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Stereotypes In Octavia Butler's Kindred

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“People are much deeper than stereotypes. That is the first place our minds go. Then you get to know them and you hear their stories, and you say, 'I'd have never guessed.'” A quote by Carson Kressley which perfectly explains the relationship between our two main characters Dana and Rufus in Octavia Butler’s Kindred. In Octavia Butler’s Kindred people’s relationships are more complicated than stereotypes suggest them to be. In the beginning of Octavia Butler’s Kindred the relationship between Dana and Rufus begins with Dana saving a drowning child otherwise known as our young Rufus. Their relationship at this point in time is that of an adult caring for a young child. Fast forward to the next time Dana meets with Rufus again when he burns up the draperies. Stereotyping becomes evident when Rufus questions Dana as to why she does not refer to him as master or that of a higher title. “‘You have to say it.’ He insisted. “Or ‘Young Master’ or...or ‘Mister’ like Alice does. ‘You are supposed to’” (30). He even mentions how she is ‘supposed to’ because in his eyes she is a slave. Rufus, even at this young …show more content…

They are so dependent on each other. Dana forgives Rufus time and time again for doing these awful things to her such as whipping her. Right after her failed attempt at escaping, he informs her that she will be whipped to which she ‘gets off easy’ by being brutally beaten by Mr.Weylin. Another example would be how Rufus hid the letters Dana wrote to Kevin and then lied about it. Rufus always claims to love Dana and care for her yet he hurts her time after time. He even claims how Alice and Dana were the same person. “You were one woman...you and her. One woman. Two halves of a whole” (257). He believed if he could not have Alice anymore he would have to have Dana, by choice or by force, he did not

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