In our society today, we are free to marry or have relationships with whomever we desire and nobody can interfere with your relationship with that person. However, this is not the case in the 1800s. In the story Kindred, a young, female slave is put through sexual abuse and harassment by her master, Rufus, who calls the acts he commits “love”. These acts of “love” in the 1800s were extremely common in the South which has lead to many people questioning: is love a conscious choice? Or is something we can’t control? Although Alice’s master labels it as love, Alice however, reacts negative and is displeased with his acts. Based on Alice’s decision to reject Rufus, this shows love is a conscious choice because it is the individual’s choice whether to accept one’s love, they are in charge of their own body, and it is your decision to put your trust in that person. …show more content…
Although Alice has no choice but to surrender herself to Rufus, she continues to deny Rufus her love. Put a quote before this sentence or after this and explain it Alice’s stance on the situation is still strong in her mind everyday: she will never love Rufus. We can see Alice is still displeased because she attempted to run away which leads us to believe she still rejects Rufus in her life. Also, we can see how she responses to Rufus harassing/scaring her by sending her children away. Alice ends her life by hanging because she hates Rufus to the point that she doesn’t have the motivation to live anymore. Based on the evidence, we can see how the abuse and harassment has lead to Alice ending her
This shows how much Rufus truly loved Alice, no matter how much people try to argue against it. The reason why Dana travelled back was merely because Rufus’s life was at stake when he knew that Alice was dead. He couldn’t live without her. One can’t get rid of any emotions that they had towards another previously; it always sticks with them. A person can’t forget about a heartbreak or a loss; that’s what makes love so
Kindred In the novel Kindred, the author uses the source of time travel to travel back to the nineteenth century in the United States, to experience the lifestyle of enslaved African Americans by the Whites. Traveling back in time, the author uses Dana to revert to slavery, experiencing abuse and having to adapt quickly to the environment. Readers can experience both mental and psychical experiences the antebellum slaves experienced during this time, though treatment varied from master to master, the diurnal living of a slave was still difficult. Throughout the novel, differences of the modern and past time are illustrated to see how the society has changed with time and how it responds to the decision and the way of life of others.
The roles of “protector” and “protected” in stories is often tied with implications of racism, sexism or patriarchal traditions. From the white man’s burden to chivalry to motherly protection, societal and fictional stories are colored by hegemonic forces and norms. The stories Kindred and Dark Benediction complicate and reinforce these hegemonic forces involved in their means of defining of “protector” and “protected” as their protagonist protectors move through their stories and evolve in relation to their charges. In Kindred, Dana’s begins her story as a Protector fitting into the role of motherly, caring womanhood for her ward Rufus. However, the looming tension of racial hierarchies and sexual manipulation through her and Rufus’s relationship
The Fight For Our Civil Rights People are not different based on their skin color they are different based on how they grew up and who they choose to be. There are three cases that supported the civil rights movement these are: 1954: In Brown v. Board of Education, 1967: In Loving v. Virginia, and 1948:
Tragic Yet Beautiful Kindred Spirits was selected as our second piece of music for CMEA on May 7, 2016, because it is a tragic ballad that symbolizes the loss of two of our own. We use a motto in band when preparing for CMEA. The motto goes as follows: Establish your Unanimous Superior in the first song, Earn your Unanimous Superior in the second song, and Don’t lose your Unanimous Superior in the final song. Through the use of a story, symbolism, and complexity, this piece will help us earn our Unanimous Superior after establishing it in the first piece of music, Overture Jubiloso. One reason Kindred Spirits was chosen was because it has a tragic background.
Over the years, Alice starts to grow impatient with Rufus, she tells Dana one day: “The more you give him, the more he wants (…) I got to go while I still can – before I turn into just what people call me” (234). I think she starts to realize over time that Rufus would never let her go, he would never free her kids and her hate for him is not as it was before because of the things they had gone through together. She feels like losing her identity, not being able to recognize herself. Alice tells Dana “I got to go before I turn into what you are” (235).
In any novel there is multiple parts that make up and define how the novel will go, such as if the character will be good. There is always a storyline to follow and from that storyline there are many different themes that give the novel character. In the novel Kindred by Octavian Butler there are multiple themes laced into the text that make the novel what it is. For example, throughout the story there is a huge underlying theme that involves Rufus Weylin, a main character of the novel and how the environment shapes him into the man he is at the end of the novel. Kindred starts off with Dana, a black woman, who by some mysterious means is sent back in time, to the days where her ancestors were alive and enslaved by Tom Weylin, a southern plantation
Eulogy of John Proctor Welcome friends, and thank you for coming today as we remember my late husband, John Proctor. John was an honest, strong and hardworking Christian man right up until he died, and he would be happy to see you all here to celebrate his memory. For most of us, we do not fall in love with our spouses until well after we are married to them. We marry because our parents plan it sometimes, or there is a certain gain with the marriage, be it economic or moral. John and I appeared to be the same as any Puritan couple in Salem.
How to Live According to Irving Singer Throughout Irving Singer acclaimed trilogy, The Nature of Love, the viewer can observe how he unveils rich insight into fundamental aspects of human relationships through literature, the complexities of our being, and the history of ideas. In his sequel, The Pursuit of Love, Singer approaches love from a distinct standpoint; he reveals his collection of extended essays where he presents psychological and philosophical theories of his own. The audience can examine how he displays love as he systematically maps the facets of religion, sexual desire, love from a parent, family member, child or friend. Irving explores the distinction between wanting to be loved and wanting to love another, which ultimately originates from the moment an individual is born.
It is about having control and dominance over another person. Rufus, however, seems to think differently. He talks to Dana and says, “ Talk to her… away from me again. Never” (163). This quote shows the desperation that Rufus feels in wanting to rape Alice.
Two of Alice’s children, Hagar and Joseph, were sent to Baltimore by Rufus. Alice believed that Rufus had sold them, even though he swore he would not, ultimately this caused her to hang herself out of sadness. Dana was furious with Rufus. He didn’t understand what he had done wrong, even though Dana had told him time and time again. Ultimately Rufus gets Dana alone and tells her he feels horrible and that he never meant any harm.
She adjusted, became a quieter, more subdued person. She didn’t kill, but seemed to die a little” (Butler 168). This shows how Alice is affected by what Rufus did. She was injured not only physically, but mentally as well. She fears now that Rufus will think he can do anything to her.
In the novel, Kindred, by Octavia E. Butler, a lot of ignorance and intelligence is demonstrated all through the book which in a way is dangerous. Kindred is a wonderful work of science fiction that catches the attention of readers by telling a story of Dana, a modern-day African-American woman, who is abruptly transported from California in 1976 to the antebellum South. Not only is Dana abruptly transported back in time but she’s able to experience first-hand the cruelty of enslaved black women and men in the 1800s. The experiences of Dana and the enslaved women in the novel were viewed as mostly women working in households.
We live in a society that has increasingly demoralizes love, depicting it as cruel, superficial and full of complications. Nowadays it is easy for people to claim that they are in love, even when their actions say otherwise, and it is just as easy to claim that they are not when they indeed are. Real love is difficult to find and keeping it alive is even harder, especially when one must overcome their own anxieties and uncertainties to embrace its presence. This is the main theme depicted in Russell Banks’ short story “Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story,” as well as in Richard Bausch’s “The Fireman’s Wife.” These narratives, although similar in some ways, are completely different types of love stories.
In death she no longer has to face any consequences. Later, after Alice died, in his grief Rufus tries to make a move on Dana. Dana decides to grab her knife in a desperate move to escape being raped. “A slave was a slave. Anything could be done to her.