Kindred: The Fall

by Octavia Butler
An acclaimed science-fiction classic, Kindred tells the story of Dana, an African-American woman in 1970s California who time-travels to the American South before the Civil War.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Prologue, The River, and The Fire; The Fall; The Fight; The Storm, The Rope, and Epilogue
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. trance
    a state resembling deep sleep
    Wine put him into some kind of trance, though, and he just sat and stared...
  2. leer
    look suggestively or obliquely
    “Hey, you two gonna get together and write some books?” he asked, leering.
  3. surly
    unfriendly and inclined toward anger or irritation
    I was caffeine jittery and surly and perfectly capable of wasting his money.
  4. sidle
    move sideways
    Buz sidled by. “Hey,” he said, low-voiced.
  5. clerical
    appropriate for or engaged in office work
    “I meant to. Ordinary clerical work, I couldn’t stand, but that was good. Then about a year ago, they laid off the whole department.”
  6. exasperation
    a feeling of annoyance
    I closed my eyes in exasperation.
  7. kindred
    similar in quality or character
    He was like me—a kindred spirit crazy enough to keep on trying.
  8. candor
    the quality of being honest and straightforward
    One of the women from the agency told me with typical slave-market candor that he and I were “the weirdest-looking couple” she had ever seen.
  9. vulgar
    conspicuously and tastelessly indecent
    “Where we come from,” I said, “it’s vulgar and insulting...."
  10. sheer
    complete and without restriction
    In eighteen nineteen—Rufus was right—it was sheer insanity.
  11. commemorate
    be or provide a memorial to a person or an event
    “Some of the money was changed to commemorate the anniversary. Are you convinced?”
  12. depraved
    deviating from what is considered moral or right or proper
    Weylin didn’t look especially vicious or depraved.
  13. insolent
    marked by casual disrespect
    Slaves lowered their eyes respectfully. To stare back was insolent.
  14. prod
    urge on; cause to act
    Then I had to catch myself as the black man prodded the horses forward.
  15. scythe
    an edge tool for cutting grass
    In the field, slaves, mostly men, worked steadily swinging scythes with attached wooden racks that caught the cut wheat in neat piles.
  16. perennial
    lasting an indefinitely long time
    I was the worst possible guardian for him—a black to watch over him in a society that considered blacks subhuman, a woman to watch over him in a society that considered women perennial children.
  17. reluctantly
    with a certain degree of unwillingness
    Kevin followed him reluctantly.
  18. hostility
    a state of deep-seated ill-will
    Margaret Weylin rushed back into the room with water for Rufus and more hostility for me than I could see any reason for.
  19. strew
    spread by scattering
    It was strewn with oriental rugs of different sizes.
  20. trough
    a container from which cattle or horses feed
    I was glad to see them there because I’d read about kids their age being rounded up and fed from troughs like pigs.
  21. mush
    cornmeal boiled in water
    Supper was corn meal mush.
  22. rampant
    occurring or increasing in an unrestrained way
    This was an era of rampant disease.
  23. wince
    make a face indicating disgust or dislike
    I winced, nodded.
  24. malaria
    a disease caused by parasites transmitted by mosquito bite
    Medicine was just a little better than witchcraft. Malaria came from bad air.
  25. resent
    feel bitter or indignant about
    “I want to...I have to make a place for myself here. That means work. I think everyone here, black and white, will resent me if I don’t work."
  26. discretion
    knowing how to avoid embarrassment or distress
    But our sleeping arrangement told us that he expected discretion—or we assumed it did.
  27. pallet
    a mattress filled with straw or a pad made of quilts
    “Yes, oh. I finally got up to see it. A rag pallet on the floor, Dana!”
  28. immorality
    ethically objectionable behavior
    “No matter what these people have to accept from each other, they might not be willing to tolerate ‘immorality’ from us.”
  29. apprehension
    fearful expectation or anticipation
    I opened the book with some apprehension, wondering what archaic spelling and punctuation I would face.
  30. archaic
    so extremely old as seeming to belong to an earlier period
    I opened the book with some apprehension, wondering what archaic spelling and punctuation I would face.
  31. impassive
    having or revealing little emotion or sensibility
    I kept my face impassive, but I couldn’t keep myself from wondering where these questions were leading.
  32. cipher
    make a mathematical calculation or computation
    “Can you cipher too—along with your reading and writing?”
  33. unwitting
    not aware or knowing
    “Be careful, Dana,” he said, unwittingly echoing Rufus.
  34. strident
    unpleasantly loud and harsh
    “Where did you sleep last night?” she demanded in the strident, accusing voice she reserved for slaves.
  35. passive
    lacking in energy or will
    And whip or no whip, I wasn’t going to stand passively and let her really hurt me.
  36. muggy
    hot or warm and humid
    It was a hot day, muggy and uncomfortable.
  37. industrious
    characterized by hard work and perseverance
    So Margaret supervised—ordered people to do work they were already doing, criticized their slowness and laziness even when they were quick and industrious, and in general, made trouble.
  38. menial
    relating to unskilled work, especially domestic work
    That meant she didn’t do “menial” work, or any work at all, apparently.
  39. sadistic
    deriving pleasure from inflicting pain on another
    He wasn’t sadistic, but he didn’t shrink from his “duties” as master of the plantation.
  40. mute
    unable to speak
    I looked at the mute girl eating stew and com bread left over from the table of the whites. “Doesn’t she, Carrie?”
  41. acclimatize
    get used to a certain environment
    How easily we seemed to acclimatize.
  42. pretentious
    tawdry or vulgar
    And Kevin complained of boredom, and of having to be sociable with a steady stream of ignorant pretentious guests who visited the Weylin house.
  43. countermand
    cancel officially
    Sometimes Kevin countermanded her orders, claiming that he had work for me.
  44. wench
    a young woman
    “Now here a likely wench,” called the boy on the stump.
  45. minimize
    represent as less significant or important
    “Wait a minute,” he said. “I’m not minimizing the wrong that’s being done here. I just...”
    “Yes you are. You don’t mean to be, but you are.”
  46. subversive
    in opposition to an established system or government
    “Nothing more subversive than that.”
  47. chastise
    scold or criticize severely
    And again he chastised Rufus before me.
  48. conscience
    motivation deriving from ethical or moral principles
    Her mother wasn’t a woman I wanted to offend or to hurt, but my conscience wouldn’t let me refuse her if she wanted to learn.
  49. sear
    burn slightly and superficially so as to affect color
    But it came—like a hot iron across my back, burning into me through my light shirt, searing my skin...
  50. convulse
    move or stir about violently
    I screamed, convulsed.
Created on Mon Sep 11 14:16:44 EDT 2017 (updated Thu Sep 14 14:15:11 EDT 2017)

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