In order for this to happen, Butler uses the Fantasy genre to displace Dance from her own time period, and send her back to antebellum Maryland. During Dana's third trip back, she learns from Rufus that it is 1819 (62). While the previous trips on lasted a few hours and Dana did not have much time to interact with anyone other than a handful of people, during this trip Dana meets Rufus's entire family and many of the house slaves, including Sarah. After Dana and Kevin, who was transported back with her this time, arrive and get Rufus back home after he breaks his leg, Rufus's mother quickly relegates Dana to the kitchen to get her away from her son. Because she was not given directions, Sarah's mute daughter, Carrie, escorts Dana to the kitchen, and the moment Dana walks in she notices Sarah. Dana immediately notices that "She was as light-skinned as [her] mute
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In the first of the novel's time switches back to the relative past wherein Dana tells the reader how she and Kevin met and got married, she describes her working conditions and the types of jobs she and others had to perform: You swept floors, stuffed envelopes, took inventory, washed dishes, sorted potato chips (really!), cleaned toilets, marked prices on merchandise ... you did whatever you were sent out to do. It was nearly always mindless work, and as far as most employers were concerned, it was done by mindless people. Nonpeople rented for a few hours, a few days, a few weeks. It didn't matter. (52-54).
Referring to the works as mindless, and often domestic or janitorial, is very similar to Frederick Douglass's words when he describes the work that he had to do while on Covey's farm. The idea that the work that Dana is performing in her own time, despite the fact that she does have higher education, is one of the first places where her pairing with Sarah and other slaves can be
In the first of the novel's time switches back to the relative past wherein Dana tells the reader how she and Kevin met and got married, she describes her working conditions and the types of jobs she and others had to perform: You swept floors, stuffed envelopes, took inventory, washed dishes, sorted potato chips (really!), cleaned toilets, marked prices on merchandise ... you did whatever you were sent out to do. It was nearly always mindless work, and as far as most employers were concerned, it was done by mindless people. Nonpeople rented for a few hours, a few days, a few weeks. It didn't matter. (52-54).
Referring to the works as mindless, and often domestic or janitorial, is very similar to Frederick Douglass's words when he describes the work that he had to do while on Covey's farm. The idea that the work that Dana is performing in her own time, despite the fact that she does have higher education, is one of the first places where her pairing with Sarah and other slaves can be