In any novel there is multiple parts that make up and define how the novel will go, such as if the character will be good. There is always a storyline to follow and from that storyline there are many different themes that give the novel character. In the novel Kindred by Octavian Butler there are multiple themes laced into the text that make the novel what it is. For example, throughout the story there is a huge underlying theme that involves Rufus Weylin, a main character of the novel and how the environment shapes him into the man he is at the end of the novel. Kindred starts off with Dana, a black woman, who by some mysterious means is sent back in time, to the days where her ancestors were alive and enslaved by Tom Weylin, a southern plantation …show more content…
However, as he grew up he became more associated with the harshness of slavery from his father who by no means was kind to the slaves. From witnessing these events Rufus would forever be changed. It would turn him into a man that would do what he believed to be wrong because he knew it was the only way it would work. When he got Alice to be with him romantically he tried to rape her and when that did not work, he used Dana to try and talk to Alice to get her to change her mind. When talking to Dana it became apparent that Rufus knew what he was doing was wrong, but he did not care because it was okay to do it 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