In Kindred, a lot of emphasis is placed on the first encounters of characters and between characters. First encounters and more importantly first impressions are critical in outlining the direction of the ensuing relationship, no matter how casual or intimate. In every public speaking class I have ever heard of, the importance of first impressions on an audience is stressed. When speaking or meeting someone for the first time, it is recommended that attire, stance, and greeting are all coordinated to imply confidence and friendliness with the goal of the audience relaxing. In this way we can glean a lot of information from the introduction of various characters in Kindred.
In the very beginning of the novel we are thrown into the mind of Dana with very little in the way of intro. She starts by saying that on the last trip home she lost her arm. We are given no explanation and no excuse for that scene. Based on that scene we can reason that Dana has experienced some form of trauma recently, not only the physical loss of her arm but some extreme emotional trauma evidenced by the haze and confusion she shows when being taken to a hospital and having to spare Kevin.
When Rufus and his family are first introduced, we notice can notice a few telling things. First there is Rufus himself, a helpless boy who managed to get himself into serious trouble and nearly die. Then there is his mother who is a hysterical woman who tries to beat up Dana for rescuing Rufus. Lastly there is Tom who displays an epitome of 1821 class and shoves a shotgun in her face until she convinces him that she is harmless.
I will argue that everytime that Dana meets Rufus, it is like a first encounter for him. Ever since the very first encounter, Rufus has given the same impression to us. He is always grateful to see Dana but treats her like a slave woman. He additionally has a survivor complex where he feels like he owes Dana something which is unusual since he also feels like he owns her. Every time Dana meets Rufus, he has listened to her but she was the one to become a subordinate and follow him.
This is an interesting point, how Dana's sudden, unplanned appearances and disappearances in his life makes pretty much every encounter with her a "first encounter" from Rufus's point of view.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of the "first encounter" is also tweaked by this novel in the other direction: from Dana's point of view, she first encounters Rufus as a small child, then a somewhat older child, then a young adult, all in the space of what in her experience is like a week or two. A few blogs have commented on how Dana seems too heavily influenced by the small child she first meets--the potential he represents for her to have a positive influence (as she gets him to cut out the N-word right away). This is partly because her first impression is followed with unnatural and surreal quickness by a much older, less malleable Rufus.
I interpreted Rufus' attitude towards Dana as more or less static for most of the book, despite them meeting in different circumstances each time. I can definitely see how you interpreted this as every one of their encounters being like the first one, mostly because Rufus shows very few signs of growing to become more mature throughout the novel.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that you view all of Dana and Rufus's encounters as firsts. On one hand, I can see it because between Dana's time travels. She goes when hes a child and the next time she time travels hes a teen. On the other hand though, it seems as though he remembers the past every time Dana time travels. It took him a while, but Rufus remembered Dana as his savior the next time she time traveled back. I also found it interesting that, like you said, Rufus's demeanor towards Dana was more or less the same throughout the entire novel. Even though he has grown up throughout the novel, it seems as though his mentality has stayed the exact same.
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