The purpose of this paper is to introduce, discuss, and analyze the novels "Push" by Sapphire and "Kindred" by Octavia E. Butler. Specifically it will analyze the characters of Precious in "Push" and Dana in "Kindred" as they are portrayed in each novel. Both of these characters are black women, but their experiences are extremely different. One goes back in time to experience the horrors of slavery and prejudice first hand, while the other lives in the modern world in her own version of Hell. They do have similarities, however, and they both represent modern black women in their own way.
             Precious and Dana seem like they are very different, and in many ways they are. Dana is educated, sophisticated, married to a good man, and generally is very happy and content, until she begins to go back in time. Precious, on the other hand, is abused, illiterate, a two-time mother, and pretty much on her own and cast adrift at a very young age. At first glance, they could not be more different, and their voices are different two. Dana writes with style and purpose, while Precious writes with passion and ignorance, so much so that it is sometimes difficult to read her words. However, they both live through very harrowing experiences that leave them emotionally and physically scarred, and that is one of the things that tie these two women together.
             Another commonality is that they both suffer at the hands of people in their lives. Dana, when she goes back in time, suffers beatings and other indignities while she is in the past, and she actually commits a murder to save herself. Precious suffers at the hands of both her mother and father, who sexually abuse her and allow that abuse to continue, and she suffers physically because she has two children by her father. Therefore, they are both victims of other people in the novels, and that is another tie that binds them together.
             One of the biggest differences between Dana and Precious ...