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Kindred Quotes

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Children tend to be very malleable. Whether it’s because of the way they were raised or the environment they were raised in, they tend to copy those around them because they simply don’t know any better. Rufus Weylin from Kindred is a little like that. He starts off as a harmless kid who doesn't know any better than to follow his bigoted parents, but instead of straying away from them and improving himself, he becomes much worse. The readers follow Rufus’s growth throughout some major points in his life, from a young boy who forms a bond and friendship with Dana, to when he grows up to be a racist man who ultimately attempts to rape her. In the sci-fi novel Kindred by Octavia Butler, Rufus becomes more brutal, more selfish, and crueler as the …show more content…

He seems to be a helpless boy who’s struggling with an abusive dad and a mother who won’t stop coddling him. This makes him act out irrationally and recklessly. For instance, when Dana goes back to his time for the second time, Rufus can be seen setting drapes on fire and when asked why, he states that his father beat him and even shows the scars to prove it (25). Despite his impulsive and dangerous behavior, Dana doesn't think he’s a bad person as he helps her get away and stops calling her the n-word when she asks him to. It’s clear that he’s not used to treating people of color with respect but it seems like he’s willing to learn. Though he’s not as bad and racist as most living in the antebellum south, he’s still the son of a plantation owner and is bound to be influenced by his …show more content…

Not only does he start selling slaves just because “he can,” he also slaps Dana when she doesn't obey him, proving that they’re not equals as Dana thought. When Dana comes back to his time for the final time, the readers find out that Alice had taken her own life after Rufus sold her kids in order to “teach her a lesson” (251). It shows that Rufus is willing to go to extreme lengths in order to keep what he has, which in this case, was Alice. Even when he seemed depressed, he still isn’t willing to free the slaves, proving that even Alice’s death hasn’t changed him. Towards the end of the book, he attempts to rape Dana which results in her stabbing, and eventually killing

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He even goes as far as to try to commit suicide himself, but Dana stopped him. Rufus tries to take his relationship with Dana to the next level by almost raping her. Dana says that “I could except him as my ancestor, my younger brother, my friend, but not as my master, and not as my lover” ( pg 260), so Rufus’s intentions were going to immediately rejected by Dana. Dana isn't comfortable nor accepting of Rufus's implications. Dana’s motivation changes when Rufus changes.

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Madilyn Kolb Jillian Clever Writing- B2 April 17, 2024 The Kindertransport “Kindertransport” was the informal name of a series of rescue efforts between 1938 and 1940. These rescue efforts brought thousands of refugee children, the vast majority of them Jewish, to Great Britain from Nazi Germany” (Kindertransport, 1938-1940). The Kindertransport was an organized effort to save Jewish people from being persecuted in World War II. The Kindertransport was an important aspect in the Holocaust because of why children were sent away and where they ended up, how they were impacted by the Kindertransport, and the challenges they faced along the way.

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He also speaks in a way that he does not value, who it is that he kills, as long as it is a white person, then he is making a change in the black

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Rufus is a selfish person who craves what he never received as a child, and he exploits the power of being a slaveholder to manipulate those who he builds a connection with in order to safeguard himself. Rufus is embedded into nineteenth century society as a product of his time, though he is too stubborn to change his arbitrary practices. Over the course of Kindred, Rufus endures childhood, teenagerhood, and slave ownership. Though Dana is guiding him hoping to change his ways, he proceeds with them. Alice, a black girl born into The Weylin plantation, was friends with Rufus as a child.

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497 Words | 2 Pages

Octavia Butler’s novel Kindred is a very good representation and exploration of the idea of nature vs. nurture. Through the characters of Rufus and Kevin, The author examines how environmental factors can shape an individual’s character. Rufus, a slave owner’s son, is a product of his environment and his upbringing, leading him to be cruel and hostile towards slaves. Meanwhile, Kevin is the product of two different worlds: the modern 20th century and the 1800s surrounded by slaves. The development of Kevin's character is a case study of the power of nurture over nature.

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She becomes a witness to how a vulnerable little boy turns into a selfish, malevolent and cruel slave master. In every chapter of the novel, Dana has been transported to a certain period of time and observes significant changes in the behavior of Rufus, due to the influence of the environment. Therefore, Rufus is more of a product of Nurture, rather than Nature. His father, Tom Weylin, is influential in how Rufus

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His possessive affection transfers from Alice to Dana, but Dana rejects these affections, “I could accept him as my ancestor, my younger brother, my friend, but not as my master, and not as my lover. He had understood that once.” (Butler 260). Rufus was left alone and abandoned after Alice passed away. He wanted someone to show him warmth and affection.

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In Octavia Butler’s novel, Kindred, Rufus Weylin is one of the main characters who undergoes a lot of change throughout the novel, making him a round character. A round character is defined as a “major character in a story who encounters contradictory situations and undergoes transformation during this phase. Therefore, the characters does not remain the same throughout the narrative, making their traits difficult to identify from beginning until the end (LiteraryDevice).” The reader, along with Dana, follows Rufus’s growth throughout some major points in his life, from a young boy who forms a bond and friendship with Dana, to when he grows up to be a racist man who ultimately attempts to rape her. However, it is evident that Rufus’s ideology

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In particular, he felt entitled to do whatever he wanted when it came to Alice. An example of this is when Rufus decides to rape Alice, giving in to his characteristically dominant desires. Rufus didn’t think of the consequences, and instead enacted his own agency. He had no shame in what he was about to do. Dana was drawn to this particular scene after Rufus had raped Alice and had attempted to kill Isaac (Alice’s husband), because it gave Dana insight to Rufus and Alice’s relationship,“I was beginning to realize that he loved the woman - to her misfortune.

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And Rufus was Rufus-erratic alternately generous and vicious. I could accept him as my ancestor, my younger brother, my friend, but not as my master, and not as my lover. He had understood that once” (260). Dana is distancing herself from being a slave doesn’t feel that she could ever be subjected to it like Alice was. She uses pronouns like “her” to describe a slave to show that she will be associated with one.

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Dana plays the role of the angel on Rufus’ shoulder by reminding him that even though the solution may seem subversive, he does not need to become a product of his environment, though easier said than done. Even when she explains to Rufus that in “history,” he will “find a white man named J. D. B. DeBow claimed that slavery is good because, among other things, it gives poor whites someone to look down on”(140). On account of this realization, she begins to understand that no matter what side they are on, history is objective “whether it offends you or not,”signifying that subjectivity is the root of history’s violent nature(140). Rufus, physically, mentally, and emotionally cannot face the weight history packs on top of Dana as a black woman years after slavery and vice versa for Dana to expect a difference from the son of a slave master who can do nothing but follow in his footsteps. By meeting Rufus at various points in his life as he grows up, she comprehends that to blame him directly would mean to erase all of the history before him and the way he was taught and deem his actions as his own fault when he follows the only way this point in history teaches

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Dana was a positive part of Rufus’s environment because she was the one who really helped him through the good and the bad. Dana tried to help Rufe reach a realization that slavery was clearly wrong and tried . But in the end not much changed. “What’s he done to you?” ‘Sent me to a field, had me beaten, made me spend nearly eight months sleeping on the floor of his mother’s room, sold people. . .

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175 Words | 1 Pages

Rufus does not see any wrong in his father’s violence toward black people, instead he accepts this as normal gesture because he has accepted the racist idea that blacks are inferior to whites and that it is acceptable for whites to abuse them, even saying that they sometimes “need” to be whipped.

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and he felt he could not live without Alice by his side. From this it makes Rufus come off as a deplorable person, but he was only portraying the way people acted around him. It really comes down to was Rufus really that bad of a person, or would he have been very different person with better morals, if he grew up in a time period with an environment that would not shape him in such a twisted manner? In the beginning of Kindred, Rufus is seen as a fool hearted young boy, but as the novel progress we see Rufus turn into a cold heated man shaped by the environment he grew up

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765 Words | 4 Pages

After all, in addition to thinking about himself he had to think about his family as well and rebelling would not be convenient to attain his ends. (Chadwick- Joshua, 1998). He has no authority whatsoever and he is well aware of it. Even if he is not aware, the people around him make sure to remind him. Another thing that he is well aware of is that he is less superior than whites.

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