Looking Back

When dealing with historical novels, we are faced with the process of looking back. That is, going back into the past, even if it is only through literary measures, and remembering events, experiencing them even if we had not. It's supposed to be a good thing, right? Even if something in the past is bad, we have to look back on it and remember it so that we can not only get past it but we can also learn about for the future. Isn't that the way it should be? Both Slaughterhouse-Five and Kindred dealt with this topic of looking back,  but their view on it isn't entirely positive or optimistic.

Slaughterhouse-Five directly contradicts the view that we must look back, even on exceedingly painful memories, if we ever want to be healed and able to move on through the view of the Tralfamadorians. They say that instead of looking back on bad times, one should just ignore them and focus only on the good times. There will always be bad moments, they say, so looking back on bad experiences to learn form them and be better off in the future is a waste of time. We also get a sense from the beginning of the book that looking back has serious consequences.We read a brief passage about Lot's wife looking back and turning to a pillar of salt. From this, we get the feeling that maybe it is not such a good thing to look back. Perhaps the past brings about memories that are too painful to be experienced, and that in fact by looking back we lose ourselves and become, well, pillars of salt.

The same idea comes about in Kindred; the idea that looking back is a painful experience and one can sometimes lose themselves in the past. Dana knows this all to well as she literally lost her arm due to her time travel. In fact, a piece of her is stuck back in the 1800's. This powerful symbolism is hard to look over. Again, the idea comes across that even if certain times are important, such as the time of slavery in the U.S, looking back on them is terrible and can often cause more harm than good. We see this for both Dana and Kevin who, besides being emotionally affected by their time travels, are also physically affected, and often for the worse. Kevin has aged five years, though he has only "really" been gone for a couple of days, and has a massive scar on his face to boot. Dana, however, is the more physically affected, from welts and scars on her back from beatings to the loss of her left arm. By looking back into the past, both Dana and Kevin had serious painful encounters, and the experience was such a trying one that it did not let them go. Parts of them were left behind, be it an arm or simply their presence. Once they were there, and then they weren't. Poof. And yet the affect is still the same. And in lookng at the severity of their injuries, it seems that for Dana, whose racial and personal connections to the Weylin past are greater than Kevin's, the experience has a far more lasting impact. Perhaps that means that for those of us who go looking into our own personal past and history, something we have a connection to, we may not like what we find. We may be faced with a harsh truth that is painful to understand, and in trying to understand, we lose ourselves.