Relationships between relatives are always a tangled ball of emotions and feelings, building on the interpersonal bonds created. Each family is unique, and its history is written by sisters and brothers, parents and grandparents, husbands and wives. Children often mistrust families, don’t understand how they live, and do not worry about the future. Octavia Butler reveals the family from a new perspective, telling the reader about the complex life of slaves forced to endure violence and discrimination. At the center of “Kindred” is a strong and courageous dark-skinned woman, Dana, who moves into the slave-owning past and faces the hardships of plantations. She encounters her ancestor Rufus, an abusive boy who was arrogant and regarded black people as property. Rufus is a wretched man of his time, unable to understand people’s identities and eliminate racism from his heart until his death.
The story begins with Dana’s extraordinary trip back in time: a young boy appears before her, drowning in a river. Dana saves him, but the boy’s family accuses her of murder and tries to kill her. Shocked, Dana loses her senses and returns to the present, where her worried husband Kevin fusses gently around her. The next time, she finds herself near the same boy again and sees the arson (Butler, 1979). Dana is noble and brave, so she fires and tries to reason with the boy. This boy turns out to be Rufus, whose heart is full of anger and a desire for revenge against his father. Rufus is cruel, and his speech is replete with the awful “nigger,” making Dana uncomfortable. She realizes that this is the past and sadly accepts other people’s cruelty and barbs. Dana regrets that the world was ugly and hopes to help Rufus in his next moves.
But the help proves unnecessary, and Rufus himself refuses to see black people as individuals. He prefers to beat them for disobedience, raping a girl named Alice to satisfy him. His mother spoils Rufus, but his father’s stern temper makes him behave nastily. He is calm and ruthlessly cruel, having been raised by a time that hates dark-skinned people. In the chapter “The Storm,” Rufus is fully revealed, and Dana is no longer hopeful about him. She sees his evil nature, desire to control people, and inability to make contact (Butler, 1979). Dana realizes with regret that his death will solve nothing and only worsen Alice and her children (Dana’s direct ancestors). Impotence kills her, and she slits her wrists, unable to endure Rufus’ cruelty.
The “Rope” chapter is the epicenter of the storm, in which Dana tries to convey to Rufus how wrong his actions are. She has an inherent rescuer syndrome, and she probably wants to save him. However, Rufus is unaware of his unhappiness and self-interest; he refuses to believe his dishonesty. Rufus is furious at Dana’s speech, pointing out his sins and asking him to stop making mistakes (Butler, 1979). Unfortunately, he is unable to do so, for which Dana kills him with a knife. Moving back to the present, she regrets that her actions have led to terrible consequences for people, but her husband helps her realize that there was no other choice and she must live in the present.
In this way, Octavia Butler sheds light on the slaveholding in which free people cannot understand the reasons for past nightmares. Dana is free, and slavery degrades her dignity, while Rufus is enslaved in his unhappiness and cruelty to men. The conflict between Dana and Rufus is above ordinary family relationships, but the brutality of temporal conditions can be discerned through them.
Reference
Butler, O. E. (1979). Kindred. Beacon Press.