In the novel Kindred, by Octavia Butler, Dana, a modern-day black woman, travels in time between her current time and the time of slavery in the South. Between her various travels, Dana and her husband Kevin experience a series of events that are both cruel and revealing. Their experiences force them to question essentially everything they knew about their lives and what they considered home. Through the use of two different periods of history and the idea of ​​time travel, Butler is able to draw on the concept of house and what house means, and brings up the idea that for Dana, home could be more than just a physical place. . Through insight into the minds of Dana and Kevin, Butler suggests that home is the place where one can feel safest and most comfortable; also emphasizing the idea that over time, any place can feel like home to an individual, even if hatred and unfortunate circumstances may permeate it. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay Each individual's idea of ​​what a home means varies greatly. Most often, for an individual, home is the place where they feel safest, most comfortable and where they feel like they belong. At the beginning of the story, Dana's home is her house in California which she shares with her husband, Kevin. Dana mentions the timing of her move to live in a house with Kevin, stating that "the day before we had moved from our apartment in Los Angeles to live in our own house a few miles away in Altadena. The move was enough of a celebration for me” (Butler, 12). Dana refers to moving into a single-family home as a celebration: the use of the word celebration implies that having a home is something worth getting excited about, something to truly celebrate. It was an important step and an important moment in her life for her. This brings up the concept that, in addition to being a physical building, home is made up of the people you love most, which for Dana is Kevin. Although domicile can be a physical location such as a home state or a person's home, domicile can also be a person. Throughout the story, Dana seems conflicted about where her home actually is and if she can even consider her current house her home with everything that has happened. The only constant in the time travel turmoil was Kevin. She is deeply connected to him as his wife and Kevin is able to provide her with a constant sense of home. She mentions an instance where “we were sitting together on the floor, me wrapped in the towel and Kevin with his arms around me, calming me down just by being there” (Butler, 15). Kevin didn't even speak to Dana, yet his presence alone was enough to comfort and make her safe just by being there. Comfort and security are two of the traditional characteristics of a house; two things that Kevin is also able to bring to Dana. Through this scene, Butler further suggests and emphasizes the idea that a person can be a form of home for someone, and presents the idea that home might not just be a physical place, but someone or something that evokes these same things. feelings of security, comfort and belonging. Kevin as a home for Dana is seen again, when Dana is severely beaten by Tom Weylin for essentially allowing Nigel to teach Carrie several spelling words. Dana's fear for her life triggers her return homeher to the present day, although this time, Kevin cannot reach her in time to return as well. Back in California without Kevin, Dana walks around their house in the fog. She only performs the bare minimum of tasks she needs to survive; things like eating, drinking, bathing, and cleaning wounds. She just goes through the motions. This lack of involvement in her own home further reinforces the idea that home isn't really home if Kevin isn't with it. She is distraught and says: “I didn't want to be awake. I barely wanted to be alive” (Butler, 113). Her separation from Kevin completely prevents her from feeling at home, even though she is truly at home in modern-day California. More than that, her separation from him completely removes her will to live, emphasizing how important Kevin is to her and the level of comfort and security he is able to provide Dana while simultaneously functioning as a form of home for her. Kevin and Dana's physical home in California, however, is not the only house present throughout the novel. Over time, Butler suggests that Dana has another home: the Weylin Plantation in Maryland, in the 1800s. On her first trips to the plantation, Dana was scared and confused and desperately wanted to return to her real home. Today. Dana comes to the conclusion and realizes that her fear is what will propel her home, and in one case, she "desperately wished for the dizziness to intensify, the transference to come", allowing her to return home (Butler , 35 years old). The language Dana uses emphasizes how she is so desperate to return home during her first trips to the plantation that she begs herself to reach the point of fear or danger where she can return. None of the experiences she had there gave her the feeling of being in a typical house and, as a result, she wants to leave. However, as the novel progresses, we see that Dana becomes more and more accustomed to this different time period. Her feelings towards the plantation begin to change and she begins to see things in a different light. Dana has a revelation about the plantation one day when she meets a young Alice during one of her time travel episodes. She begins to realize that “these people were my relatives, my ancestors. And this place could be my refuge,” about the Weylin plantation (Butler, 37). Once she understands that the people of this new time period are distantly related to her, Dana's feelings toward the plantation begin to change, even if she doesn't notice it. The idea of ​​very close family ties to the home, because it is generally the family with whom one shares the home. Now that Dana has discovered a deeper connection with the inhabitants of the plantation, she can slowly begin to see the plantation functioning as a kind of home. Dana makes a statement about her definition of home, stating: “Home. It had nothing to do with where I was. It was real. This was where I belonged” (Butler, 115). Although this statement refers to his California home, it very closely parallels his new home on the plantation. She refers to her home as a place where she belonged, and when she visits the plantation several times, she begins to feel as if she also belonged there with her ancestors. Another reason Dana begins to see the plantation as her home comes from the unique dynamic present. in Wonderland in this novel. By including this concept of time in two different periods of history, Butler suggests that over time, almost..