One
of the most interesting things about Kindred
was how quickly Dana adjusted to being a slave. Even though both Kevin and Dana
agreed that they would only act like slave-master and slave in order to fit in
on the Weylin plantation, both of them started to develop into the roles they
were playing, and it happened shockingly fast. Almost immediately when Dana is
first pulled into the past, she is attacked by a white man, and has to fight
him off with her knife. At first, she is reluctant and can’t make herself use
the knife, but she quickly realizes that the environment in 1819 is much more
hostile than that of 1976, and that such liberties as not trying to permanently
injure her attacker could not be taken. Indeed, this trend of her continuing to
adopt the behaviors of a black person in the south in the 19th century
continues throughout the book, and by the end, she seems at first glance almost
indistinguishable from her fellow slaves.
However, there is one major
characteristic that Dana lacks: the “survival of the fittest” mentality that is
required in order to deal with slavery (of course, some amount of cooperation
and support is needed, but one has to have the strength to do what is best for
oneself, or one won’t be able to escape the shackles of slavery). When she
first comes back to 1976, for example, she knows that she needs to get more
supplies in case she is pulled back again, but she is afraid that if she is
pulled back while in her car, it will be left driverless and would be dangerous
to passerby. Later, when Kevin suggests that she kill Rufus, she refuses, saying
that even though it would stop her from having to go back in time, the slaves
on the Weylin plantation could be sold and separated. This idea of restricting
oneself from doing something because it could possibly harm someone else is
something that I don’t believe most of the slaves would consider. After years
of hard work and brutality, they would jump at any opportunity to free
themselves. Indeed, they often don’t even consider the impacts of their actions
on themselves. When Alice wanted to try to escape with her children, for
example, it took Dana a long time to convince her that it was too dangerous,
and Alice didn’t even think about the possibility that if Rufus found her gone,
he might have gotten angry and tried to rape Dana instead. Similarly, when Dana
tried to escape, it was a slave who noticed and tipped Tom Weylin off. The
slave knew that any opportunity to get some increased treatment was valuable,
even at the expense of another slave. Granted, he was yelled at by the slave
women, but it’s clear that years of hard work had driven this “survival of the
fittest” mentality into him.
I think it is for this
reason that Dana said at the end of the book that she wouldn’t have survived as
a slave – she just didn’t have the resolve and the ruthlessness to deal with
it. Personally, though, I see this more as a positive than a negative. Even
though it might have completed her transition into slavery, I think it is important
that she managed to retain at least some of her selflessness, and it made her a
much more sympathetic character.
