Life and Relationships

The novel Kindred, by Octavia Butler is a novel about people and the connections they share. Be it by Friendship, love, or control these characters have connections that are hard to understand in our time. Dana has a loving relationship with her husband who we latter find out is white. And she also shares a bond with Rufus although this one is more of a controlling one. Dana’s relationship with the men in this story is very interesting. I believe that it is there to show that two men that could be seen as similar really are very different.  Rufus does everything possible to keep Dana and Alice to himself whereas Kevin is understanding and protective over her.

Dana and Rufus relationship is the one that caught my attention the most. I was so surprised at how they needed each other. Dana had to assure her own birth by making sure that her ancestor was born. Because Rufus is also her ancestor she had to keep him alive in order for the bloodline to survive. Dana thinks about /Kevin not understanding the bond that she and Rufus share, “He didn’t understand the kind of relationship Rufus and I had- how dependent we were on each other” ( Butler186). We think that this is weird when we try to make sense of their relationship, but indeed Dana needs Rufus in order to survive and he needs her to show him that what he does isn’t morally correct. Dana lives because of Rufus, but Rufus understands life through Dana. 

Catharsis in If He Hollers Let Him Go

The catharsis of the novel would be the scene with Madge in the room of the ship. the dynamic that exists with Madge and Bob reminds us how helpless bob feels about his status in this society when he thinks about the look he and Madge share right before he is captured. "I felt buck-naked and powerless stripped of my manhood and black against the whole white world" (Himes181). As the reader we feel a sense of pity and fear towards Bob because we know that if the door is opened he will get beaten. Bob himself knows this and that is why he feels "naked" and "powerless" the used the words to describe how he isn't a man in this society he is just another black person and right now he is their target. he is also getting the feeling that he is an animal, and this would be correct in the eyes of the men waiting outside the door. Due to popular belief black men were considered savage animals that only wanted to cause harm to white women. Because of  this information I could clearly understand why Bob feels as though he were "buck-naked... against the whole white world". Bob is evidently under the white mans thumb, and he is understandably frightened.

Mrs. Hall VS. Ruth

During our last class we discussed Mrs. Hall, and why she does things to Ruth. During my readings I found a passage that caught my attention to Mrs. Hall and the reasons why she acts the way that she does. “I’m determined Ruth shan’t have them, if they fret me to fiddling-strings;” (1242 Ruth Hall). This is what Mrs. Hall tells Mr. Hall regarding Ruth’s children, due to this comment that Mrs. Hall has made I feel like she is doing things just to anger or to make Ruth miserable Mrs. Hall is willing to take both of Ruth’s little girls even if they make her crazy in turn. Another place where I saw that same train of thought was in the beginning of the book Where Mrs. Hall is interviewing Ruth about her attire. Mrs. Hall was being very condescending and very rude to Ruth while she asked her about her background, and her overall skills. One passage that I Remember was when Mrs. Hall spoke to Ruth about her choice of reading material ‘“I hope’, continued the old lady, ‘that you don’t read novels and such trash.’”(401 Ruth Hall). Here we also see the way that Mrs. Hall talks down to Ruth, and puts her decisions or beliefs down. In my opinion Mrs. Hall has had a game plan from day one to make Ruth’s stay at the home as unbearable as possible, and following the death of Ruth’s husband the “old lady” as Ruth calls her has decided to take the last remaining things she currently has that makes her feel good; Her only daughters. 

Anger in the House. Family issues.

The article, “Anger in the House: Fanny Fern’s Ruth Hall and The Redrawing of Emotional Boundaries in Mid-Nineteenth Century America,” by Linda Grasso, helps us understand the necessity that women have for literature as an outlet for anger. The article talks about Ruth Hall and the negative feedback she got from people because they thought her work was too angry, un-lady like, and against family. Elizabeth Cady Stanton felt as though she had to defend a colleague and revered her work as “an inspiring act of resistance against the ‘romance’ of dependency” (Grasso 252). Unlike Staton, there were other female activists who didn’t appreciate Fern’s attitude about family relationships or the position of women in society. Women like Caroline Dall who made their voices heard by cracking down on Fern’s writing. Dall describes Fern’s writing as “devoid of good character and sound morals, she also lacks talent. In order to discredit Fern's authority to speak anger in public, Dall judges the novel on aesthetic grounds and pronounces it wanting” (Grasso 256). Also the changing image of the all forgiving Christ made Fern sound as if she were writing something that went against the beliefs of any good Christian. We see this when Grasso states that “when  a forgiving, turn the other cheek, Christ-like model  becomes  the only justifiable "womanly" response to injustice, women  are left without a way to express anger that does not automatically threaten their gendered source of power” (Grasso 259).

From the beginning I was drawn to what was said about Fern once everyone knew who she was, “Vulnerable and exposed, Fern was lambasted for expressing "unfemininely bitter wrath and spite" against the male members of her own family. Accused of "demean[ing] herself as no right minded woman should have done," her most heinous crime was engaging in unfilial behavior” (Grasso 253). Evidence of this can be seen when Ruth requests employment from her brother, and in turn he sends her back a condescending letter telling her that she isn’t worth the sacrifice of employment because she just isn’t a good writer. “I have looked over the pieces you sent me, Ruth. It is very evident that writing never can be your forte; you have no talent that way. You may be employed by some inferior newspapers, but be assured your articles never will be heard of out of your own provincial little city” (Fern 221-22). We see that in her writing Fern lets we know that her brother was being an unpleasant person to talk to and for her even to ask for help from that man must have meant that she really needed it. Her brother with no remorse clearly refuses employment.