Kevin was sus
One thing that really interested me was Kevin’s role in Kindred. It’s easy to see that his main role is being Dana’s protector, not only when he takes a trip to the past with her, but also when she comes back home, often injured. At first, I thought this would be Kevin’s only role, which would have been somewhat boring and expected from a partner. However, I’m glad that Butler included Kevin in Dana’s time traveling and even left him there for a few years, as it added a twist to the story when Dana thought she’d lost him.
Kevin has an unusual role when the Weylins are around. To start, he has to say that Dana belongs to him, even though Rufus, Nigel, and eventually more people know that they’re married. He also provides Dana with protection and many excuses and prevents her from being owned by the Weylins. Later on, He (technically the idea of him) is used by Rufus to manipulate Dana, such as when he wants her to help him get with Alice. It was definitely interesting to explore the differences between Dana’s experience and Kevin’s experiences, as Kevin frequently complained of boredom and thinks there’s “so little to see”, whereas Dana is doing work, helping educate the slaves, and being punished (100).
Lastly, I noticed Butler frequently left in small details that made Kevin look bad. For example, she compared Kevin with other white guys, such as the patroller. There were also the conversations where Kevin idealized living in the West and seemed to overlook the wrongdoings of the time. I thought these details would have a greater effect, as they left open the possibility of Kevin becoming an antagonist. However, Butler didn’t really end up doing anything with them, and I wonder why she added them. (Can you guys think of any reasons why these details were included?)
In the end, I think that the book is quite unique. As a black woman living in the 1976, Dana has very unique (and bad) experiences in the past when slavery was legal. Her being married to Kevin, who’s a white male that time travels with her, is even more unique and puts a fascinating twist on the story.
I think that Butler doesn't purposely try to paint Kevin in a negative way, but more that she writes Dana's thoughts to be negative. She clearly illustrates the fears that Dana has about Kevin turning into a far more racist figure. In this way, I think the reader is more subconsciously fed doubts about Kevin. Nonetheless, is snarky comments would still clearly add to a negative depiction of him.
ReplyDeleteI think Kevin is meant to be ambiguous to the reader. I think Butler is saying that a white man with modern sensibilities isn't that far off from a slaver of the past and it could really go either way where they eventually land. Kevin is painted in somewhat poor light because we are meant to be as concerned as Dana if he will turn or not. She plays this until the end when he doesn't really mention what he did in the past until they had been in 1976 for a while.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that I read these moments when Dana has these troubling, fleeting glimpses of the patroller or the Weylins when she looks at Kevin are meant to "compare" the two in a direct sense (although it's possible to read these passages in this way). For me, it's interesting as a reflection of how Dana's perception of her familiar world has been altered by her experience in another time--as if she can't help but "see" a bit of Weylin in Kevin. He is definitely NOT the patroller who attempts to assault her--but isn't it troubling to at least note the resemblance? Which is just one step away from wondering what role HE might have played if he were in this context? (She is presumably aware of the flip-side, as well--that she might start to look more like an enslaved woman to him, that her "role" might start to overtake her reality.)
ReplyDeleteI think that the comparison between Kevin and the patroller force us to consider how white privilege continues to exist in our current society. Ultimately, Kevin does some good things during his five years in the past, and honestly there's not much more that he could have done without putting himself in serious danger. However, it's clear that his experiences have changed him for the worse when he struggles to adjust to life back in 1976.
ReplyDeleteAs some other people pointed out, I think a lot of the more negative depictions/comparisons of Kevin (like him to the patroller/Tom Weylin) are meant to represent Dana's mindset and situation more so than Kevin's. But there are still a crap ton of foot-in-mouth Kevin moments that kind of force the reader to consider than Kevin might likely fulfill a lot of the fears that Dana as for him, especially after being left in the past for 5 years. I think Butler's decision to include those details about Kevin might've been in some part to make the reader at least contemplate how it could be an incredibly slippery slope for a modern-day white person living in the antebellum south to become accustomed to the time and their new position in a white supremacist society. Even if it didn't actually end up going that far for Kevin - he does end up helping free slaves and teaching them how to read - those little slips on his part where he seems to minimize and dismiss the realities of slavery are very chilling.
ReplyDeleteI think Kevin as a character is used to show how this influence from antebellum slavery blurs and mixes the lines more than we realize. It also provides us readers with the ability to observe Dana's and Kevin's journeys and experiences in parallel, and see how just their skin color sets them apart immensely. Butler's choice in telling the readers how Dana starts to see Kevin is also very interesting, as you mentioned, as it shows the impact the time travelling has had on her. Nice post!
ReplyDeleteGreat post! The observations you make are interesting. I didn't really think about how Rufus used the idea of him to manipulate Dana. Otherwise, I really like your post and your title as well. It incorporate modern lingo with historical texts.
ReplyDeleteI think that Kevin is very interesting as a character and is in contrast to how white saviors are portrayed in the other books we read. He is seemingly more strong than Thor Wintergreen and is a more rational Mothers Younger Brother. He is used more as a device to show how Dana reacts to Kevin being in a world that treats him as superior. Nice job!
ReplyDeleteI initially thought that Kevin was meant to be symbolic of white people's compliance (or lack of understanding surrounding slavery), but I was surprised that Butler didn't give us more insight into how the time travel affected him. I don't know if Butler intended to leave the small details in to make Kevin look bad, but I certainly picked up on a few of those connotations. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI think the purpose of comparing Kevin with Rufus at the beginning of the book was a way to show Dana's insecurity with the whole situation. By being put in such a strange scenario, Dana starts to grow wary of the world around her and is initially nervous that Kevin might change into something worse with the influence of slavery. However, by the end of the book, we (thankfully) see that Kevin has remained largely unchanged, and the world of slavery has not made him become more racist.
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