Kindred - Rape Rewarded

“So you’ll be rid of the man and have possession of the woman just as you wanted,” I said with disgust. “Rape rewarded.”

He turned his head toward me and peered at me through swollen eyes. “I begged her not to go with him,” he said quietly. “Do you hear me, I begged her!”

I said nothing. I was beginning to realize that he loved the woman-to her misfortune. There was no shame in raping a black woman, but there could be shame in loving one.

Dana is brought back for the fourth time and this time five years has passed. The Rufus she sets eyes on is now 19 and was beaten badly by Alice’s husband Isaac. Rufus tells Dana, with anger in his voice, that Isaac and Alice will be apprehended eventually and when the time comes he’ll buy Alice and let them sell Isaac. Dana is shocked and bewildered by his comments. She sees that her past attempts to make him a better man has had no affect on who he has become today. He has turned out exactly like his father or possibly even worse.

This quotation reveals a lot about who Rufus has become and what is acceptable in his time period. Rufus has three of the most powerful qualities. He is white, a male, and a slave owner. Anyone that has these qualities is allowed to believe that they are powerful enough to demand anything. Because he feels this powerful he disregards Alice’s sacred bond to her husband and attempts to rape her. In the back of his mind he knows that even if the rape is unsuccessful and it doesn’t go his way he’ll still have her later. Everything is to his advantage. His social standing is high, the law is on his side, and the woman he wants is black, so she is not even considered a person. She is not a person but seen more as an object that can be attainable at any moment, an object that Rufus can attain at any moment.

Rufus loves her and to her ill luck she will be the one punished. Not only will she be violated body and mind but she will be stripped of the one person she loves, her husband Isaac. Rufus’s only concern is not able to have Alice and I also think because of that fear of not getting what he wants it motivates him to want her even more. Dana observes that raping a black woman is not seen as a crime. It has become an act that has generally been accepted in their society.

What I hope will happen is for Rufus to evolve into the man Dana knows he is capable to be. A good man, a man that can see pass the color black