The Importance of Rufus’s Aging in Kindred
In Kindred Dana and Rufus
are both stuck in a time-travel paradox, in which Dana repeatedly gets sent
back in time to safe Rufus, her ancestor. Due to their unique circumstances, Rufus
and Dana seem to share a mutual relationship of trust. On her second trip to
the past, when Dana saves Rufus from the fire, she feels a maternal instinct
towards this young boy and wants to fix his horrific beliefs caused by the 1800s
environment. However, throughout the book, Rufus’s personality declines
significantly, exhibiting the effects of 1800 society. Every time that Dana is called
back to the past to save Rufus, she is appalled at how much he has changed and
how terrible of a person he has become. Dana quite literally went from being a
maternal figure for Rufus to somebody that he attempted to rape when they
became around the same age. Similar unbalanced relationships can additionally
be seen through Rufus’s relationships with other slaves on the plantation. He was
originally close friends with Alice and Nigel, yet he ended up treating both “friends”
terribly. The author, Butler, includes a time gap between Rufus’s and Dana’s
present times to illustrate that Dana would not provide some remarkable changes
to Rufus’s personality, because his environment remains the same.
While Rufus ages many years in Kindred,
Dana does not even age a year. She travels back to Maryland 7 times, and
witnesses first-hand the changes made to Rufus’s personality. Dana and Rufus
share a complex relationship, in which Dana consistently excuses all of Rufus’s
terrible actions, and Rufus holds a certain power over Dana, one that eventually
leads to an attempted rape. As a boy, Rufus seemed to be a curious person who
was disturbed because of his father’s treatment towards him. Yet, as the years
go by, Rufus transformed into someone who was arguably worse than his father. Rufus’s
character is a perfect example of nature vs. nurture. Is it in Rufus’s nature
to be a terrible person? Is he predetermined to be racist and abusive? I think
that Butler would say no to both of those questions. Butler frames Rufus in a peculiar
way, making the readers feel confused about Rufus’s character. Because the
novel is in first-person the readers commonly feel Dana’s uncertainty around
Rufus. One second, he is depicted as a monster, but the next he shows remorse,
making Dana, and the readers, remember who he once was.
It is also notable that Butler
included a childhood friendship between both Nigel and Rufus, as well as Alice
and Rufus. When Rufus was not old enough to be consequentially affected by his environment
yet, he treated the slaves around him with a certain level of kindness. Rufus
grew up with these people and spent a significant amount of time with them, yet
their relationships did not have a prevalent enough effect on Rufus to make him
a good person. I think that is why Dana does age with Rufus, because Butler is
trying to say that, even if she did, she would be unable to make a strong
enough mark because Rufus is a product of his environment.
Rufus is indeed a confusing character to analyze, as his personality is written through the eyes of Dana, the narrator, who seems to excuse Rufus' violent behavior many time. His character is also being influenced by the people and the environment of the 19th century, which adds to the confusion. Due to the influence of his environment overtaking the influence of Dana, Rufus grows up to be more abusive to his slaves, but I agree that it is not predetermined that he would be racist and abusive. Great post!
ReplyDeleteThis was a really good post! It was definitely hard to watch the sweet kid Rufus once was turn into the horrible man he became, especially from the perspective of Dana- someone who really had a lot of faith in him. I think Dana being older and always viewing Rufus as a kid makes it hit harder when he does such terrible things.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with all your points here and find the transition from mother figure for Rufus to woman he tried to commit an act of sexual violence towards very disturbing. I think Butler did this intentionally and uses the short time frame Dana sees Rufus growing up to emphasize the heinous aspects of relationships between slave owners and slaves. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI really like the point that you make about how age isn't a factor in Rufus' respect or "love" for Dana. I think is a product of the slavery era where slaves are still expected to refer to a son of a plantation owner with lots of respect as they will eventually also become their master, regardless of what age they might already be.
ReplyDeleteI really like the points you bring up! I think part of the reason why Dana doesn't age with Rufus is explore how the dynamic between Dana and Rufus changes as their age gap closes. It allows Butler to show her readers how Rufus acts as his power and privilege grows and Dana's influence on him shrinks.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I like how you discuss how Dana's narrative itself portrays how confusing Rufus's character he is. Her unreliability as a narrator makes it hard for even the reader to determine whether he is still a "good person" who was just raised in a bad environment or just naturally inclined to being a delusional, selfish obsessive maniac.
ReplyDelete