Octavia Butler Kindred Analysis

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Darkness and Bitterness of Slavery: Kindred by Octavia Butler Although slaves underestimate their own courage by doubting that the slaves have a sufficient fortitude in the nineteenth century, it has turned out to be certain that they do in fact have abundant courage and stamina of survival with slavery. Dana, who is a present day black lady, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday along with her current spouse at the same time when she is snatched all at once from her domestic in California and transported to the antebellum South. Her spouse Rufus, is the planation owner’s son who is white, is drowning, and Dana is drawn upon to save him. Dana is pulled again repeatedly through time, every period of time remains longer, and more dangerous …show more content…
She shows her intelligence and how strong-minded she can be in certain times and places. Her and Rufus did not have a slave and master relationship between them throughout the time. The behavior that Dana had towards Rufus is very surprising for a slave to act towards their master this way, since the slaves were not allowed to talk back or show that they were intelligent. “Intelligence does enable you to deny facts you dislike, but your denial doesn’t matter. It will handicap you whether you acknowledge it or not.” (Butler 39). This way, their relationship was shown adoring/loving full which was not allowed during that period of time, that is why they were “dependent” amongst each other. The main character Dana wasn’t completely concentrated on the love Rufus had for her, since she concentrated more on the love she had for Kevin. “I realized that I knew less about loneliness than I thought – and much less than I would know when he went away.” (Butler 57). As you can see, Kevin means a lot to Dana especially since he was lost in the past. Which additionally demonstrates how there might have been a loving relationship around them due to what each of them had accepted and believed …show more content…
As Dana mentioned in the book: “Tom Weylin wasn’t a monster after all. Just an ordinary man who sometimes did the monstrous things his society said were legal and proper.” (Butler- Part 6, The Fight). Rufus simply said that Weylin might never whip Dana for something Rufus advised her to do, since it is her duty to obey him at all time. While Dana believes that Weylin must be reviewed by backroad check of his time period. Dana observes that Weylin is not as bad of a person as he can be, that he is not as brutal as some of the other men of his day were. His son Rufus initially tries to rape Alice, but is stopped by Isaac. “I was beginning to realize that he loved the women- to her misfortune. There was no shame in raping a black woman, but there could be shame in loving one.” (Butler 124). Dana collected this information after she arrives within the past to find Rufus has raped Alice and also attempted to kill her husband Isaac. Rufus has feelings for both Alice and Dana, he is torn and ultimately falls prey to the power of slavery that allows him to exercise. Dana uses the knife on Rufus in by self-defending. This is significant and has a lot of meaning because it gives the saying “give an arm” a whole new/different meaning. In the outcome, Dana does loose her arm but is forever free from those suffering, from the upset that slavery had on people in that period of time. (Butler
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