Tom Weylin Quotes

Tom Weylin and his wife, Margaret, both resent Dana because she is an educated black woman with proper dialect. The wife even goes as far as throwing coffee on her and slapping her, while the husband sends flirtatious signs her way and even tries to buy her, but Dana refuses. Dana tells Kevin of these experiences on the plantation, and he tells her she needs to leave, but she only agrees to leave when Rufus’s leg has fully healed. Nigel, who is a thirteen year old slave on Weylin’s plantation asks Dana to teach him how to read and write, and she agrees to, but makes sure he understand the dangerous consequences of their wrong-doing. Tom Weylin, although rare, walks in the cook-house and discovers Dana burning one of Nigel’s spelling tests. Weylin drags and whips Dana because she has already been warned to stay away from books and reading unless it has to do with his son.
Each time Rufus is in trouble, Dana comes back in time to help him.
Although seen as an enemy to other slaves, Dana treats him with the upmost kindness and compassion. She feels as if she must be here for Rufus because of the little attention his father and his mother show him. Each time He’s in trouble, he calls not on his parents, but on Dana, and each time they interact, their relationship grows fonder and stronger. “I moved his hands away and as gently as I could, pulled his pants leg up…The best way for him to go home is flat on his back-the least painful way, anyhow” (Butler 59-60). This exemplifies the care she has for Rufus because even if she is highly doubtful that she can fix his leg, she still tries to, and uses her proper judgment so that he doesn’t feel much pain from his
injury. The motif of race is highlighted throughout the chapter when Margaret is jealous of Dana. Her skin color is what makes her just like everyone else, but her intelligence and her personality are what separate her from everyone else. Although Margaret is white, she is no freer than Dana nor happier. She resents Dana’s relationships with both Rufus and Kevin as well as Dana’s intelligence and education. Margaret is seen as superior to Dana just because of her race even though Margaret is uneducated and illiterate. Race is what defines these two women and Margaret know that there is a huge difference in character and in intellect and that is why she resents Dana and always gives her a hard time. “Margaret slapped me across the face…’You filthy black whore’ she shouted” (Butler 93). Here, Margaret is degrading Dana for sleeping in the same room as her “slave owner”. Dana and Kevin both experience their times in the past differently while on the plantation. Kevin is treated with respect because he always has something good to eat and a comfy place to sleep. Kevin doesn’t experience what life is like as a slave and this shows that author, Octavia Butler is trying to portray the theme that it is easy to ignore unfairness when it is not happening directly to ourselves, but to the others around us. Kevin isn’t able to experience his time in the same ways as Dana because he is white and he is treated with more appreciation than a black woman. Kevin goes as far as accepting his role as a slave owner while Dana doesn’t accept her role and longs to go home. The interesting things is Dana feels more at home at the Weylin plantation than she does in her modern home. As an audience, we can see that the author uses Dana as representation to show that over time, a person can become accustomed to their surroundings and make them like home, which is what Dana must do in order to return back to the present time alive and well.