Rufus had the power to control and threaten Dana despite the fact that she was a “free” slave. Even though she was free, the color of her skin designated her as an easy target for Rufus’s manipulation. Dana does not receive physical abuse from Rufus, but she was a victim of his threats, blackmail, and lies. One of the main goals that Dana has in the novel is

Butler, Octavia. Kindred. Boston: Beacon Press, 1988.

to find her husband Kevin. Unfortunately as a black woman, she has no rights and relies heavily on Rufus to help her find him. Rufus knows this and uses his power to stop her. “You threaten me, I’ll threaten you. Without me, you’ll never find Kevin”(Butler, 125).

Rufus took away Alice’s right to chose who she wanted to be with, and forced her to be with him. Rufus also controlled Alice through threats and fear, the same way he treated Dana. Rufus was so coldhearted that he lied to Alice and said he sold their own child, as well as hers, into the life of slavery. After Alice was sick and dying, he continued the lie in order to, “punish her, scare her. To make her see what could happen if she didn’t… if she tried to leave me” (Butler, 251). Unfortunately, he took the fallacy too far and finally pushed Alice over the edge, causing her to finally end the struggle and take her own life.

Butler does an excellent job of recreating the life of slavery in the pre-Civil War era. Not only did Kindred illustrate the lack of human rights blacks were entitled to, but also how whites were able to control them through their abuse of power. As Ira Berlin writes, “No history of slavery can avoid these themes: violence, power, and labor”(Berlin, 52). All of these themes were portrayed in Butler’s novel, as she enables her readers to catch a glimpse of the unfair and brutal life of slavery in the antebellum south.

Some topics in this essay:
Dana Rufus, Rufus Dana’s, Kevin Unfortunately, War Era, Octavia Butler’s, Ira Berlin, Rufus Alice, Jake Edwards, Ultimate Power, Rufus Alice’s, whites able, human rights, rufus power, power control, life slavery, control slaves, black woman, pre-civil war era, antebellum south, woman named, era whites, whites able control,