Rufus Weylin and His Fickle State
The entirety of the novel shakily revolves around this relationship between Dana and Rufus. Dana is connected to him in the way that she tolerates him to some extent and is related to him by blood. Throughout Kindred , Dana has attempted to change Rufus's behavior. Seeing as he is a product of the slave-owning environment of the 1800s, Dana aims to prevent Rufus from growing into his abusive and strict father. While Rufus is an emotional, brutal, and selfish mess, Tom Weylin is a cold, predictable slaveholder. He tends to be quite impersonal and doesn't possess Rufus's affection for some of the slaves. Some might argue that Tom Weylin's style of slavery is preferable to Rufus's methods. Oftentimes, Rufus lets his attachments to some of his slaves skew his perspective, causing him to bend promises and destroy relationships. Examples of this mindset includes Rufus lying about sending the letters to Kevin (since he doesn't want Dana to leave him). In this way, Rufu...