Examples Of Domination Over Rule In Kindred

Domination Over Principle Throughout history, rulers, like English monarchs such as King Henry VIII, would do whatever was necessary to consolidate power to their position. These rulers would not show remorse if it meant increasing their own power over others as they would create laws and decrees to punish the poor and increase the wealth of the wealthy. In Kindred, similar to the king, Rufus is faced with multiple opportunities to do the right thing; however, he decides to do whatever is necessary to gain more power and dominance over the slaves. Rufus’ refusal to take the ethical high ground and decision to remain a corrupt leader on his plantation shows how the primitive instinct to dominate overrules moral barriers. When faced with the
opportunity to assert his power over a slave, Rufus will show no restraints in doing so, despite how small and insignificant that opportunity may be. The fear of slaves being punished for doing irrelevant things such as arguing was very common during the early 1800’s, creating an inherent gap in power between the slaves and slave owners. As Dana has only recently entered the prejudiced past, she is not knowledgeable about many things similar to this. Luke cautions Dana to refrain from talking back, as she will “have to take a whippin’ for it”, revealing how Rufus will not bar himself from taking action on small incidents (96). Because of the lack of the ‘g’ in the term “whippin’”, we can see how this punishment is commonplace in the lives of the slaves. A dialect develops for the word because of how often it is used. Also, the word “take” displays how the slaves become powerless underneath the masters, implying how the slaves have no choice but to endure the punishment. In addition to frequency and inferiority, we can see leniency, the phrase “have to” emphasizes how Rufus will not tolerate any form of disrespect. Despite the offense being minor, the slave owner will punish any form of poor behavior.

Even though Rufus jumps at meaningless opportunities to establish control over the slaves, he always has punishments to establish superiority when slaves don’t do anything wrong. After Dana passed out from working in the field, she began to reflect on Rufus’ actions and decisions. He sold slaves, beat Dana, forced her to sleep on the floor; all intended punishments with no cause. Rufus had “done plenty [to Dana]” emphasizing how, even though Rufus had a choice to do the right thing, he decided to enforce his power over her instead (245). However, this thoughtlessness that Rufus has for Dana only shadows in comparison to what he’s done to other slaves as “the worst of it was to other people” (245). When referring to what Rufus had done to Dana, the phrase ‘done plenty’ is used. The diction in the word ‘plenty’ reveals the excessive punishment that Dana unfairly received. Rufus’ actions were not justified, there was no basis on which these punishments would be somewhat reasonable, it was merely on the choice to establish superiority.