How Does Octavia Butler Present Dana's Relationship With Family In Kindred

In almost anyone’s eyes, family comes first. You would do absolutely anything for them, and in the novel Kindred by Octavia Butler there is no exception. Although the novel concentrates on the previous existence of slavery and the harsh realities of racism, another theme that is not exactly centralized is how far an individual will go in order to protect their loved ones. In this particular novel, there are two major examples on how far a person will go for their family. On one end, you have the slaves protecting their loved ones from being sold, and on the other hand you have the strong bond between the main characters Rufus and Dana. Family can be described in many ways, a close relationship among a group of people through blood or even non-biological friends. Although there are so many differences, the one thing that remains similar between the two groups is the love and trusting relationship you posses.
During this time all the slaves had were their
family, if they were lucky. Back in this time, many slaves were separated from their loved ones. If anyone were to truly value family, it would be them. In the novel, the Weylin’s use the family bonds to keep the slaves working hard on the plantation. Because the Weylin’s threaten to sell the single family members, the slaves work hard in order to keep their family together. Although the plantation is the source of their torment, they will do anything to stay together.
At one point of the novel, Rufus rapes a female slave named Alice. When Dana is returning to the past, she comes face to face with Rufus fighting with Alice’s husband, Isaac (Butler 117). Isaac knows that he must follow the rules of the Weylin’s in order to stay at the plantation with Alice, but because to Rufus’ actions, Isaac is willing to defy the rules. Isaac cares so much for his wife, that he is willing to fight Rufus and almost beat him to death, and because of these actions they are forced to flee in order to remain safe. The entire Fight section of the novel shows how much the slaves go through in order just to stay with their family, or how much trouble they would get in to protect their family.
Just as Isaac was protecting Alice, Dana is constantly protecting Rufus.
There are many instances in the novel when Dana saves his life, each time she is brought back to the past she is saving him. It isn’t until the second time she goes back that she realizes that Rufus is not just some boy she continuously is saving, but her own ancestor (28). As time goes on, Dana constantly is thrown back and forth through time, saving his life once there, and then risking hers to go home. Because they are family, she feels a special bond to Rufus; she admits that she cannot remain upset with him, regardless of his appalling actions. “However little sense it made, I cared. I must have. I kept forgiving him for things” (180). At this point, Dana has just talked to Rufus about him not sending Dana’s letters to Kevin. Although she is furious at what he had been hiding form her, it’s impossible for her to stay mad at him. It’s impossible because he is family and in the end they really do care and posses love for each
other.
In the novel Kindred, there are several different themes. One theme that really popped out to me is how important family is, and the lengths we go to keep them safe. Through the slave’s eyes, the only way for them to stay with their family is to obey every order from the Weylin’s, no matter what it is. Also when looking at Dana and Rufus’ relationship, we see that even though Dana just realizes that Rufus is her ancestor, she will go to all ends to make sure he is alright. This just shows us how truly important family is, and that even in the worst situations they are the people that will always catch you when you fall.