Kindred
The scenes described in Kindred are like no other story I have read. They are horrifying but for some reason I couldn't put the book down. I needed to finish reading to see if Dana and Kevin were ever reunited or if Rufus ever tried to rape Dana. The relationship that Dana and Rufus had seemed to keep my attention the most. Rufus always called for her when he was in danger and Dana would come to help him, like a savior. One of the times Dana came Rufus had just been beaten up by Isaac for raping Alice. Dana says, "I was beginning to realize that he loved the woman-to her misfortune. There was no shame in raping a black woman, but there could be shame in loving one." (Butler, 124) You can't help who you fall in love with. Rufus fell in love with Alice and Kevin with Dana. They were both interracial relationships and even though centuries a part they were both looked down upon. I just don't understand the hatred towards someone else because of their looks. I understand disliking someone because they did something bad and unspeakable but condemning a whole race because their skin is black instead of white is a little absurd. But it happened. Even now there are the color lines and separations among people because they are different.
The doubling for Alice and Dana was also interesting. If Rufus loved Dana like he loved Alice, why didn't he try to sleep with her too? Rufus says, '"You were one woman. You and her one woman. One woman, two halves of a whole." (257)
While I was reading I kept trying to imagine that what if this were me. Would I adapt and play the role? Would I have such a close relationship with Rufus, even though he hit me and made me work in the fields?
I also tried to imagine what I would have done if I were in the same position as Dana. The fact that she is able to have such a close relationship to Rufus that she at times thinks that she loves him is strange to me because he abuses her and he stands for everything that’s bad to Dana. He is a slave owner and a rapist. It’s impossible for me to put myself in a position like that but it still doesn’t make sense to me that she doesn’t have a hatred for Rufus. The most questionable moment for me was near the end of the novel when Rufus attempts to rape Dana and she thinks for a moment that that would be acceptable to her and that there’s even a little part of her that wants to be with Rufus. She admits to herself that she would find it easy to forgive him but she ends up killing Rufus before he can rape her. I don’t understand why she even had to think about it. Why did she even consider letting it happen? For some reason she has sympathy for Rufus even though he torments her and this is something that I can not understand.
ReplyDeleteI think that Dana sympathizes with Rufus because of the situations she has seen him in. She always seems to go back in time in order to save him from something. For example, in the beginning of the story she goes back in time to save him from drowning. Then she goes back in time again to save him from a fire. I think that the fact that she has seen him in such bad situations provides the sympathy that she feels for him. It may also be possible that she feels bad for him because he is growing up where slavery is a reality. Dana experiences the reality of slavery, though she has another time to go back to after it is over. In class, we talked about how sometimes people don’t see the horrors of being a white person in the time of slavery. I feel as though the time of slavery was altogether horrible, every role being negative to a human being. Maybe Dana feels sympathy towards him because of the fact that he has to live the entirety of his life in a time where such negativity exists.
ReplyDeleteI think that Dana is having a difficult time deciding between her heart and her mind. In her heart, she is aware that what Rufus is doing to her and the other slaves is wrong. In her head, she realizes that he is her answer to survival—in an ironic way. If Rufus were to die, Dana’s ancestors would not have been born and therefore she would seize to exist.
ReplyDeleteWhen describing Alice and Rufus’ relationship, Dana tells us readers that, “She went to him. She adjusted, became a quieter more subdued person. She didn’t kill, but she seemed to die a little” (168). Alice and Dana have far different roles even in all their similarities. Whether she agrees or not, Dana must allow Alice and Rufus’ relationship to unfold for her own survival. Would Dana have adjusted to Rufus raping her? She doesn’t, but that is after Hagar is born and Alice passes on—when her own life is secure. So, I wonder if Rufus had made a pass on Dana early on if she would have adapted just as well as Alice?
It is hard to place myself in the situation. I think that all of the works that we have read thus far in the course have posed an interesting question: what would you do in this situation? They are all situations I cannot fathom and therefore, am unsure.