The Fight

Rufus' manipulative love
Image from go-self-sufficient.com

My seventh blog for my Eng 102 class talks about the decisions and attitudes of the characters in the narrative story Kindred by Octavia Butler. One of the characters, whose name is Rufus, is a selfish and manipulating young man who wants everything to go his way. He does not care if he hurts someone along his way. He thinks that the way of loving someone is to mandate and dictate them for his will.

The author refers to Rufus as a "destructive single-minded love" (Butler 180) who shapes the lives of two of the characters who he loves; Alice and Dana. Alice, a free black, is Rufus’ friend and Dana is Rufu’s savior, mentor and friend who have to suffer the cruelty of his way of loving. He has always found a way to accomplish his wills by threating them with something they care about. Rufus have molded their lives according to his desires and wills, making them prisoners of his caprices.

Dana and Alice do not have other choice than confront Rufus' love and try to be submissive to his will. Rufus forces Dana to help him to convince Alice to go to his bed and Alice has to let him rape her. If Alice does not do what he has ordered to do voluntarily, she can easily get whipped in a cruel manner or be forced to have sex. She could escape but it would cost her life if he catches her. Dana desires and need to see her husband again; he is the only one that knows where she is. She cannot escape either because Rufus would kill her if he catches her.

Being the only way for them to not get hurt so brutally by Rufus, I stronly agree with the choices both Dana and Alice have made. This may sound bad, but I believe that is the only way for them to survive. Rufus would whip, rape and kill Alice if she goes against his will. And Dana would not be able to see her husband Kevin again if she does not help Rufus and act as his friend.