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Kindred by Olivia Butler - Rufus' Evil and Inhumane Nature

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Kindred by Olivia Butler - Rufus' Evil and Inhumane Nature
Rufus Weylin; a character first perceived as a young, curious and innocent boy, turns in to an over-obsessive and miserable tyrant. In Octavia Butler 's novel _Kindred_, the book revolves around the horrors of slavery in the United States in the early eighteen hundreds. White characters are given absolute power and control over black characters, and treat them like animals, making them live a long life of misery and unhappiness. As _Kindred_ unfolds, it becomes clear that Rufus turns in to a stereotypical slave owner and abuser. With every trip that Dana makes back to Rufus, there is a clear distinction of changes in his personality. He becomes more evil, over-obsessive and cruel as he gets older. In fact, he becomes very much like his father Tom Weylin, which in his childhood he never wants to be. However, this does not excuse the horrible actions that he commits towards his black slaves. Although at his time some white men do have slaves as servants, not everybody does, and not everybody has to. Rufus misuses the power of his freewill, and causes lots of physical and emotional pain to everybody around him. He feels like he is entitled to anything and everything, and gets extremely frustrated when things do not go as he plans. Rufus does not ever take personal responsibility and blames everybody around him for his problems and failures. Rufus Weylin is truly an evil person, which is a result of his personal choice, his over obsessive and possessive nature and his lack of responsibility.

Oscar Wilde once said, "Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals." In the eighteen hundreds, many black people were enslaved by white men. However, not every white man in the United States had slaves. Furthermore, not every white man supported slavery. Rufus is never obligated to own slaves either. Just because society says that it is acceptable to do so, does not mean that Rufus has to. Rufus, unlike the slaves he owns, is a free man


Cited: Butler, Octavia E. _Kindred_. Boston: Beacon, 2003. Print. Wilde, Oscar. "Oscar Wilde Quote." _BrainyQuote_. Xplore, n.d. Web. 04 Aug. 2014. <http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/o/oscarwilde385557.html>.
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