One Last Kindred Post

I could write a lot more about Kindred, but, for the sake of fulfilling the purpose of this blog, I'll try to make this my last Kindred post, after which I'll move on to other things.

I want to talk about Dana and Kevin's relationship. They seem like a nice "underdog" couple, as an interracial couple living in the 1970s. Sure, the Supreme Court's decision in Loving v. Virginia, which struck down all anti-miscegenation laws across the country, was handed down in 1967, but interracial marriage was still frowned upon by many people, including some of Dana and Kevin's relatives, so I wanted their relationship to be a good one in order to disprove the critics. Unfortunately, there do seem to be some flaws in it. Kevin's behavior when they first met, as well as some of his later behavior (such as pressuring Dana to type his manuscripts) strikes me as somewhat demeaning and controlling, and I'm concerned that it may conceal abusive tendencies. While I'm sure that they do love each other, it often seems like their actions are driven by a sense that they have of what a marriage should be, in particular the concept of putting your spouse's interests above your own. The issue with this concept is that, if both people are doing it, you sort of get caught in an endless loop, as you could easily argue that doing something to further your own interests is putting your spouse's interests above your own, since your spouse puts your interests above his/her own. It's far healthier to reach a mutual understanding about who would benefit more from a given situation and whatnot. Kevin and Dana don't seem too comfortable with this dynamic, which becomes evident after Kevin is stranded in the nineteenth century.

When Dana returned to 1976 without Kevin at the end of "The Fall," I don't think that Kevin was doomed to stay in the nineteenth century for five years. It seemed clear to both of them at that point that Dana was whisked back in time whenever Rufus's life was in danger, so all that Kevin would have to do to bring Dana back would be to re-endanger Rufus's life. I think that part of the reason that he didn't do that was because it seemed to him to be unfair to Dana to bring her back for what likely would have amounted to a few more months, all in order to keep him from being stranded for several years. The thing is that Dana probably would have wanted Kevin to bring her back if he was indeed capable so that he wouldn't be stranded, especially since she would probably remain in 1976 for a similar amount of time no matter how much time passed between calls from Rufus.

I'm going to go off of my original topic a little here (which is why I'm not giving this post a "real" title), and talk about the time-travel "system" itself. As far as Dana and Kevin could tell, it worked like this: When Rufus's life is in danger, Dana goes to the nineteenth century. When Dana's life is in danger, Dana goes to 1976. Yet it took until eight months into her fifth trip back in time before she actually decided to take advantage of that by endangering her own life. She did say during her second visit that she didn't dare test the paradox, but I'm not sure why. If I were in her situation, I would gladly endanger my own life to get out of there, especially seeing as how life on the plantation seems like it would be worse than death. Attempting suicide is a win-win situation - either you go back home, or you die, both of which would be an improvement over the current situation! I could just jump off of a cliff and see if I returned to my own time before I reached the bottom. Now, it would be difficult to make myself do that, because it would require overcoming decades worth of constant beliefs that jumping off of a cliff is a bad idea, but I think that, given the circumstances, I'd manage. If I couldn't find a cliff, I'd come up with something else. There are plenty of ways to die.

Well, that seems like a nice and pleasant way to end my last Kindred post! I really enjoyed this book (although some parts were quite sickening). It could very well be my favorite book that I've had to read for school; it's right up there with Things Fall Apart.