How does Octavia Butler challenge us to consider boundaries in Kindred? (black/white, master/slave, husband/wife, past/present)

In 's
historical time-travel novel , the author challenges the reader to consider
the dichotomies that seem so easy and automatic (past and present; black and white; master and
slave), to really immerse ourselves in the space between the two, and realize how inadequate the
boundaries really are.

By using the unique frame of time travel, Butler
disturbs and dissolves the boundary between the past and the present. Through Dana's own
confrontation of the past, we as readers are also forced to confront the past (not only the
antebellum South, but also Dana's present day, which is now our past). Through Dana's physical
return into history, we are reminded of the very humanness of the past, which is often obscured
through the "objective" lens of historical textbooks. Dana is able to form
relationships with her ancestors, with people who were enslaved and with people who did the
enslaving. Through those relationships, we are able to better understand the
motivations,...