Dana's Effect on Rufus
Dana's Effect on Rufus and Herself
When were first met the character Dana, she was always a kind person. I person who would put herself over others. For example in the chapter the River. When Dana first meets Rufus, who was drowning in the river. Her first thought was to save him from drowning. In that moment I feel like that shows a Character who is kind and cares for other people. In the book Kindred Dana's goal is to make sure Rufus and Alice *her two ancestors* to have a child called Hagar Greenwood. While Dana is on her mission as the kind person she is, she wants to make Rufus into a good slave owner who treats his slaves well. She also wants to make Alice and Rufus get married. Dana wants to be this minor observer who just experiences and adjusts from the shadows of the past. But how long can Dana keep observing until see is part of the system. Since her "observing" is her pretending to be a slave in the plantation. Later on all of the pretending that Dana is doing is going to become her reality.
First I want to talk about Rufus. Rufus is a kid that was born into the system of Slavery and that white people were better and had more things then black people. I think a good example of this is on page 25 when Rufus is talking to Dana he says ""Just a Strange nigger. She and Daddy both knew they hadn't see you before." "That was a hell of a thing for her to sat right after she saw me save her sons life." (Dana says) Rufus frowned. "Why?" I stared at him. "What's wrong?" he asked. "Why are you mad?" "Your mother always call black people niggers, Rufe?" "Sure, except when she has company. Why not?"" (Kindred Octavia E. Butter, p.g 25) I think that this is a good example to show how Rufus was someone like any kid sees there parents saying things and then copies them. I understand why when Rufus says the N-word he doesn't think anything is wrong, because he was born into the system where people see black people as the N-word. I think this quote already shows you Rufus's character or what he is about to become. He is gonna grow up to become a copy of his father. Of course Dana does not want this to happen. If possible she wants Rufus to get married to Alice. So, I want to move on to How Rufus was affected by Dana. I think a good place is start is on page 60 ""Who are you? asked Rufus. "My name is Kevin-Kevin Franklin" "Does Dana Belong to you now?" "In a way," said Kevin. "She is my wife." "Wife?" Rufus squealed. I sighed "Kevin, I think we'd better demote me. In this time..." "Niggers can't marry white people!" said Rufus" (Kindred Octavia E Butter, p.g 60) This quote from the book I think is a big shock to Rufus's whole world. Since Rufus has only grown up to see that white people own black people. They could never be married. This Shocking revolution of 1976 goes inside the head of Rufus and I think it merges with the 1815 system. It connects Emotional and logical sides and creates something worse than the System. Which is proven later on when Rufus wants to Rape Alice because he quote on quote "loves her" shown is Page 163 ""I know you Dana. You want Kevin the way I want Alice. And you had more luck than I did because no matter what happens now. for a while he wanted you too. Maybe I can't ever have that-both wanting, both loving. But I'm not going to give up what I can have now" (Kindred Octavia E Butter, p.g 163) This to me is one of the most powerful quotes in Kindred. I When Rufus says that my affection for Alice is the same as Kevin it is him using the 1976 mindset. Furthermore, when he says "But I'm not going to give up what I can have now" is him saying that he has the power of the system in 1815 to do what ever he wants when Alice. I also want to added there was some emotional manipulation on Dana when Rufus says "for a while he wanted you too." Trying to trick Dana into thinking Kevin forgot about her.
The Merge of Dana telling Rufus about 1976 and the past system of 1815 has not only affected Rufus but I think it has also affected Dana too. I want to give a quote from page 257 "He stood up and come over to me. I stepped back, but caught my arms anyway. "You're so much like her, I can hardly stand it," he said. "Let go of me, Rufe!" "You were one woman," he said. "You and her. One women two halves of a whole." I wanted to bring up this quote because when Rufus is saying that Alice and Dana are to halves of the same women. Alice is the physical side of the woman, The body that Rufus want to have. And Dana is the Emotional side. The side that loves and wants to see the best in Rufus. All Dana did was want to see the best in Rufus, I feel like if anyone went to see there ancestor they would want to see the best in them. But every time Rufus follows the system but he uses the emotional manipulation that Dana influence showed him.
Overall, Kindred is an amazing book that shows the influence of the past merging into the future. Even though Dana tried to influence the system that Rufus was born it, sadly it was impossible, in the end of the book it only made is worse for Dana.
I really like your interpretation in the second to last paragraph of how exactly Rufus views Alice and Dana as "two halves of a whole." It's something I haven't seen before and I think it works well and is enlightening, if really creepy as an actual concept.
ReplyDeleteYou point out that Rufus tries to trick Dana into thinking that Kevin forgot about her. I see two possible (non-mutually exclusive) reasons for this:
1) Rufus is jealous that Dana gets to marry Kevin and he can't marry Alice, and he's mad at Dana for trying to let Alice and Isaac escape, so he tries to punish Dana by not letting her see Kevin so that they will be "even".
2) Rufus doesn't want Dana to leave him and he is worried that if Kevin comes back that will happen.
I think that, given what you highlight later on, the second one is true.
I like how you connect a lot of important quotes from the book to deepen your argument. It shows how much you have thought over your topic. If you eventually decide to use this topic for your essay, I think it would be useful if you tried to connect your first paragraph more with your second paragraph. While reading I got a little lost on what the overall argument was. However, other than that your blog is well constructed and you have enough in text quotes to create a strong essay! Good Job!
ReplyDeleteHey Amari! I also really liked the way you made the picture of Alice and Dana being two halves of a whole. I liked how you fleshed out your argument about this idea, and if you wanted this to be your essay topic I think you could definitely build on Alice being the physical person Rufus wants and Dana being the personality that he wants as well. Definitely a really cool and weird idea to build upon! Good Job!
ReplyDeleteIt's a really interesting interpretation to say that Dana worsened because of her time in the past. Do you think it would have been different had Rufus been the one to go to the future? Ie, do you think that whoever has the system on their side is the influential one? In which case it is a mostly systemic thing.
ReplyDeleteThat early scene where Dana teaches young Rufus about his offensive language is such a good illustration of the complexities of her trying to exert influence over him--as you note, we can already see how he is destined to "become his father" in just this one scene. She "teaches" him the 20th-century perspective on the word that he throws around with total casualness, because, as you note, it is THE only word he knows to refer to people like Dana. He doesn't "mean anything by it." She tries to "help" him by making him less offensive and racist, but giving him some insight into how his vocabulary will be viewed by people in the distant future doesn't end up having much effect. He makes a half-hearted effort to self-censor in that opening scene, but when he exists in and is raised by a society that endorses and even requires the use of that word to reinforce social divisions and consolidate Rufus's "whiteness," these other influences will inevitably overwhelm Dana's efforts. She eventually stops even calling him out for his racist language, to the point where she doesn't even say anything when he applies the N-word to HER. We see the hopelessness of the situation clearly when he uses the word to refer to Alice, even as he claims to "love" her--an utter contradiction that only reflects how badly Dana has confused Rufus.
ReplyDeleteNice post Amari. I like how you mention Dana's influence isn't exactly positive, and probably led to the problems she later faces. Your analogy of Alice and Dana as 2 halves that when connect create a whole resonates with the duality of Rufus, trying to be emotional and compassionate, but letting his raging craze for abusing his power. The idea that by trying to humanize Rufus, Dana has created a monster, as it is proven to be impossible to reform someone who gains from a biased system.
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