There is difference between the two main women in Kindred. Dana coming from a totally different perspective than Alice. Dana is a modern woman who has only read about slavery, while Alice, a free woman at the beginning, has grown up in a society that condones slavery. Alice looks at death as being better than slavery, but Dana does not. Dana knows survival is the better pathway as long as there is a chance for freedom. I believe a difference is also shown by the past of Dana and Alice. Dana had experienced real freedom, while Alice only knew of a white man or woman being able to do whatever they please to her. Because Rufus kept abusing Alice, she saw no hope in her future. Dana is willing to do anything for freedom.
Dana is a strong character in Kindred and this book is told from her point of view. We first see Dana’s reactions to returning to the antebellum South, her interpretation of the nature of her white ancestor Rufus, to her feelings about her husband and the oppression of black people and American Indians in the nineteenth century, and her beginning to understanding the lost and strengths of black people in general. (slaves in particular)
Because we are reading at Dana’s point of view, we can understand her reactions to her experiences and brutality of the slavery era. Dana seems powerless when she returns to the antebellum South whenever Rufus’s life is endangered. Rufus develops from a boy who bonds with Dana into a complete racist who tries to rape her and Dana’s desire to protect Rufus kind of disappointed me. Dana’s narration makes it vivid for readers to image the cruelty and hardships black people faced in the antebellum South. Seeing slaves beaten, makes Dana and us readers aware that the beatings and abuse slaves suffered were much more shocking in reality than we see on tv and in films. Butler’s use of Dana as narrator rejuvenates the book’s subject matter.