Kindred: The Fight

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. reactionary
    an extreme conservative
    She wound up marrying the first dentist she ever worked for—a smug little reactionary twenty years older than she was.
  2. bigotry
    intolerance and prejudice
    Now she lives in a big house in La Canada and quotes cliched bigotry at me for wanting to marry you.
  3. matted
    tangled in a dense mass
    My hair was in tangled patches, brown with dirt and matted with blood.
  4. grimace
    contort the face to indicate a certain mental state
    I started slowly, wincing, grimacing.
  5. sheath
    a protective covering, as for a knife or sword
    The knife had come back with me because I happened to be wearing it in a makeshift leather sheath at my ankle.
  6. incongruous
    lacking in harmony or compatibility or appropriateness
    Then, incongruously, I was hungry.
  7. laceration
    a torn ragged wound
    The whip lacerations hurt like burns.
  8. brine
    a strong solution of salt and water used for pickling
    Tom Weylin had ordered brine thrown onto the back of the field hand he had whipped.
  9. disoriented
    having lost your bearings
    As I thought of the field hand, I felt strangely disoriented.
  10. wiry
    lean but strong
    The man he was fighting was his size with the same slender build, but in spite of the black man’s slenderness, he looked wiry and strong.
  11. vindictive
    disposed to seek revenge or intended for revenge
    If Rufus was vindictive enough, he could surely have the man killed.
  12. desperation
    a state in which all hope is lost or absent
    I could hear his increasing desperation.
  13. petulantly
    in an easily irritated or annoyed manner
    “Why didn’t you tell me that’s where you were going?” he said petulantly.
  14. vehemently
    in a forceful manner
    He said it too vehemently and hurt his side.
  15. retaliation
    action taken in return for an injury or offense
    “We should never lie to each other, you and I. It wouldn’t be worthwhile. We both have too much opportunity for retaliation.”
  16. barricade
    a barrier to impede the advance of an enemy
    When I reached the road, I pulled up some bushes and made a kind of barricade speckled with bits of white paper.
  17. scab
    the crustlike surface of a healing skin lesion
    I rubbed my back, touched the several long scabs to remind myself that I could not afford to make mistakes.
  18. degrading
    characterized by dishonor
    I’d have to begin that degrading nonsense again.
  19. delirious
    experiencing hallucinations
    Was I sure Rufus had had a fever? How did I know? Had he been delirious?
  20. pompous
    puffed up with vanity
    He was short and slight, black-haired and black-eyed, pompous, condescending, and almost as ignorant medically as I was.
  21. condescending
    characteristic of those who treat others with arrogance
    He was short and slight, black-haired and black-eyed, pompous, condescending, and almost as ignorant medically as I was.
  22. abolitionist
    a reformer who favors putting an end to slavery
    “This is the biggest lot of abolitionist trash I ever saw.”
  23. blackmail
    extortion of money by threats to divulge harmful information
    More blackmail. I had thought that was over between us. I had hoped it was over; I needed so much to trust him.
  24. whimsy
    the trait of acting unpredictably and more from whim or caprice
    I acted out of desperation. He acted out of whimsy or anger.
  25. clod
    a compact mass
    Rufus threw a clod of dirt at him, and he caught it, laughing, and threw it back just missing Rufus.
  26. contemptuous
    expressing extreme scorn
    She tried to sound contemptuous but sounded uncertain instead.
  27. lye
    a strong solution of sodium or potassium hydroxide
    Not sterile, of course, but I had just spent the day cooking clothes in lye soap and water.
  28. antiseptic
    a substance that destroys harmful microorganisms
    “Rufe, have you got any kind of antiseptic?”
  29. senile
    mentally or physically infirm with age
    Otherwise, she ignored them and spent her time sewing and mumbling to herself, contentedly senile.
  30. squander
    spend thoughtlessly; throw away
    I was tempted to squander two more of my sleeping pills to buy myself relief.
  31. incontinent
    lacking restraint or self-control
    We had to move Alice from Rufus’s bed for his comfort as well as hers, because for a while, Alice was a very young child again, incontinent, barely aware of us unless we hurt her or fed her.
  32. strut
    walk in a proud, confident way
    Nigel did a lot of strutting and happy babbling until Weylin told him to shut up and get back to work on the covered passageway he was supposed to be building to connect the house and the cookhouse.
  33. revulsion
    intense aversion
    I stared at him in revulsion.
  34. onerous
    burdensome or difficult to endure
    She worked better and faster than the slave woman who had taken over much of old Mary’s sewing—and if she had an enemy on the plantation, it was that woman, Liza, who was now in danger of being sent to more onerous work.
  35. subdued
    quieted and brought under control
    She adjusted, became a quieter more subdued person.
  36. contralto
    of or being the lowest female singing voice
    In the loose, shabby, but definitely male clothing I had chosen, my height and my contralto voice would get me by.
  37. quench
    suppress or crush completely
    Now, it quenched a little of my fear, gave me confidence.
  38. monotony
    the quality of wearisome constancy and lack of variety
    This was flat country with only a few barely noticeable rolling hills to break the monotony.
  39. rhythmically
    in a manner recurring with measured regularity
    I awoke tied hand and foot, my side throbbing rhythmically, my jaw not throbbing at all.
  40. inadequate
    lacking the requisite qualities or resources to meet a task
    She was there to calm me and feed me pills that I saw were my own inadequate aspirins, and to assure me that my punishment was over, that I was all right.
  41. oblivion
    total forgetfulness
    I caught myself wondering whether I would be sold to some passing trader this time...or next time...I longed for my sleeping pills to give me oblivion, but some small part of me was glad I didn’t have them.
  42. tedious
    so lacking in interest as to cause mental weariness
    Rufus said I didn’t have to, but as tedious as the work was, I could stand it easier than I could stand more long hours of boredom.
  43. irreplaceable
    impossible to substitute for
    But here, some of those things were irreplaceable.
  44. perceptible
    capable of being grasped by the mind or senses
    And without warning, with no perceptible change in mood, Rufus turned slightly and trained his rifle on us.
  45. goad
    provoke as by constant criticism
    Now I would either goad him into shooting me or shame him into letting us go— or possibly, I would go home.
Created on Thu Sep 07 15:06:50 EDT 2017 (updated Thu Sep 14 15:01:46 EDT 2017)

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