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Examples Of Power In The Book Kindred

Decent Essays

During times of oppression and slavery, power was a huge thing that could change at any time, anywhere. Most of the time during slavery the whites possessed majority of the power since African-Americans were ill-treated and subdued by the whites. In the book Kindred the readers see multiple moments of where power was transferred from character to character. The order of power and autonomy in the book is Dana, Rufus, Kevin and then Alice. At the beginning of the book to the end you would think that white people would have ultimate power over the blacks and all of the slaves. Throughout the book Kevin, Dana and Alice present potential power over Rufus. For Dana, she presents her power through being intellectually intelligent and being special by traveling through time and saving Rufus’s lives. …show more content…

The next time Dana was sent back to save Rufus’s life is when he fell off a tree and broke his leg. The mysterious time traveling keeps happening in the book repeatedly. Another reason Dana has more power than Rufus is because whenever she is transported back to the 1800’s Rufus’s life always depends on Dana saving him and helping him until her life is in danger or their connection from the present to the past dies. If one of them breaks the other's trust Dana could abandon him allowing him to die but both of them need each other to survive. At the end of the book Dana has the power to kill Rufus because he always needs somebody to do his “dirty” work and his bad business so he doesn’t get blamed for all of horrible things he did. Ironically, his desire to possess Dana forever comes true. In her final return home in 1976, she loses her arm at the exact spot where Rufus had grabbed onto it. The arm stays in the past forever with

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