Interracial Relationships In Kindred By Octavia Butler

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In her novel, Kindred, author Octavia Butler addresses the challenges of interracial relationships. She touches on both consenting and non-consenting relationships. While Dana and Kevin are in a consenting relationship, their experiences and difficulties are similar to that of Rufus and Alice. Conversely, there are also many aspects of the two relationships that are very different.
Alice and Kevin have an interesting start to their relationship. Initially, it appears that Dana is not interested in Kevin, as she tries to reject communication and his advances through buying her lunch. This distance on Dana’s part allows readers to contemplate whether Dana is put off by Kevin’s obtrusive attitude because he is a man, because he is white, or a combination of the two. As the novel advances, Butler continues to focus Kevin’s faults in his marriage because of his identity as a white man.
In addition to his off-putting introduction, Kevin’s character has several other flaws throughout the novel. One such flaw is briefly touched on but very important. The fact that Kevin tries to force Dana to write his manuscripts for him is very problematic. Kevin attempts to play this off as a favor, and something that a wife should do for his husband, but readers should look into this scene more. …show more content…

I struggle to truly define this as a relationship, as it is mainly a one-sided infatuation. Like Kevin, Rufus simply does not understand Alice and her experiences as a black woman. He disregards her marriage with Isaac, as he doesn’t take it seriously. Rufus believes that since Alice is a black woman that he has total control over her, although she was initially a free woman. His initial rape shows his lack of regard for Alice’s wellbeing, even though he claims to love her. Once she belongs to the Weylin planation his continued use of her for sex gets violent, again showing his lack of regard for her as a human

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