Domestic Violence

An issue discussed in class about Octavia E. Butler's novel, “Kindred” dealt with domestic violence. A thought that was brought up was domestic violence, and how domestic violence is usually between two lovers; the dictionary definition of domestic violence is, “violence or physical abuse directed toward your spouse or domestic partner; usually violence by men against women.” In just the prologue, Dana's husband, Kevin, was accused of putting Dana through hell and back when she lost her arm, “They began asking me about Kevin. Their words seemed to blur together at first, and I paid little attention. After a while, though, I replayed them and suddenly realized that these men were trying to blame Kevin for “hurting” my arm”(10). This should not always be the case, because as discussed in class, domestic violence could be other people you are extremely close to. Family members, or in this case slaves could suffer from domestic violence from whoever is viewed as the “dominant” one, or the “alpha male.”

This violence really puts an affect on everyone's lives, slaves or not. Rufus definitely suffers from domestic violence when it comes to his father. A quotation I felt is really important is, “The boy already knew more about revenge than I did. What kind of man was he going to grow up into?” This in my opinion is important because in this scene Rufus was brutally beat by Weylin all because Rufus stole a dollar. You know, in our world today, and in Dana's actual world, this is not something to be harmed over. The outcome of this is not only shocking for the reader, but for Dana as well, because Rufus ends up starting a fire and lashing out due to the domestic violence.