Kindred by Octavia E. Butler Book Analysis

📌Category: Books
📌Words: 1464
📌Pages: 6
📌Published: 03 April 2022

As readers follow Octavia E Butler’s absorbing novel, Kindred, they watch the characters transform and develop; both in positive and negative ways. Many of the characters grow beneficially, by learning and using it as building blocks to evolve. The story's protagonist, an African-American woman, Dana Franklin, faces adversity everytime she gets transported back in time to when she was viewed as nothing more than property. Each time she’s thrown back in time, she shows up stronger than before and aware of how her actions will affect her in the 1800’s. Opposite to Dana, a prominent character in the novel, Rufus Weylin, is given many resources and chances to grow but still does not. Rufus is the trigger for Danas time travels, as she is sent back every time to save him from different situations. Dana is Rufus’s guide in a way, teaching him right from wrong from a young age. Although Rufus’s surrondings play a role in how he changes, he was given the resources to choose a different path and ended up to be everything Dana feared. Throughout Kindred, different factors cause Rufus Weylin to transform from an innocent boy who can notice right from wrong, into a man that disregards his morals becoming a worse version of his father.

As the story begins to unravel, Dana has her first face-to-face conversation with Rufus, when he is only a young innocent boy. Dana is taken back to 1815, inside a room, and saw Rufus set the draperies at the window on fire. After saving him for the second time, Dana learned his name and the reason he set the draperies ablaze; his father. “‘I started thinking that if I burned the house, he would lose all his money. He ought to lose it. It’s all he ever thinks about’”(26). In his childhood, Rufus did not seem to have any respect for his father. “‘... If you were free and black, do you think youd want to work for him?’ He looked away from me, shook his head. ‘I guess not. He’s pretty mean sometimes’” (31). Rufus was also been aware of the way his father treats the slaves on their plantation, and although it is all he has grown up around he seemed to be against it. Rufus is friends with some of the slaves, and like any friend would, he doesn’t want them treated as they are.

During the rest of their conversation, Rufus uses the n-word very casually multiple times, shocking Dana. Due to his youth, Rufus is still extremely impressionable. Dana is able to teach him why that is such an offensive thing to say, and he willingly makes the conscious attempt to change. During Danas first few trips back to save Rufus, readers watch him continue to grow into a slightly better person with the help of Dana, though he still has outbursts. Dana provides Rufus an insight on morals, and what has changed in the many years they live apart. Dana has invested in Rufus, and whole-heartedly believes that she can change him to become a different man than his father. Kevin, Dana’s husband, has his doubts about changing Rufus. “‘Not all children let themselves be modeled into what their parents wnt them to be’”(83), is what Dana counteracts it with. Rufus’s future impacts whether Dana exists or not, however she changes him effects how she comes into the world. I believe Dana wanted to make the 1800’s as survivable as possible for the slaves she felt so connected to, which is why she felt so strongly about transforming Rufus. Rufus’s mindset would affect the future of the current slaves and many more, Danas ancestors included. 

Alice Greenwood is Danas ancestor, her great grandmother, who became the main victim of Rufus’s de-evolution. The first time Dana noticed Rufus leaning more towards the way of his father was when she was transported again to the 1800s’ in the middle of Rufus getting beat up. Theres another woman watching, Alice, and the man doing the beating his her husband. Dana knows there is little possibility of Rufus being in the right, even without context. (QUOTE OF HER SAYING HE DESERVED THE BEATING). She is then given the context, confirming her beliefs. To her and the readers horror, Rufus had attempted to rape Alice. All humanity readers thought Rufus had leaves as he describes his reasoning. (quote about how she wouldnt say no). He developed the mindset, quite similar to his fathers, that he could always get what he wants, and if not he simply would just use force. Dana believed this may just be a slip-up, since she had been gone for so long, and still has hope fr Rufus’s outcome. 

Rufus proves Dana wrong yet again, when he continues to perform such disgusting actions. His mentality does not evolve to be any nicer, and he instead continues to believe more and more that he get’s whatever he wants. Alice was born as a free girl, but Rufus soon buys her and she becomes enslaved on the Weylin plantation, and is also tron apart from her husband. Rufus views Alice as physical pleasure and hardly anything more. (QUOTE ON HIM FORCING HER TO SLEEP WITH HIM). Dana is sickened by teh way he’s began to view this as normal, after everything she’s taught him. Dana had always been by Rufus’s side, no matter what he had done. Yet even so, Rufus begins to treat her like a slave too. He views Dana and Alice as the same person; Alice being there physically, and Dana being there emotionally. Rufus craved a sense of control, but still could not live without the stability of Dana’s support. He begs her to stay over and over again. (QUOTE OF HIM BEGGING). Everytime Dana listens, thinking somehow he will change, but Rufus continues his actions. He guilt-trips and manipulates Dana, until she’s had enough of it. He not only felt no remorse raping Alice and manipulating his one continuous supporter, but continued to own slaves because of his own personal gain. I don’t think Rufus’s younger self would have ever imagined him owning Alice or any other slaves, as it seemed like he innocenently loved her then. Now, he (wuote about loved her to her own pain or whatever it is). Treating Alice as his literal property sucked the life out of her. Every time Rufus did another horrific act, he moer quickly became a closer replica to his father, and the more he didn’t care about anyone’s feelings but his.

Every time Dana gets transported back to the world of 1976, Rufus continued to grow up in 1800s Antebellum living a big mark on his character. Not only is he living in a time when owning slaves is a “normal” part of many white mans lives, he directly experiences it through his slave owner father, Tom Weylin. Tom has very little respect for people of color, and is not afraid to show it through his aggressiveness both physically and verbally.  Being a white man in the time fo slavery, Tom has an extreme amount of power and can get anything through force. His slaves do almost everything fr him and his family. Being raised by someone who always gets his way in any situation left a big impact on Rufus’s own personality. Rufus’s father wasn’t the only figure in Rufus’s day-to-day life that contributed to a change in Rufus. Margaret Weylin, his mother, played a major role. From the start of the novel, Margaret constantly spoiled Rufus, and gave him anything he wanted no matter how he treated her. (QUOTE OF HIM TREATING MARGRET BADLY). The idea that he would always get what he wanted no matter how he acted is reflected on how he ended up treating Dana.

Unlike Rufus, though, Tom does not have the information on what is morally right. “His father wasn't the monster he could have been with the power he held over his slaves. He wasn't a monster at all. Just an ordinary man who sometimes did the monstrous things his society said were legal and proper” (PAGE NUMBER). Slavery was absouetlely normalized in the 1800’s, and Tom was simply one man doing what the rest of society was doing as well. To him, his actions weren’t wrong, they are all he knows to do. Rufus, on the other hand, knows what’s right and wrong from Dana but still continues to do otherwise. He could have picked the other path, and could have used the horrible treatment his father brought upon slaves to motivate him to do better. 

 “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” is a perfect example of how Rufus evolves after their first real encounter. The saying means that many children tend to display similar traits and characteristics to those who have raised them. Although it is hard to not become a version of who and what we are surrounded with our whole lives, that does not justify Rufus’s actions. He was given a guide, Dana, who pushed him towards virtuousness and taught him morals. As he begins to grow up into a good man, his desperation for power and getting his way makes him blind to what he used to recognize as morally correct. Even though he got the “insider information” of morals in 1976, even though he himself claimed to “love” African-American woman, Rufus manipulated everything in his way with only himself in mind, becoming a product of his time.

+
x
Remember! This is just a sample.

You can order a custom paper by our expert writers

Order now
By clicking “Receive Essay”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement. We will occasionally send you account related emails.