In the novel Kindred, by Octavia Butler, the author portrays a cruel picture of the impact power has on an individual. Throughout, the book we see Dana’s undesired will and personal affects of slavery. Ironically before her journey into the past, Dana referred to her job as a “slave market,” not knowing that this would be a big contrast to the life she would eventually be forced into at the Weylin plantation. Where a slave was brutally whipped for just about anything! She would soon bite her tongue when she came to terms with the actualality of slavery, not stated in books or television.
After being sent to save Rufus’s life, Dana had no idea what horrible things were in store for her. When we first met Rufus, he was just a young boy, and although his race and gender were of the superior, his youth didn’t offer much power. However, with age Rufus eventually turned into the corrupting, power hungry individual his father was. He took advantage of the slaves, beating and punishing them. Dana tried hard to get along with Rufus and help him learn to read, not only for his benefit but for hers in return.
It was her duty to keep him alive in order for her existence to remain real. However, after Rufus tries to rape Dana, she could no longer deal with the violence and corruption and kills him. It was just very ironic to me. After the several encounters of death that Dana saves him from, SHES the one to do it!! Dana and Rufus have always had an agreement: she will save him and care for him, and he will respect her. I think that Dana was so furious, that no matter what she did for Rufus he never respected and cared for her as the person she was, but for the slave she was forced to be.
