PWA Essay

    Kindred was a book written by Octavia Buttler with many messages. The book was about an African American woman,Dana,traveling back in time to save her white ancestor Rufus when he was in danger. Through out the book many events occurred. We learned about the oppression of slavery,how slaves conformed to slavery,pressure and unfair treatment. However I believe that Octavia Buttler’s main message was to be able to overcome problems and to be able to forgive and learn from it.
    Tom Weylin,Rufus dad, for example was forgiven by Dana.Tom whipped her,mistreated her,took advantage of her,and told Rufus to try to get her to .Even through he did all this,Dana still forgave Tom.Years later when Tom was having an attack and dying,Dana proved that she forgave him by trying her best to save his life.Unfortunately it was too late and he still died.Dana learned how to forgive Tom after all the pain he brought to her.
    Margaret,Rufus mother,was another person that was forgiven by Dana. Ever since the first time when Dana traveled back to the river and saved Rufus,Margaret disliked her. Margaret was racist to Dana and would force her to do work she wasn’t responsible for her. Margaret would be jealous of Dana because Rufus would enjoy spending time with her more than his own mother.Margaret yelled,was disrespectful and would boss Dana around. After the years passed and Dana traveled back in time and Margaret was older,Dana learned how to forget and forgive all the unfair treatment.Even though Dana was treated unfairly by Margaret,Dana proved she forgave her by taking good care of her. Dana was with Margaret day and night helping her in whatever she needed.
    In this world everybody makes mistakes.We have people that hurt us when we less expected but we have to stay strong and learn how to  forgive.When my mom was younger around 17 her older sister mistreated her and forced her to leave her home.Her sister threw all her personal belongings on the floor,and asked her to leave.All this happened because of a misunderstanding. After 8 months my mom forgave her sister. She forgave her because they were sisters,and she didn’t want to have problems with her own family. Many people have similar cases where problems happen in their family,friend,and relationships.In some point in our lives just like in the book,people will hurt us but we realize their mistakes,learn from it next time.
    From all of this we can conclude that forgiving someone is hard after whatever harm they’ve done to us.We realize that that person wasn’t thinking right or realizing how they where oppressing us. Like in the book Tom and Margaret didn’t know how they were making Dana feel and suffer.They might have not been thinking straight and acted quickly on whatever was on their mind. Once again, I believe that the main message is to learn how to forgive, but never forget, learn from experience.