Octavia Butler's Kindred is set apart from the other books we've read in class, Mumbo Jumbo and Ragtime, through its use of history. Mumbo Jumbo and Ragtime use real historical events and people but abstract them, creating an alternate version of history that says something about our own. Kindred uses a more realistic representation of history, and creates a story through that which reflects real issues. True to postmodernism, Mumbo Jumbo and Ragtime blur the line between history and fiction, and often make little distinction between what's based on fact or fiction. For example, Ragtime's cast features both real and fictional characters that interact with each other, which questions how real history is. Similarly, in Mumbo Jumbo Ishmael Reed breaks literary conventions and frequently references and retells history. Kindred , on the other hand, has an element of realism that the other two lack. Even though there are fictional and fantasy elements, lik...