Kindred

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay. 

Scaffolded/Short-Answer Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the below bulleted outlines. Cite details from the play over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. The central dilemma that Dana faces is her obligation to save Rufus Weylin in order to avoid a time-travel paradox despite the fact that he is a slave owner.

• How does her lack of free will mirror the predicament of the enslaved people on the Weylin plantation? (topic sentence)
• In what other ways are the characters in this book trapped by power systems and mutual need?
• What is the book trying to say about the relationship between enslaved people and slave owners?

2. Dana’s marriage to a white man is controversial, even in her time.

• What is the book trying to say about contemporary race relations? (topic sentence)
• How does Dana and Kevin’s relationship represent some of the challenges faced between Black and white people in America? In what ways do they struggle to understand each other, both in the present and in the past?
• Is this tension resolved in the book?

3. In the nineteenth century, Dana is frequently mistaken for a man or chided for wearing a man’s clothes.

• What does her refusal to succumb to traditional gender roles say about her character? (topic sentence)
• In what other ways does she defy traditional gender roles, and how does her attitude shift during her time travel experiences?
• How is gender another part of the power structure that Dana lives within?

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by text details, and a conclusion.

1. Kindred can be read as an allegory for the traumatizing reality of Black history in America. How is Dana’s journey into the past—and her obligation to the man who owned and brutalized her ancestors—a representation of the lingering effects that Black people face in America? How does Dana navigate her responsibility to the past and the guilt of existing outside of it? Please use specific evidence from the text in order to formulate your response.

2. As Dana becomes a fixture in the community at the Weylin plantation, many Black characters begin to resent her. Where does this resentment come from? How is Dana caught between the enslaved people on the plantation and the Weylin family? How does this demonstrate the complex power dynamic between enslaved people and their masters? 

3. Dana’s education, most of which comes from a fairly standard upbringing in her era, becomes very useful to the Weylin family, but Tom and Rufus are deeply suspicious of educating the enslaved people on their plantation. Why is this, and what does Kindred have to say about the value of education as a means of gaining agency?