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Comparing The Relationship In Octavia E. Butler's Kindred

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Dana and Rufus’s Relationship Ever wonder what it's like to have a changing relationship with a plantation owner's son back in the 1800’s? Dana Franklin is a younger African-American woman married to Kevin Franklin who is a middle-aged man. Dana travels from California in 1976 back to the early 1800’s whenever Rufus is in trouble. Rufus is a plantation owner son and is also the father of Dana’s ancestor. Dana’s travels are random; she gets lightheaded and dizzy when she is about to travel. In Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred, Dana and Rufus’s relationship is intricate in the following ways: Dana is more of a guardian to Rufus, Rufus and Dana become companions, and he finally starts acting like a slave owner while she starts acting like a slave that Rufus owns. Dana and Rufus’s relationship has many intricacies, one intricacy is that Dana is more like a guardian to Rufus. Whenever Rufus is in trouble Dana gets teleported back to Maryland in the 1800’s and as early as 1810. Dana has to save him from various occurrences such as a river that he was drowning in, a fire that he set and about burnt the house down, an illness he got from drinking, and finally a fight with a slave over the fact that he wanted his wife. Dana even had to save Rufus from getting in trouble by his dad a few times. Dana would have to make excuses …show more content…

She transforms from Rufus’s guardian to his companion and finally she becomes his property or slave. Rufus and Dana have a intricate relationship that changes over the years as she is in the past. Dana needs to keep Rufus alive long enough, so that Rufus and Alice could have Dana’s ancestor. Rufus and Dana’s changing relationship is important because without this relationship Rufus wouldn’t have stayed alive long enough to have Dana’s ancestor. Dana needs to keep saving Rufus’s life. This is why Rufus and Dana’s relationship has many intricacies throughout the

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