Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Kevin's Trials
In the novel Kindred, Dana’s husband Kevin must play the part of a white slave owner, even though he is a forward, modern-thinking man from 1976. Not only does he play this part well, but as Dana is taken from him and he is abandoned in the past, he starts to become a man of the 19th century. When he first arrives, he defends Dana from Rufus, and is disgusted when Rufus tells him that no one would believe Dana is his wife. When he gets back to the present, he has a slight accent, like Rufus and Tom Weylin. He has trouble remembering how modern-day appliances work, and how to drive. He tells Dana how he saw a woman die in childbirth once, and how he helped slaves to escape and was almost caught for it. He’s angry because he can’t understand his own time, and it feels so unreal to him. When Dana comes home again, they talk about the possibility of Carrie being sold along with her children, and he refers to it as breeding. He’s still her husband, still the man Dana married. He doesn’t think of her or any other black person as inferior to him. But he’s used to being obeyed by them, after his five-year stint in pre-Civil War America. He’s different, and it’s unclear whether or not he can reconcile himself to his old life.
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I agree that it would be interesting to see whether Kevin could reconcile himself. We don't know what happened to him on his hiatus, and as many of us out-of-staters know well, even a year in a new place can have a a large impact. Kevin spent that many years in a different era, not knowing anyone. There is no possible way he could have been the same person when he went back. I don't know however, if he could still be the man Dana has married as you stated. His life could not have been unaltered by his time in the past, just as Dana was obviously affected.
ReplyDeleteTowards the beginning of the novel, Kevin was the character that I had the most issues with. I felt he was so controlling and wasn't able to identify with Dana easily. His character seemed off, ESPECIALLY after the prolouge. For these reasons, I had a notion in the back of my mind that maybe secretly he was a wife beater and that would play out later in the text. All my problems were resolved though, as were my suspicions, as I saw his character develop from his encounters in the antebellum South. I think this opened his eyes and made him acquire more respect for Dana and her race. I don't think after his traumatic experiences there he would ever consider Dana his personal slave.
ReplyDeleteWe are all affected by the different experiences we have in our lives. For Kevin, his experience of going back to the Antebellum south is one that is far different than the life he knew in 1976. Therefore, it would be impossible for anyone to think that he could not be changed by the experiences he went through, the things he saw, and the people he met while he was there. Although the end leaves the reader with an unclear view of the future for Kevin and his life with Dana back in 1976 I have hope that he will be able to take what he learned from his experiences in order to integrate them into his life in the future.
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