Relationships in which one person’s autonomy is not valued are destructive and can often leave a person traumatized. For example, when Dana travels back to the Antebellum South for the fourth time, she finds Rufus being beaten by a man as a woman watches from a distance, wearing a torn dress. Dana learns that the woman is Alice, and the man beating Rufus is Isaac, Alice’s husband. She convinces them to leave, and when nursing Rufus back to consciousness, learns that Rufus was beaten because he tried to rape Alice after she refused to marry him. Shocked, Dana protests that Alice had the right to say no to Rufus, but Rufus angrily proclaims, “we’ll see about her rights” (Butler 123). By disregarding Alice’s right to not want to marry him, and…show more content… This mentality causes Alice to be rightfully resentful towards Rufus and later leads her to attempt to run away in a desperate bid for freedom. Following her escape, Rufus pretends to “sell” their children, after which Alice hangs herself. By not respecting Alice’s wants as an individual, Rufus doomed their relationship to failure. Having her body violated and her children sold was so distressing that Alice killed herself, ending the course of her maturation and her life. This disregard for autonomy also causes relationships in the world to fail. Most notably, talk show host Oprah had a tumultuous childhood. She was originally raised by her maternal grandmother on a farm, but was later sent to live with her mother at the age of six. Oprah’s mother was frequently out of the house, working, and Oprah was often left alone with her…show more content… For instance, after Alice recovered from being beaten and attacked by dogs, Rufus orders Dana to talk to Alice to convince her to sleep with him. Dana refuses, but Rufus commands her to, noting that if she doesn’t, he will have his overseer beat Alice. Appalled, Dana pleads with him to reconsider. Now enraged, Rufus, in a “low and ugly” (Butler 164) tone orders Dana to stand up, saying “I treated you like you were better than the ordinary n*****s. I see I made a mistake” (Butler 164). The word “n*****” is an extremely derogatory slur, commonly used to other African-Americans. When Rufus uses that slur, he intentionally demeans Dana on the basis of her race, an integral part of her identity. In using a slur to describe her race, Rufus demonstrates his lack of respect towards her identity, proving that he is incapable of wholly honoring who Dana fundamentally is as a person. By delegating Dana to the status of a second-rate citizen on the basis of her race, Rufus is able to repeatedly use the power associated with being white in the South to try to force Dana to later stay with him, even when she doesn’t want to. This not only leads Dana to feel resentful towards Rufus, but also causes her to feel devalued, affecting the course of her maturation and causing a rift in their relationship that is never fully repaired. Rufus’ entitlement,
