Time Travel

Time travel is a spooky thing. We have a large section of our media devoted to it because the possibilities it introduces are so extraordinary. What would happen if I could travel back to this point in time? Would I be able to make a difference, or would the future stay exactly the same? Any time we are asking questions about time travel, no clear cut answers are given. Nothing is ever concrete in a time period that is constantly shifting around. But although we can never predict what time travel will affect in a timeline, we can predict how the features of a media's time travel can have an effect on the story itself.

In the novel Kindred, we can see Octavia Butler using a randomly spawning time travel that always transports her to a certain time and place. Although the circumstances she arrives to always pertain to the near death of Rufus, we can never predict what that situation will be. This generates a certain suspense, because the reader is just as clueless as Dana when she arrives in Maryland each time she time travels. It can also be observed that Kindred, only takes place in the present and 1800's Maryland. No other times are present in the novel and so it allows the characters and story to develop greatly, as we see them mature and see how their decisions affect their environment.

This can be contrasted with Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five, considering that this other work of postmodern fiction also includes a time travel mechanic. In Slaughterhouse Five, we can see that the time travel the reader and Billy Pilgrim experience is not determined to go to a certain time or place, but are instead deposited at a random part of Billy's life. However, in contrast to Kindred, the confusion we experience when Billy jumps through time is not based on the circumstance he is immediately placed in but by the setting itself. We are more focused on finding out what year we are in and what place is being described when the jump ends. I think this allows Slaughterhouse Five to focus less on plot and more on the morals that hold the book together. Such as the antiwar attitude of Vonnegut and the irony found in the bombing of Dresden. 

Although both of these books rely heavily on time travel to advance their plots and convey their complex issues, they do it in very different ways. Kindred uses a definite ending point for Dana to end up every time she time travels allowing the reader to focus more on the characters living there. On the other hand, Slaughterhouse Five makes the reader confused on their place and time and subsequently conveys it's morals using moments carved out of this mesh of confusion.