The Authors Are(‘nt) Messing with Us (Part 3!!) and The Moral Compass

In the other novels we have read this semester, it has been easy to talk about how the author is using 

meta-fiction and how the authors are messing with us. I’ve written a few other blog posts completely

 about how the authors are playing with the reader of the story. For example, Doctorow’s random 

picking up and dropping of historical figures into the narrative, or the weird pictures and typeface in 

Reed’s Mumbo Jumbo. In terms of meta-fictions, there are similar frames presented in both 

Slaughterhouse Five and Kindred. Kindred is a story within a story because it’s in the first person 

past tense of a story. On page 116, Dana narrates, “Once I sat down at my typewriter and tried to 

write about what had happened, made about six attempts before I gave up and threw them all away. 

Someday when this was over, if it was ever over, maybe I would be able to write about it.” This 

makes us, as readers, be like, “Hey! This is that story!” So, it’s not-so-subtley acknowledging the 

reader. But this made me think, “Hey, where has all of the messing with us gone?” Butler has written 

this novel very differently in relation to the reader compared to some of the other novels we have read this semester. I talked with a few people in 8th period, and Mr. Mitchell, and there haven’t been 

too many other times that Butler has addressed this being a novel, or anything like how Doctorow 

and Reed messed with us.

Now to the moral compass. I was wondering what the best way Dana could go about saving her 

family line. Dana is not safe going back in time, of course we know she isn't going to die, but she 

doesn't. By going back in time, she risks Kevin’s life and her life further. So maybe, she should try 

and stop. Now, the only time she goes back is when Rufus’s life is in danger. So, if she killed Rufus, 

she wouldn't have to go back anymore. Now that solves the issue of going back, but what about the 

issue of her existing? If she can convince Alice to have a child with Rufus, she could kill Rufus, and

 then find a way to get in harm’s way so she goes back to 1976 and all is fine and dandy. She exists, 

she never has to go back. However, Alice hates, and should hate, Rufus. Dana has the mental impact 

on Rufus to convince him to rape her. If Dana wants to be safe immediately, she must convince Alice 

to let him impregnate her. That’s messed up. But, if Dana lets Alice in on the plan, they can kill 

Rufus afterward. With Rufus gone, the rest of Alice’s life could be better, and she could find Isaac 

with the help of Kevin and Dana. I wonder if Alice was given the rundown of the situation, would she let Rufus impregnate her? I also wonder about are Rufus and Alice supposed to have multiple 

children? How do we know when the correct great-great-great grandparent is born? I imagine Dana 

disappearing into the air after she uses Tom Weylin’s old shotgun to kill Rufus in symbolic fashion, 

only for her to stop existing. I still have so many questions about how this book can turn out. My post brings up a very difficult moral question here, so I apologize if it is problematic in advance. 

Thanks for reading.