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.