AFRAS 260 Analytical Presentation #4

I did my final analytical presentation for this course on two themes found in the novel Kindred by Octavia E. Butler. The first theme i highlighted was teaching. I talked about how important it is to ask questions about why things are the way they are, and then decide if it makes sense. Decide if the people around you are just stuck in the system or a traditional mindset, or if there is valid reasoning behind the actions that they chose to do and the decisions they decide to make. Applying it to Kindred, Dana came in and was able to change and challenge what Rufus thought about slavery and the rights they don't have. He then pushed for education. This helped to alter the future, and it reminded me of the movements in the past that arrose due to people asking questions about their environment and why they're being oppressed. Like the Black people in the Civil Rights movement, Women in the Feminist waves, and Science in the evolution of theories. They've all had a hand in altering how we live today.

The second theme i talked about in this podcast was kindness. Specifically how being kind to someone, being a light in the dark could not only alter how they feel that day, but also how they make decisions moving forward. I used the example of school shooters in the podcast. How they often are bullied and have possibly grown up in households without car and with violence. This causes them to make decisions that choose death for others, I've heard stories of how people have been in dark times and contemplated taking their own lives, but someone did, or said something (without knowing their situation) that was kind and it helped them off the ledge. We're all stuck on earth together so we may as well make it easier for one another.