Dana ‘forgiving’ and Alice’s death

While reading Kindred, I was especially intrigued by “The Rope,” the section of the novel in which Alice hangs herself and Rufus attempts to replace her with Dana, because Dana won’t try to escape. Rufus seems to truly believe that his actions are reasonable, that Dana will grow to stop hating him, and he seems to see no wrongs with his repeated rapes and other punishments towards slaves.

Continuing to look at this novel from an (extremely non-professional) psychological viewpoint, I think that both his actions and Dana’s actions are quite interesting and can be examined further.

For Dana I think it’s extremely interesting the lengths which she is willing to go for supposed survival. Once Dana realizes that she is in the Antebellum south, her first instinct is a sort of ‘kill or be killed’ instinct. She fights the man who tries to capture her at Alice’s house, and she brings a knife along with her during future visits so that she can fight any slaveowner who comes after her. However, upon realizing that she is the great x~5 grandaughter of Rufus, she proceeds to willingly hand her life over to his family in order to make sure that her family ends up forming, and in turn, herself being born. I think that this intense self-preservation, to the point where she is willing to give up all of her ideals and server the very man who she despises is really interesting. This is something that we see extremely often in so many parts of life – prisoners will give up their country or friends in order to be spared from torture, death, or prison sentences. Friends will rat eachother out to teachers in order to look good. Sports players will cheat and lie in order to stop themselves from getting punished. And more. I think that the way that humans are so willing to give up integrity for self-preservation (and sometimes even less, such as money) is extremely interesting and even sometimes frightening, to say the least. I won’t lie and say that I haven’t cheated and bit my tongue against wrongdoings in order to save my own skin, but it’s something that I regret, and I think it’s valuable for us all to look inside ourselves and attempt just a little bit harder to be more righteous and self-sacrificing.

This thought isn’t as fleshed out, but I also think Rufus’s actions towards his slaves are really interesting. Although he is being taught by Dana that what he is doing is wrong, the vast majority of his society is telling him that raping and abusing slaves is perfectly fine, so that is what he continuously does. His character is really interesting because he is portrayed as just trying to protect himself in some ways, and instead of just trying to be evil, such as his father sometimes seems, Rufus really just seems to think that nothing he does is wrong (excluding his suicidal tendencies after Alice’s death.) I haven’t fully explicated these thoughts, but the way that our parents and society form who we are is really interesting, and a good way to explain divides in understanding between political parties, where one side simply can not understand how the other side can believe a specific idea.

Unrelated to Kindred, but I was thinking about Libra and conspiracy theories and found this. It’s worth a watch and a bit of research/reading – really really scary stuff about the media we intake.

https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/88ll08/this_is_what_happens_when_one_company_owns_dozens/

Inside Kevin's Brain

The recent Kindred reading has really got me thinking about time travel. In the beginning of The Storm, we see Dana and Kevins return to 1976. Although Dana wasn’t gone for long, Kevin was away from the present (past for us) 1900s for 5 years, and he’s forgotten many basic things about the modern world, such as how to handle appliances that weren’t even dreamed of in the antebellum South. In addition, when it comes to writing, Kevin feels only rage and lashes out, because likely he feels that with all of his experiences, he no longer can write about anything that he previously did – his whole life had changed.

I think that this is a really interesting take on time travel. The contrast between Dana and Kevin is stark – Dana greets 1976 with happiness, although she does briefly think that she also feels more at home at the Weylins than in her “new” house. From Dana, we get one perspective of time travel. We see that modern-day America is miles ahead both technologically and socially from what she had been experiencing, and we feel a great sense of relief because she is back in a time where she is no longer in danger. However, Kevin brings to us a different take on time travel. Kevin deals with a harsh psychological battle which I find extremely interesting. The effect of living for 5 years in the 1800s has made Kevin believe that he is more at home in that time. After experiencing none of the pleasantries of the 1970s for over 5 years, while aging and maturing, Kevin seems to have lost much of his ability to function back in the normal time, along with his temper. I think that this is a really interesting and valid take on the psychological effects that time travelling could have on the time traveler.

Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about the fragility of the human mind. I was posed the question – would I stay alone in a room with nothing but a bed, the necessary food and water, and a chair for 30 days if I were to receive 10 million dollars at the end of the month. I at first thought that the obvious answer was yes – 10 million dollars is an incredible amount of time. After seeing what many other people replied, I realized just how much of a hit the human brain would take from 30 days of solitary confinement, which is viewed as one of the harshest forms of possible punishment. I brought this take on the human mind over to my reading of Kindred, and with that, I tried my best to realize just what kind of effect 5 years in the early 1800s would have on Kevins mind.

For the readers of my blog I pose you two questions. Firstly, do you think that YOU would take up the offer of 30 days of solitary confinement for 10,000,000$? In addition, what do you think of Kevin’s reaction to returning to 1976? Is it valid? How do you think you would react?