Love In Kindred

In our society today, we are free to marry or have relationships with whomever we desire and nobody can interfere with your relationship with that person. However, this is not the case in the 1800s. In the story Kindred, a young, female slave is put through sexual abuse and harassment by her master, Rufus, who calls the acts he commits “love”. These acts of “love” in the 1800s were extremely common in the South which has lead to many people questioning: is love a conscious choice? Or is something we can’t control? Although Alice’s master labels it as love, Alice however, reacts negative and is displeased with his acts. Based on Alice’s decision to reject Rufus, this shows love is a conscious choice because it is the individual’s choice whether to accept one’s love, they are in charge of their own body, and it is your decision to put your trust in that person.

Although Alice has no choice but to surrender herself to Rufus, she continues to deny Rufus her love. Put a quote before this sentence or after this and explain it Alice’s stance on the situation is still strong in her mind everyday: she will never love Rufus. We can see Alice is still displeased because she attempted to run away which leads us to believe she still rejects Rufus in her life. Also, we can see how she responses to Rufus harassing/scaring her by sending her children away. Alice ends her life by hanging because she hates Rufus to the point that she doesn’t have the motivation to live anymore. Based on the evidence, we can see how the abuse and harassment has lead to Alice ending her