not accepted back that time. Her husband also gets taken back with her once, and we get to see the experiences he had in this time period, which were much different form Dana. I think that each of Danas experiences in this other time period were ways to inform her of her ancestors history. When reading the novel, the author seems to try to make you feel like you are experiencing it. First hand experience is the best way to learn, but not usually possible, but Kindred trys to make it as first hand as possible.

The Bluest Eye is about the different lives of three African American girls. Their characters and lives are described in so much detail that you feel like you are almost there. Each character had their own problems and attitudes. Pecola, I believe is the one with the most hardship. Reading about everything that happened to her was very hard and made me feel very sorry for her. When it got to the part about Cholly, I was completely disgusted. No matter what happens in someones life, I do not see how they could ever do something like that to any child, especially their own! With everything she went through she just wanted to have blue eyes. When reading, I was not sure how that made me feel, to read that she wanted blue eyes, like the white girls, to make everything better. Being white myself, I guess it makes me feel sort of sad. That people were treated so terribly that they would think that way. I do not believe that it has to do with what race you are, but how you decide to make your life. Realizing that these young girls did not have much control at the time, but later in life they would have their chance to make it better.