Power and its influence

            Octavia E. Butler’s novel Kindred, introduces a story that is slightly different from the other texts we have been reading during this course. This interestingly this novel deals with the topic of time travel. Dana, a young African American woman is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her husband Kevin, when she mysteriously gets transported to another time period. When she wakes up she is in the south and hears the screams of a young boy drowning. This young boy is Rufus, the son of Tom Weylin, a plantation owner.

After realizing that she may be transported to this time period again, Dana makes it her goal to try to educate and prevent Rufus from becoming the cruel slave owner his father is. After hearing Rufus call her a nigger Dana states, “His air of questioning confused me. Either he really didn’t know what he was saying, or he had a career waiting in Hollywood. Whichever it was he wasn’t going to go on saying it to me” (25). This is her first attempt at educating Rufus, but as we continue to see later her attempts are challenged because of the horrible environment he is being exposed to. Everything that he knows he has obtained from his parents or from observations around him. Although Rufus’s young instinctive moral sense gives Dana hope that he might not grow up to be like his father, his good instincts prove to be no match for the power he is later given.

When we first are introduced to Rufus he is a young boy, and despite being constantly bombarded with the ideas that the color of his skin gives him the authority and superiority over African American people, he shows Dana that he is still humane and compassionate by trying to protect her from his parents. This can be seen in one moment in the text when Dana is reading to Rufus and Margaret continuously attempts to interrupt and get Dana to leave. To Margaret’s surprise Rufus responds, “‘don’t say nothing!’ Rufus took his head off her lap. ‘Go away and stop bothering me!’” (103). Rufus choosing Dana over his mother shows the type of bond that they have established. He seems to demonstrate more respect towards Dana in situations like this.  However, his actions also show how much his father’s behavior has begun to influence him. Dana describes her observations,

Rufus turned his head and looked at her. The expression on his face startled me. For once, the small boy looked like a smaller replica of his father. His mouth was drawn into a thin straight line and his were coldly hostile. He spoke quietly now as Weyling sometimes did when he was angry. ‘You’re making me sick, Mama. Get away from me!’ (104).

Rufus is slowly transforming into his father and this is one of the moments when Dana begins to recognize this. He has disrespected his mother because he has seen his father do the same multiple times. Therefore he has already been conditioned to think that this type of behavior along with the way slaves are treated is acceptable. This moment is significant because it shows that despite Dana’s efforts to educate him, this seems to foreshadow what Rufus’ behavior will be as an adult.  Rufus can’t help but act this way because it is the only way that he has been taught to act towards other individuals.

             

                Upon Dana’s fourth transport to the south, she returns to a completely different Rufus. The young boy she last saw is has now grown into an adult. She quickly finds out that he is a changed person. Upon returning she arrives to the scene of a fight, between Rufus and Alice’s husband Issac. Dana finds out that this fight is occurring because Rufus raped Alice. Once again we see the effects of his father’s behavior. Rufus has used his superiority and power to try to get something that he wanted even if it means he has to use violence to get it. Dana is shocked by this revelation. She states “I gazed down at him bitterly. Kevin had been right. I’d been foolish to hope to influence him” (123). It is during this moment when Dana realizes that her previous efforts to alter this child’s future were futile. I don’t think Dana was foolish to try to change the type of person Rufus could turn to. However, it was definitely going to be a hard task considering that Rufus is surrounded by this negative behavior. He can’t help but act based on what he has seen and been taught by his father.

            As an adult, Rufus succumbs to the corrupting influence of the authority that is given to him. He is now able to use what Dana wants; freedom, and Kevin, against her. Knowing that Dana is desperate to be reunited with Kevin, he fools her and does not send the letters she has written to her husband. Unbeknownst to her, she patiently tries to wait for his return and willingly does as she is told. Once Kevin comes back to rescue Dana, Rufus is determined to get not let her leave the plantation. As Dana attempt’s to escape, Rufus declares, “‘you’re not leaving!’ he shouted. He sort of crouched around the gun, clearly on the verge of firing. ‘Damn you, you’re not leaving me!’” (187).   Once again he is using his power and the threat of violence to try to get what he wants. It seems like he has grown attached to Dana and fears her abandonment. However, just like Alice I feel like Rufus is always trying to obtain what he can’t have. He knows that Dana is not supposed to be in his time period but he is reluctant and selfish to try to keep her there. He not only tries to manipulate her life but also the lives of everyone on the plantation. Like a true plantation owner he manages to do this through the only way he knows, corruption, manipulation, the use of fear and violence.  

             It is interesting to see how power can change someone for the worst. However, I feel like you can’t blame Rufus for the future he was destined to have. Dana tried to change this but the influence of his father was far too strong. One thing that I was left wondering was if Dana would have spent more time on the plantation to teach Rufus while he was becoming an adult if that could have made a difference? Dana tried to change him as a child but while she was back in her time Rufus was becoming an adult and wasn’t there during that time to continue her teachings. So it would have just been interesting to see if that would have made a difference in any way.