Discussion Topic

The significance of Dana losing her arm in Kindred and whether she dies at the end

Summary:

Dana's loss of her arm in Kindred symbolizes the lasting impact of slavery and her connection to the past. It represents the physical and emotional scars that history leaves behind. Dana does not die at the end of the novel; instead, she returns to her time, forever marked by her experiences.

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In Kindred, why is Dana losing her arm significant?

The author never explains to readers why the loss of her arm is significant. That is left up to individual readers, and an argument could certainly be made that the arm being lost at the end of book is significant for no other reason than explaining how she managed to lose the arm on her "last trip home" as the beginning of the novel states. At that point in the story, readers do not know anything about the upcoming time travels, so we are completely dumbfounded by the description that her arm is somehow crushed or existing within a wall.

"That was when I realized your arm wasn't just stuck, but that, somehow, it had been crushed right into the wall."
"Not exactly crushed."

You could also argue that the lost arm is symbolically important, and you could argue that Dana has left an actual piece of herself in the...

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past. She time traveled back and forth between two time periods. With the loss of her arm, it could be said that she now exists in both time periods at the same time. This could be seen as a positive thing because her present is forever impacted by her past. There is always a reminder about where she has been and came from as well as a larger view of how far race relations have come.

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Dana's lost arm symbolizes that a literal piece of herself has been left behind, and it bears the physical reminder of the consequences of the Antebellum South. She, like many of the other descendants of the slavery era of the Antebellum South bear the burden and are presently dealing with the traumatic history. Dana is reminded that to live through slavery is to lose a part of yourself that time will not heal. It is important to know how she lost her arm. The character Rufus, a young plantation owner, is in control of Dana's destiny throughout the novel. In his vulnerability, after losing his dad and a woman he enslaved, he summons Dana one last time out of fear of loneliness. During this time, he becomes frustrated with Dana for refusing his advances and forces himself upon her. Dana comes to the ultimate decision that Rufus has no redemptive qualities and nothing could be done to save him.
In self defense, Dana stabs Rufus, killing him, and she is left injured in an attic before being transported back to present time. During the time travel her injured arm is left behind. It is unclear why her arm was left as it was not amputated before she time traveled. However, the author Octavia Butler alludes to being unable to write Dana as coming back whole.

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This is an excellent question. What is interesting about how Dana returns is the way that so little comment is made about it by the narrator. It is as if we are left to work out the meaning of Dana's amputation for ourselves and try and establish what Octavia Butler was trying to communicate through it. Interestingly, though, in an interview with the author, Octavia Butler elaborates on the silence left in the novel concerning Dana's amputation as she returns back to the present for the last time, leaving her experiences of slavery in the past. Note what she said to explain the amputation:

I couldn't really let her come all the way back. I couldn't let her return to what she was, I couldn't let her come back whole and that, I think, really symbolises her not coming back whole. Antebellum slavery didn't leave people quite whole.

Thus it is that Dana's amputation therefore symbolises the way in which slavery broke people, and left them fragmented as individuals, in the same way that Dana finds herself literally fragmented, as she loses her arm. Butler seems to suggest that Dana is not just a spectator. As a participant and somebody who has suffered the horrors of slavery herself, she is not allowed to return to the safe present and left to imagine that her experiences were just a dream. Her lack of an arm will act as a constant reminder of what she and her ancestors suffered, symbolising the profound inhumanity of slavery.

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In Kindred, what is the significance of Dana losing her arm?

One of the more curious aspects of this incredible story is the way that Dana, as she returns to the present from the past for the last time, loses her arm as she returns and is literally disabled by her experiences and time travelling. You might find it interesting to read what Butler herself said about this ending and how it relates to the novel as a whole. Let us remember that the whole motif of time travelling is designed to force us as readers to experience slavery and its grim realities first hand, just as Dana is forced to experience them. We are not able to enjoy them from the luxury of our armchairs, and the way that the two radically different time periods are juxtaposed forces us to confront the horrors of slavery, just as Dana so often has to struggle to accept what is going on in spite of her 21st century values. Dana is profoundly changed by her experience of living out the reality of slavery in the past, and this is reflected by her amputation. Note what Butler says about this:

I couldn't really let her come all the way back. I couldn't let her return to what she was, I couldn't let her come back whole and that, I think, really symbolises her not coming back whole. Antebellum slavery didn't leave people quite whole.

Dana's loss of her arm therefore is a powerful reflection of the true impact of slavery and how those that survived it were not left "quite whole." Dana's exposure to slavery in all of its grim reality has to have some lasting impact on her, and she, just like her ancestors, has to bear that impact for the rest of her life. The loss of her arm is therefore a powerful symbol of the impact of slavery.

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Does Dana die at the end of Kindred and how does she lose her arm?

Octavia E. Butler’s novel Kindred blends science fiction and historical fiction, as the narrative follows Dana’s time travels from 1976 Los Angeles to 1815 Maryland. The prologue reveals that Dana’s arm has been amputated, but the details of what happened are not revealed until the end of the story. Dana and her husband, Kevin, both hide the truth about the accident from hospital staff because they know they wouldn’t be believed anyway.

In Dana’s first trip back in time, the African American protagonist appears at a river to find a boy drowning. She saves the white child, Rufus, before being transported back to her own time. In subsequent time travels, Dana always appears at a moment when Rufus is in danger, such as after setting his bedroom drapes on fire, when he has broken his leg, and during a beating from Isaac (the husband of a slave he has attempted to rape). Thus, Rufus needing help seems to be the catalyst that propels Dana, and then Kevin too, through time.

Rufus is also the reason Dana loses her arm. In her final time travel, Rufus attempts to rape Dana, wanting her to stay with him as his concubine. Dana succeeds in fatally stabbing Rufus, and, as he’s dying, she is transported back to her own time. However, she finds herself in gut-wrenching pain with her arm joined to a wall at the spot where Rufus had been holding her.

The novel ends with Dana and Kevin relieved that Rufus’s death means they will no longer time travel and may return to their normal lives.

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Dana does not die in the end. She survives to tell the story of her trips through time. She loses her arm because of the weird/specific way in which she time travels. She reappears in her contemporary world with her arm stuck through a wall. They have to amputate it because it is crushed (and, I suspect, mixed in with the drywall and paint of the wall itself).

It is the price she pays for "reaching out" to Rufus.

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