Dana's Complicated Attachment to Rufus
The book Kindred is a complex story about the societal dynamics of antebellum slavery and the result of what would happen if someone from the more modern context of the 1970s were dropped into that time period. How would they fare? Would their ideals and values hold up or would they somehow be transformed by societal pressures? The answer to this question varies greatly based on how much time you were to spend in the past and one’s racial identity. In this case, Dana is a victim of this time travel phenomenon in which she is forcefully transported to the past. Being black, she is thrown into a context in which slavery is prevalent and racism has more obvious institutional power but even more so she is also placed in the heart of the confederate South despite presently living in California. This leads her to have complex interactions with both the white and black members of the mid-sized plantation which she is connected to, particularly with the son of the original plantation owner, Ru...