Octavia
Butler’s Kindred is a story about relationships – familial, romantic,
platonic, and completely messed up. The setting of the novel highlights the
interracial relationships in particular, and weaves together the lives of those
who were treated like different species in the southern American 1800’s. While
Dana and Kevin had a successful and loving marriage as an interracial couple
from 1976, Rufus and Alice, though they had children together, were a wretched
case of loneliness and despair. The relationship between Rufus and Alice and
their relationship with Dana interested me in particular because of the way
they all reflected each other, particularly Alice and Rufus. Alice and her
plight seemed to foreshadow much of Rufus’ life right up to his death in an
accelerated and direct fashion.
Dana, as we discussed in class, was much like a motherly figure to Rufus. She was a caretaker and a positive influence when he had none in his own parents, and her main purpose through this adventure was to save Rufus from life threatening harm. This responsibility spilled over when Alice was caught and attacked until she was barely hanging on to life, and it was up to Dana to restore her health and mental well-being. Throughout the chapter “The Fight,” Dana watches Alice grow from an infantile state to her normal mentality once again. Alice’s growth took only a few pages to describe, while the entirety of the book is meant to follow Rufus’ growth literally from childhood to his death. One of the main things that connected the two was the description Dana gave of them being similar when they were angry, such as when Alice screams at Dana “’Doctor-nigger,’ she said with contempt. ‘Think you know so much. Reading-nigger. White nigger!” and just a few pages later Rufus says to Dana as well “you think you’re white! You don’t know your place any better than a wild animal” (Butler 160, 164). Dana says of Alice “she was like Rufus. When she hurt, she struck out to hurt others” (Butler 165). This comparison comes up several other times in the novel, and draws a line connecting two characters from entirely different backgrounds with extremely different emotions toward each other. Rufus’ love for Alice was desperate and obsessive while Alice’s hatred for him was oppressed and justified, and somehow these two were forced to coexist in a fiercely destructive environment for both of them.
That destruction was seen when Alice finally committed suicide, shortly followed by Rufus’ indirect suicide. Two of the most awkward relationships in the story – between Alice and Rufus along with Rufus and Dana – come together as the unstable couple dies. The types of relationships these characters have are rarely or never encountered in our lives today, and this novel illustrates them brilliantly as Rufus breaks apart upon his strange counterpart’s death. Alice’s suicide was not only a suicide, but an indirect murder as she knew it would completely destroy Rufus to discover her hanging, while Dana committing the actual murder of Rufus was not truly murdering him but simply carrying out his own suicide. This indirect sense of murder and suicide both Alice and Rufus exude ties them together even in death, despite the hatred and violence that passed between them in their lives.
Works Cited: Butler, Octavia E. Kindred. Boston : Beacon Pr, 2009. Print.
Dana, as we discussed in class, was much like a motherly figure to Rufus. She was a caretaker and a positive influence when he had none in his own parents, and her main purpose through this adventure was to save Rufus from life threatening harm. This responsibility spilled over when Alice was caught and attacked until she was barely hanging on to life, and it was up to Dana to restore her health and mental well-being. Throughout the chapter “The Fight,” Dana watches Alice grow from an infantile state to her normal mentality once again. Alice’s growth took only a few pages to describe, while the entirety of the book is meant to follow Rufus’ growth literally from childhood to his death. One of the main things that connected the two was the description Dana gave of them being similar when they were angry, such as when Alice screams at Dana “’Doctor-nigger,’ she said with contempt. ‘Think you know so much. Reading-nigger. White nigger!” and just a few pages later Rufus says to Dana as well “you think you’re white! You don’t know your place any better than a wild animal” (Butler 160, 164). Dana says of Alice “she was like Rufus. When she hurt, she struck out to hurt others” (Butler 165). This comparison comes up several other times in the novel, and draws a line connecting two characters from entirely different backgrounds with extremely different emotions toward each other. Rufus’ love for Alice was desperate and obsessive while Alice’s hatred for him was oppressed and justified, and somehow these two were forced to coexist in a fiercely destructive environment for both of them.
That destruction was seen when Alice finally committed suicide, shortly followed by Rufus’ indirect suicide. Two of the most awkward relationships in the story – between Alice and Rufus along with Rufus and Dana – come together as the unstable couple dies. The types of relationships these characters have are rarely or never encountered in our lives today, and this novel illustrates them brilliantly as Rufus breaks apart upon his strange counterpart’s death. Alice’s suicide was not only a suicide, but an indirect murder as she knew it would completely destroy Rufus to discover her hanging, while Dana committing the actual murder of Rufus was not truly murdering him but simply carrying out his own suicide. This indirect sense of murder and suicide both Alice and Rufus exude ties them together even in death, despite the hatred and violence that passed between them in their lives.
Works Cited: Butler, Octavia E. Kindred. Boston : Beacon Pr, 2009. Print.
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