Octavia Butlers Kindred vs. Harriet Jacobs Incidents In The Life of a

Octavia Butlers alike vs. Harriet Jacobs Incidents In The livelihood of a Slave GirlAccording to the conventions for break unitarys back narratives, it is possible to categorize Kindred by Octavia Butler as a striver narrative. However, the circumstances that take Dana back in time ar imaginative and fantastical comp ard to slave narratives such as Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs. While reading Kindred, one doesnt really get the experience of the slaves, but how Dana feels as she participates in slave times. Comp ard to the lives of slaves, her flavor is much easier and she has the luxury of knowing she is not and never was a slave. In contrast, Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl is a direct portrayal of slavery through the eyes of a slave. Although the viewpoints are very different, there are similarities in their experiences and in the way each(prenominal) responds and fights for their freedom. The starting time parallel exists in how both Dana a nd Jacobs are taught to view themselves. Jacobs states, ? I was born a slave but never knew it till six years of happy childhood had passed away? (Jacobs 7). Jacobs? father allowed her the freedom to break up happy and unfettered by slavery. Once she did realize she was a slave, her mistress further encouraged independent judgement with kind discussion and by teaching Jacobs to read. Therefore Jacobs had little worries about slavery for the first twelve years of her life. Dana grew up in 20th century America, where life for African-Americans is drastically changed. She never had to worry about slavery nor gave it much thought beyond what she read in books or learned in classes. She is however married to a white man. When transported back in time she is actually perplexed by the treatmen... ...wn time whereslavery doesn?t exist, and Jacobs, desperate to stay fresh her children and give them freedom.As stated earlier, Jacobs and Dana experience slavery from very different persp ectives. Dana is well educated and prior to going back in time, has moreover read about slavery, while Jacobs, although literate, is born into slavery and knows nothing else. heretofore these major differences do not change the veneer of slavery. Both are considered property and both had to endure and watch others endure unimaginable cruelties. It seems notwithstanding natural that the similaritiesin their experiences produced similarities in how they reacted and how they escaped to freedom.Works CitedButler, Octavia E. Kindred. Boston Beacon, 1988.Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Ed. Jean Fagan Yellin. Cambridge, Massachusetts Harvard University Press, 1987.