Kindred Character Analysis

No two snowflakes are the same, much like humans. Humans deal with certain situations in different ways from one another, particularly in the department of love. In the novel, Kindred, written by Octavia Butler, the audience meets many characters that learn to cope with love or their love for others in unspoken ways. The character, Rufus, is stupid in love. The techniques he uses to keep the people he loves by his side tend to be destructive and possessive. He cannot control his urges to put a leash on his “lovers” to keep them always by his side. His mother, Margaret, acts more pitiful compared to Rufus. She often gets ignored and taken advantage of by the people she loves, so she tries her best to hold on to them (although failing miserably).

Another character, Kevin, proves himself to be affectionate and loyal to whom he cares for, which most people consider to be quite idealistic for the basis of human love towards one another. The three characters learn to cope with their feelings as situations constantly change. The complications and struggles they have to deal with in the department of love reveal many character traits that show us who they are as a person.
Throughout the book, Rufus becomes increasingly unhinged and insecure. The first indication to Rufus’s unstable behavior towards love is when he rapes Alice for his own selfish reasons. Rufus knows Alice does not feel the same way he does, so he goes to the extreme to mark her as his. He acts controlling, wanting Alice to follow exactly what he does. He even admits to forcing her, “I wouldn’t have hurt her if she hadn’t just kept saying no,” (Butler 123). Rufus follows his father’s footsteps when it comes to getting what he wants. He is exposed to this kind of behavior from birth and knows no other way to express his feelings. If his father was not present in his life or he wasn’t a power figure, it is possible that Rufus would not be as unstable as he is now because Rufus would feel no need to have always have people by his side. Having people by his side means power and the feeling of stability to Rufus. The reader gets a sense of how scared and pitiful his character is when he is almost left alone by the person who hasn’t deserted him. “He was hurt and alone except for me. He couldn’t even get up, and I seemed to be abandoning him. I wanted him to experience a little of that fear,” (Butler 132). Rufus has his mother’s devotion, father, and friends to look after him his whole life, so when he finally has someone he truly cares about, he wants to hold on to them so much that he ultimately destroys himself in the process by turning rash and reckless just to keep her. Rufus cannot accept the idea of being alone; even if his life is horrible, he wants someone in it. That attitude is his undoing since he can never fully be by himself. Near the end of the book, Rufus just turns desperate. He tells Dana, “Damn you, you’re not leaving me!” (Butler 187) when she is about to go away with Kevin. He is so needy at this point that he tries to force her to stay by holding Kevin at gunpoint, knowing nothing else to do. Rufus has finally resorted to using his method of force on Dana, who he rarely exerts power over. He will do anything to get her to stay with him, which means maybe even losing her respect for him since she becomes offended by this.
Being introduced as an annoying stay-at-home mother, Margaret shows she has nothing to do, but be a nuisance to others. What if there was a reason she is like that, though? She often gets neglected and taken advantage of by her son and husband, which causes her to be insecure. When Rufus is reading with Dana in his room, Rufus throws a tantrum and yells at his mother, knowing that she will just succumb to his needs, regardless of how disrespectful he behaves. She depends on her son’s attention so much that it makes her vulnerable. Usually, if someone acts the way Rufus does to his mother, the mother has the authority over their child, but in this case, Margaret is too weak to even argue back with her child. She just does whatever Rufus tells her to do without fighting back. Margaret becomes threatened by Dana when she comes into the scene and tries her hardest to damage Dana reputation with Rufus. As Dana mentions, “I think she resents me because Rufus likes me. She probably doesn’t want to share her son with anyone,” (Butler 82) Her actions makes it obvious that she is easily filled with jealousy when it comes to the people she cares about (as is the case for most people), especially since this is for someone who neglects her. She is a strong-willed person in this way since she finds it hard to give up on the attention she wants. It displays the fact that she is persistent. If Margaret was able to be around people who made her feel loved, then she wouldn’t have to constantly be in a competition with people who endanger her position; she would feel more secure. In the end, Margaret does not avoid turning crazy when she loses her baby twins. Like Sarah mentions to Dana, “... She almost died, too. She went kind of crazy. The birth had left her pretty bad off anyhow-sick, hurt inside,” (Butler 137). Maybe for once, Margaret thought there was someone who could love her and treat her right, so when she lost the twins, she also lost her mind. They were her last chance at affection. After this, there’s just false hope.
Kevin’s personality changes as more events pass as he goes through more hardships.

Before Dana and him meet each other, Kevin’s life is more on the bland side. “I think Kevin was as lonely and out of place as I was when I met him, though he was handling it much better. But then, he was about to escape,” (Butler 52). Kevin is about to escape his life of loneliness before he meets Dana, thus, meaning that he is completely capable of being happy by himself. He has an independent personality. This might be a leading factor as to why Kevin is so loving to Dana since his happiness and security does not rely on her. However, even though he does not need her to function, Kevin is still truly faithful and loyal to Dana. Kevin loves her so much, he even goes back to the past with her to try to ensure her safety. “Suddenly, Kevin was beside me holding me. I tried to push him away. I was afraid for him without knowing why. I shouted for him to let me go,” (Butler 58). He holds on to her without hesitation, fully aware of the consequences that come with going back to the 19th century. This kind of devotion is healthier than the one Margaret has for her son because it is not unrequited. The amount of love Kevin and Dana have is equivalent to each other, therefore, they both respect each other. Since they feel this way about each other, he is fearless when it comes to love, knowing that Dana and him can support each other. When he comes back from spending five years in the 19th century, Kevin becomes more reserved and hidden from the world. “The expression on his face was like something I’d seen, something I was used to seeing on Tom Weylin. Something closed and ugly,” (Butler 194). When a traumatic event happens, even love cannot tarnish the walls built up by the experience. Nonetheless, his character mostly stays the same during this period of time, but he still has to adjust to the “new world,” making him a bit moody and unresponsive. He deals with this situation step by step

by trying new things every day, but tends to leave Dana out, meaning he does not want her to be a part of his suffering or it is hard for him to relate to her nowadays.
Overall, the three characters have to go through many changes in their personality and the way they deal with love as it comes to them. Rufus starts off as slightly deranged and gradually uses his power of control in order to make up for his lack of self-esteem and fear of being abandoned by the people he loves. Margaret’s actions tend to reveal that she feels unconfident with her relationships with others and tries to push herself onto them, causing them to treat her like an annoyance. Kevin proves to be one of the most normal characters, considering he has typical reactions to situations like when he was traumatized from staying in the 1800s for five years and acts like an ideal husband. The three of them demonstrate several ways humans handle problems associated with love.