The Real Danger: Ideals of The Antebellum South

The Real Danger: Ideals of The Antebellum South

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler presents a modern perspective of the antebellum south. The southern, white, male character, Rufus, represents the ideals of his time. Unlike other slave narratives Kindred presents this white, male perspective, and by doing so, it asks the readers to understand more than the way Rufus is, but why he is that way.

By saying nigger, owning slaves, and using beatings to force submission, Rufus becomes representative of the norm of his time. When Rufus first interacts with Dana, he relays a conversation he had with his mother, using the word nigger. Dana asks him, "Your mother always call black people niggers, Rufe?" (25) He responds, "Sure, except when she has company. Why not?" (25). Rufus does not see the problematic nature of the condescending word nigger. He is confused why Dana is even asking that question. His response of "[w]hy not" says much of the ignorance of the word. It implies that Rufus thinks nigger is an acceptable word. Since Rufus's mother uses it casually too, as long as company does not hear perhaps the word is acceptable elsewhere. Later in his life, Rufus exhibits other common practices of white males in the south. Once his father dies, he takes over slave ownership. Rufus proves almost immediately that he regards the life of his slaves no higher than his father did. When Dana asks him why he sold the slaves, he responds, "Daddy left debts Dana" (226). Though he does not seem to want to sell the slaves, he still sees them as a way to pay of his debt. They are property to him. Since they are his property, Rufus has to make sure his slaves stay in line. To do this, he does what any slave own would do: he beats them. Rufus goes so far as to be Dana, a black person that he might respect as an equal. When Rufus blames Dana for his father death, he sends her into the fields, ensuring she will get punished by whipping (213). Rufus does not know of another way to deal with Dana, so he uses the way he has learned. Rufus has been raised to represent the southern, white, male norm of his time.

Though Rufus acts as a typical slave owner, the book paints him as somewhat compassionate. At some moments, Rufus does seem to view blacks equal to him. He falls in love with Alice. When she chooses to run away with her husband, he says to Dana "I begged her not to go with him" (124). He goes on to say, "If I lived in your time, I would have married her" (123). Rufus has real feelings for Alice. Though she is black, he has fallen in love with her just as he would a white woman. In some ways, he even resents that they cannot be together like Kevin and Dana. He would have loved to marry her. Yet, Rufus still lives by the antebellum time's rules, and since she will not willingly be with him, he takes her, and he rapes her. The desperation of Rufus's love is almost pitiable. He may be right, if he did live in a different time, he may have been able to marry Alice, maybe she would have wanted him, but since he does not, he has been taught that it was okay to rape her. The relationship with Dana is another spot where the book may make the reader feel compassion toward Rufus. At one point, Dana figures out Rufus did not send her letters to Kevin (179). This seems a really awful thing to do, but his excuse is, "I wanted to keep you here" (179). Rufus thinks it is acceptable to do this to Dana, because he has been taught that it is. He does not do it out of malicious intent; rather he wants Dana's company. Rufus comes off as a compassion man, made sour by circumstance of time.

Rufus is a circumstance of the ideals of the time, which leads to the question, is it the violence and slavery of the antebellum period that is most dangerous, or the ideals behind it? Dana says, "He's all grown up now, and part of the system" (223). Despite his compassion, he is still a part of the system. Rufus could be the best person, but his ideals are aligned with the antebellum mindset. So, Rufus is not the dangerous part of this period, the ideas behind this period are dangerous. Dana says to Kevin, "The ease. Us, the children . . .I never realized how easily people could be trained to accept slavery" (101). Yes, condescending words and violence are tools to push people into it, but having ideals that makes slavery acceptable, is what makes people willing to use the tools. Kindred pushes to make this distinction.