“Kindred” as a Love Story (Free Essay Example)

The “Kindred” is a science fiction book written by African American author Octavia Butler. At first glance, some people may think that the text is only about the hardships of slavery. This is not the case because in the novel, readers see a love story sprout between Dana and Kevin. In this essay, several reasons will be given as to why Kindred can be considered a love story. 

In the beginning of the book, readers learn that the two main characters, Dana and Kevin, are recently married. Throughout the opening chapter, Dana travels between the present time and the 1800s. Her husband is initially skeptical of the whole thing, but he soon begins to worry about Dana’s safety as seen in lines.In the chapter, “The Fall”, Kevin wraps himself around Dana to protect her during one of her dizzy spells. He does this without hesitation, not knowing that he would also be transported back to the antebellum period along with his wife. Later in the chapter, after witnessing the horrors of slavery, Kevin tells Dana, “I’m going to do all that I can to see that you never come here alone again” (Butler 81). With this, readers catch a glimpse of how strong the relationship is between these two characters. Another piece of evidence to back up the claim that this novel is a love story is that Kevin jumped in front of Dana to protect her from Rufus (pg.)

One could argue that the novel is too dark to be considered a love story. However, not all love stories are positive, nor do they always have happy endings. Throughout this book, we see the ups and downs of Dana and Kevin. Several times in the book, readers see that Kevin is very controlling of Dana. At one point in the text, readers see that Kevin does not even think the plantation is all that bad (pg. ). 

In conclusion, Butler’s novel “Kindred” can be considered a love story because of Dana and Kevin’s strong relationship and all the time Kevin protected her. Most people think that love stories have to have a happy ending, but they do not. Love stories have good times, and they have bad times. Sometimes the people stay together and other times they do not.