There are two main role reversals in this scene of the novel. Dana, as a modern black woman, has to inform her ancestor that she is no longer free. This is the first main role reversal. Here the characters question conceptions of freedom and enslavement. The scene centers around the idea of freedom and how someone who is free has to explain the concept of enslavement to a recently enslaved woman. The familial linkage is the second part of the role reversal in this same situation. A great-great-granddaughter has to educate her great-great-grandmother. As slaves were not allowed to read, and education was kept from African Americans at the time, it was extremely rare for an African American woman to be literate. Dana had access to education in modern California, while her great-great-grandmother is illiterate. Dana is able to bring this education back with her in her time travels. It is also unusual for a great-great-granddaughter to educate her great-great-grandmother. It is usually the reverse, with our elders teaching us rather than us teaching them as Dana teaches Alice in Kindred.
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