Although part of me feels incomplete without knowing why Dana time travels, like the other books we’ve read in this class, I still (again) enjoyed Kindred. The final section of the novel, “The Rope,” is intense and sort of scary as well. Dana losing an arm is not what I found scary, mostly since Butler told us that would occur in the prologue. Rather, I found it scary that Rufus tried to rape Dana—and even more so that Dana was almost okay with it. Throughout the novel, Dana resists integrating into the 1800s antebellum south culture, yet she slowly begins to feel more at "home" there and begins to become friends with Sarah, Carrie, and others. The science fiction aspect of time travel emphasizes how Dana, who belongs to the 20th century, can become influenced to leave her 20th century ideas and unwillingly adopt the antebellum south lifestyle. Even though (unlike Vonnegut's postmodern description of the Tralfamadorians) Butler never goes into detail regarding why the sci fi aspects happen—the time travel and Dana's arm becoming part of the wall—occur, both science fictions aspects seem to have significant roles in part of Butler's point in writing Kindred. As I've already delved into the topic of time travel on a previous post, I will focus this one on Dana's arm.
After injuring Rufus, Dana time travels back to 1976 and finds herself “joined to the wall as though [her] arm were growing out of it—or into it” (261). She then “[pulls her] arm towards [herself]”and no longer has her arm “from the spot where Rufus’ fingers had grasped it” and down (261). The first thing that I find curious is why Butler chose to have Dana’s arm become stuck in a wall, rather a part of the wall. On the surface, the wall may seem to represent the end to Dana’s time traveling as a literal boundary between the past and the present. Yet, the notion of a separation between the past and the present seems contradictory to Butler’s motive throughout the rest of the novel—which is, to write a story that gives readers a more tangible understanding of the slavery institution in the antebellum south. Therefore, I think that her connection to the wall is not as a boundary. Instead the wall represents something that is unchanging, like the past with Rufus that Dana experienced. I think it is important that Rufus, as he is dying or becoming “cold and nonliving,” (like a wall,) is holding Dana’s arm as she time travels. By comparing Rufus in the 19th century to a stationary wall that Dana is literally joined with at the point where Rufus was holding her, Butler emphasizes that like the wall, the past exists and is connected to Dana as much as she is connected to it. Although Rufus is not living in 1976 California, he is a closer part of Dana than she may believe.
Butler’s choice to have Dana loose her left arm also intrigues me. Butler says that she “couldn’t let Dana return whole,” because Dana was so changed by her experiences in the 19th century. Before knowing about this quote, I was curious as to why not let Dana bring something back from the past. Aside from possibly being somewhat cliché and uninteresting with the tool of science fiction, bringing something or gaining something from the past may be more natural to understand, as Dana gains a better understanding of her relatives' experiences in the antebellum south. Losing an arm, however, seems to take this idea one step forward, as well as emphasizing that Dana has changed. Yes, her arm is gone, but it is part of her history, as are her relatives. Although her arm, like people from the past, are not present in the same century or place or year, it (they) are relevant to Dana's life and their actions/beliefs continue to shape the constantly changing society. Deciding not to live with knowledge of their experience may be like living physically whole but intellectually/emotionally incomplete, possibly similar to feeling incomplete without all information regarding the Kennedy assassination. I am still wondering about any further meanings that Dana's arm may have...any thoughts?
I think everything you've said makes sense, the wall being a representation of lack of change btwn the past and present, and loss of an arm connecting Dana to the past. I also think there had to be some consequence for Dana killing Rufus and not following his wishes. For her to be able to escape "home" free and unharmed is just doesn't seem to fit with the theme of the book, plunging us into slave suffering. If she were living as an actual slave there would be severe consequences for killing Rufus, much more severe than losing and arm, and so I think Butler doesn't want us to forget that. It's easy for us to think, well why didn't Alice kill Rufus? And the truth is that for her that would have been suicide. Losing an arm reminds us of these consequences for slave actions, even ones so justified as this.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Dana's near-acceptance of Rufus' behavior is one of the more terrifying aspects of the novel. Even the physical problems she ended up with (the lost arm, which I think was necessary as a reminder of the time travel experiences) couldn't really compare to a whole mental shift like that. That sort of change would be affecting her for the rest of her life, even in her subsequent years in regular time, even moreso than a lost arm (which could be adjusted to in a much different way). I'm not sure about any other meanings the lost arm would have, however.
ReplyDeleteWe didn't discuss it specifically in class, but the most unnerving part of that very unnerving scene with Rufus at the end has to do with Dana's fleeting impulse to "forgive him even this," to stop resisting and let him have his way. Among other things, it troublingly replays her own questionable advice to Alice earlier, and almost effects this total transference of Alice onto Dana (which seems to be what is happening here, in Rufus's eyes). She snaps out of it at the last second, her 20th-century self winning out, but the wavering itself is troubling, in terms of how we think of the part of her that will "remain" in the 19th century. She has been changed by this experience, and not in entirely positive/"enlightened" ways.
ReplyDeleteI also feel that the mental change that occurs in a person to make them almost give in to rape is very terrifying. To submit oneself to something like that and be okay with it is quite unnerving and I would agree with Person that this shift suggests an even bigger change than losing an arm, which while being more obvious, doesn't seem as monumental.
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