I was suddenly angry. This also relates to other characters such as Kevin, Alice and Rufus. He was more hurt than mad.”, I said nothing. Something closed and ugly” (Butler 194). Dana’s relationship between Rufus and Kevin changes constantly as her trips to the past become longer. A romantic relationship between them cannot be beneficial for either partner, because there is no respect or common ground between them. By the end of the novel, Dana refuses to accept Rufus’s love because of his aggressive and stubborn nature towards the slaves. From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. There was no shame in raping a black woman, but there could be shame in loving one” (Butler 124). Despite the beatings and unjust treatment towards her, Dana continued to survive until she was forced to kill her ancestor and terminate her suffering forever. The son of Rufus and Alice. Alice Greenwood and Rufus Weylin both had a peculiar relationship with Dana, as well as with each other. Even at the end, Kevin still continued to be Dana’s anchor and moral support after her traumatizing experiences on the Weylin plantation. On  the other hand, Rufus has gotten so desperate for Dana’s love that he was willing to rape her. Rufus can see Dana time travel and he is the reason why Dana keeps returning to the past. Anyway, she ‘forgives’ me for you. This big change in character delineates how Dana and Kevin’s relationship have become almost like slave and master. He had understood that once. This is why it is so hard for Dana to feel like she belongs in the 1800s. Instant downloads of all 1413 LitChart PDFs This creates another parallel between the lives of Dana and Alice, but more specifically their relationships with white men. As a result, Dana defends Rufus saying, “The boy learned to talk that way from his mother. Anyway, all that means we're two halves of the same woman—at least in his crazy head.”. They start to look out for each other more often because they are in an unfamiliar time period. Blog Entry #6-Octavia Butler’s “Kindred”: Sci-Fi, Speculative Fiction, Afro-Futurism, or Neo-Slave Narrative? This causes Dana to kill Rufus, the only way to terminate their relationship and escape to safety. ""Let him...? Even if Dana does not give birth to more slaves for the plantation, her body is still being used for labor and to protect the life of the white child. Kevin has easily adapted to live in the 1800s and starts to assert authority over Dana. Rufus and Alice's relationship is one of servitude and persecution in which Rufus appears to hold all the force (Butler). Alice Greenwood. ( Log Out /  Butler acknowledges the unique conflicts that interracial couples face, yet also advocates for increased acceptance of interracial couples so that these couples can move forward in a more supportive atmosphere and provide crucial first steps to healing the racial divide in America. Probably, they didn't. Dana describes his character saying, “The expression on his face was like something I’d seen, something I was used to seeing on Tom Weylin. Almost immediately, the Weylins come looking for her. However, Things changes as time goes. How does it change? Throughout the novel, Butler uses Rufus to show the complicated relationship that slaves can have for their masters, as Dana comes to regard Rufus with a mix of fear, loathing, and even a small amount of affection. سایت رزرو خدمات گردشگری. As Rufus grow up, he becomes likely white person in slavery time. So, Kevin’s race allows him to become more successful as a writer and a spouse since Dana was so easily attracted to him. Jenkins 4 as shown when Dana convinces Alice to go to Rufus willingly by implying Alice has no choice. He needed someone to provide him with love and warmth. He acts as her guide and morally supports her. The danger to my family was past, yes. Kevin starts to become violent and glares at Dana when she tries to reason with him. They'd brought so little money that he'd gone on taking mindless jobs like this one at the warehouse, and he'd gone on writing—unreasonably, against the advice of saner people. Now, Rufus no longer shows mercy for Dana. As a child, Rufus was ignorant of the cruel nature of slavery and he was willing to respect Dana for who she was. Blog Entry #10-Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road”, Blog Entry #9-Louise Erdrich’s “Love Medicine”, Blog Entry #8-Plascencia’s The People of Paper and Magical Realism, Blog Entry #7-Essay #1 Literary Analysis “Reflecting on Your Process”. Eventually, he wants more than just friendship from her and she must reach within herself to deal with a life she despises. He starts to become impatient and frustrated since he does not remember how things work in his time. When Dana first met Kevin, she indirectly connected him to the idea of “white supremacy” saying, “I looked away startled, wondering whether I had really seen anger there. The best quotes from Kindred by Octavia Estelle Butler - organized by theme, including book location and character - with an explanation to help you understand! When the police released Kevin, he came to the hospital and stayed with me so that I would know I hadn't lost him too. Now you tell me why that should be so hard for 'some folks' to understand?". Alice is Rufus’s free back woman friend. For instance, when Dana saved him from drowning in … Rufus tries to have power over Dana and Alice who are both black. Dana describes this limitation saying, “I was beginning to realize that he loved the woman–to her misfortune. Dana’s direct ancestor, and the daughter of Rufus and Alice. The serious tone of Rufus’s voice indicates that “white supremacy” is taken very seriously in his society. Rufus is mostly kind to Alice, although he gets drunk and beats her at least once. What kind of man was he going to grow up into?” (Butler 26). When Alice died, Rufus was left abandoned and lonely. No doubt most information about her life had died with her. Dana had to constantly travel back in time to keep Rufus alive to ensure her own existence. Butler emphasizes the physical similarities between Kevin and Rufus (as well as Rufus’s father Tom) as well as between Dana and Alice, stressing how interracial relationships in the present are not free from the legacies of oppression and privilege between the races in America. As the book says, "She went to him. Throughout the years, no matter how cruel Rufus became, Dana continued to forgive him. Only Kevin is able to understand Dana’s trip to the past that no one else would believe. Not the way he loved Alice, thank God. Rufus argues that both women are halves of each other and that together, they are one “whole” woman. "I didn't want to just drag her off into the bushes," said Rufus. Later Dana learns she died. Get an answer for 'How would you describe the relationship between Rufus and Dana in Kindred?' She wants to help them. Two halves of a whole” (Butler 257). other main characters: Rufus, Alice, and Kevin. 14. In Dana and Kevin’s marriage, Butler shows the possibility of an interracial relationship that is built on true connection based on shared personality and experiences, as the couple each struggle to become writers, rather than focusing narrowly on the differences in their race. Still, Dana and Kevin each put in the necessary effort to meet each other with mutual respect and support to make an honest, loving relationship possible. Also, Kevin is traumatized after seeing a woman dying in childbirth. Hagar is a baby when the novel ends. Now ... it's as though I've rejected him. She got a whipping a few times by reading to Rufus and teaching the slaves to read. In addition, people at the slave market even said that they were “the weirdest-looking couple”. Dana sees patrollers rip him out of the house and strip him and his wife naked before whipping him. If Alice gives in to Rufus’s sexual desire for her, she both gives up control over her own body and “betrays” her fellow slaves by taking advantage of the comforts that sleeping with the plantation master gives her. Rufus’s presence gives Dana comfort. Or at least that's the way he feels. “White supremacy” is tackled in “Kindred” through the characters of Rufus and Kevin. When Kevin returns to the present after being in the past for five years, “white supremacy” has influenced him as a person. With time, we witness the much-anticipated birth of Hagar She begins reading to Rufus, introducing him to the world of literature and encouraging him to improve his reading skills. Struggling with distance learning? Alice's mind is forever altered. and find homework help for other Kindred questions at eNotes Hagar. 6. How does Dana lose her arm in Kindred? Through her description, the audience already knows that Kevin is more advanced  than Dana in terms of position and race. 107-188 “There was no shame in raping a black woman, but there could be shame in loving one” (124). Nevertheless, their relationship becomes more strained because Rufus starts to threaten her to get what he wants. In the Epilogue, it is Kevin who counsels Dana as she worries about the fate of the slaves on the Weylin Plantation. To begin with Dana sees Rufus as a child needing or relying upon her protection. However, Rufus never learns to truly treat black people with respect and becomes an irredeemable character by the end of the novel. Our. In a way, Rufus and Dana both depend on each other for survival. to Rufus and Alice emerge when a brawl erupts between Rufus and Isaac, Alice's husband. Through the perspective of Dana, Butler shows the effects of “white supremacy” when Dana says, “The possibility of meeting a white adult here frightened me, more than the possibility of street violence ever had at home” (Butler 33). LitCharts Teacher Editions. Or would it be marriage? Isaac Jackson. Kevin’s sister. Whenever Rufus gets into trouble, Dana always helps him and forgives him when he does something wrong. Early on, she marries Isaac Jackson, one of Judge Holman’s slaves, and she runs away with him after he nearly beats Rufus to death. Does Alice also use Dana? But she kept saying no. On the fifth day, they were caught. "I don't want to hear what 'some folks' say. "I keep thinking what an experience it would be to stay in it—go West and watch the building of the country, see how much of the Old West mythology is true. In another scene in “The Fight”, shows Dana and Alice talking about Kevin and Rufus, where Alice says that Kevin is just like Rufus just because of the color of their skin (Butler 168). The language that Rufus uses also indicates “white supremacy” in the 1800s. This understanding helps build up an even stronger relationship between the two. It bothered me, really. When she finally kills Rufus after She didn't kill, but she seemed to die a little" (4.12.1). "…"Some folks say ...""Hold on." Dana describes this feeling saying, “We didn’t seem to have to grow back into each other. My students love how organized the handouts are and enjoy tracking the themes as a class.”. My left arm.And I lost about a year of my life and much of the comfort and security I had not valued until it was gone. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. The one weapon Alice hadn’t had…But he was afraid of dying alone, afraid of being deserted by the person he had depended on for so long” (Butler 257). Dana starts to become more forgiving and motherly to Rufus. As a result, Rufus develops a more closer relationship to Dana than his relationship with his mother. Alice witnesses this occur, and does “weep noisily against her mother’s leg” (36), but when the patrollers are gone, she … Kevin begins to take the role of pretending to be Dana’s slave master. When he sees Dana, Rufus begins to be confused saying, “You don’t talk right or dress right or act right…And you don’t call me ‘Master’ either” (Butler 30). Dana, as a present day descendent of both the white master and the black slave, tries to approach Rufus from the position of an equal and convince Rufus to acknowledge Alice as a fellow human and true romantic partner. As the trips become more dangerous, Kevin is the only one advising Dana and keeping her sane. Dana describes this limitation saying, “I was beginning to realize that he loved the woman–to her misfortune. In relationship with Dana, Rufus likes Dana since she saves his life. The River: Dana and Kevin still have a couple relationship. Because she wields the knife, Dana is able to have her own control over their relationship. In Dana’s first meeting with Kevin, she asserts, “He was like me - a kindred spirit crazy enough to keep on trying” (57). Later in the book, Rufus indicates that he wants Dana to stay with him. Dana makes this claim when she says, “I could accept him [Rufus] as my ancestor, my younger brother, my friend, but not as my master, and not as my lover. Rufus has complicated relationship with Dana and Alice. Both of them have conflicting views on changing Rufus’s upbringing. In contrast, Rufus and Alice are the ultimate example of an unhealthy interracial couple. Alice Jackson. The infant son of Nigel and Carrie. They're like having in-class notes for every discussion!”, “This is absolutely THE best teacher resource I have ever purchased. He still provides her comfort by saying, “There’s nothing you can do to change any of it now” (Butler 264). In the end, Alice chooses to take her own life rather than losing her self-respect by becoming Rufus’s loyal mistress, and Rufus is also destroyed because he cannot recognize the necessity of respecting black women as equals instead of objects.
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