59 pages • 1 hour read
Octavia E. ButlerA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
These prompts can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before or after reading the novel.
Personal Response Prompt
Traditional understanding of the slave narrative paints a clear-cut oppositional relationship between Black people that were held as slaves and their purported owners, yet Kindred tells a much messier story of power dynamics, compromise, and love. How did you feel about that messiness and its impact on Dana’s thought process?
Teaching Suggestion: The most difficult part of Kindred for many audiences will be Dana’s Stockholm-like relationship with Rufus, and many may read her as passive—even complacent—about the goings-on of the Weylin household. This question is intended to help students work through the difficult situation Dana was in; the lack of utter brutality on the part of Rufus creates a power dynamic based on his need for love, highlighting The Complicated Power Dynamics of Slavery.
Post-Reading Analysis
Octavia E. Butler was a groundbreaking Black science fiction writer, yet this book uses a science fiction premise to present a work of speculative historical fiction, making Dana’s present in the 1970s the future of the novel’s main plot. How does this impact the plot of the novel? Does Dana’s present “matter” in the context of Black life under slavery?
By Octavia E. Butler
Adulthood Rites
Octavia E. Butler
Bloodchild and Other Stories
Octavia E. Butler
Dawn
Octavia E. Butler
Fledgling
Octavia E. Butler
Parable of the Sower
Octavia E. Butler
Parable of the Talents
Octavia E. Butler
Speech Sounds
Octavia E. Butler
The Evening and the Morning and the Night
Octavia E. Butler
Wild Seed
Octavia E. Butler