Thursday, November 5, 2009

A Nonlinear Life

A hot topic in class while reading Kindred was whether or not Dana would still be born if she had not gone back in time and saved Rufus. I think that without Dana, Rufus would have died and without Rufus, Dana would have died (or would have never been born).

Dana was always a part of Rufus' life even though she was living in her time and going back in time to his time. In the book Rufus' life is in the past, but in his present time as a character, Dana is real. In order for Rufus to live the life he was meant to live, Dana had to be there- and in order for Dana to be there, she had to be born. Neither Dana nor Rufus could survive without the other.

Some people in class believe that Dana would have still been born even if she hadn't gone into the past to save Rufus, but this doesn't make any sense. If Rufus would have died then he and Alice would have never had their children and Dana would have never been born. Dana had to go back in time and save Rufus in order to be born.

Just as Dana had to rely on Rufus to be alive, Rufus has to rely on Dana to also be alive. They both need each other in order to survive and they both rely on Dana's ability to go back in time to survive.

No comments:

Post a Comment