Spoilers (sorry I couldn't help it!)
(Yeah I read ahead…sorry)
Was anybody else a bit confused by the ending there? Not the Rufus-trying-to-rape-Dana part, but the coming back home part.
Rufus’ hand literally became a wall.
I wouldn’t be so bother by it if it weren’t for the fact that his hand is the only thing that changes on Dana when she goes back and forth in time. Kevin didn’t turn into anything even when he was crushing her back. And he doesn’t go back to being the age he should be looking like in 1976. Dana’s clothes and bag items don’t change with the time. Her wounds stay with her no matter what year it is.
So why does Rufus’ hand corpse turn into a wall?
I honestly don’t have a clear answer but I have a theory. It may be because Rufus’ existence essentially ended when Dana stabbed him. His corpse no longer had his soul/spirit so it was no longer Rufus. And without that soul/spirit, Rufus’ body is like a wall crushing Dana’s arm…..?
Or maybe it’s that Dana will always be held back by her history and it will continue to be a part of her no matter what era she lives in. Her figurative and literal body are both stuck back in time (the wall would represent that era then.)
Anyone else wanna try explaining this?
I like your suggestion that it has to do with Rufus being dead. I also think Dana's arm being left behind nicely represents how part of her is stuck in history. In terms of the logistics of the book, Dana never brought everything she was touching with her (the ground and air for example) so I think she brought what she was touching and wanted or needed (both of which exclude Rufus). I also don't think she ever brought something from the 1800s forward in time.
ReplyDeleteI think the wall to me represents what you discussed in your last paragraph: that "Dana will always be held back by her history." Even though she is back in the 20th century, a piece of the 19th century, aka the wall, aka Rufus' hand, is literally holding a part of her back. In addition, like Kevin will never regain his youthful face due to the years he lost in the 19th century, Dana will never regain the arm that she lost. It is a physical representation of what has happened to them.
ReplyDeleteI also don't have a valid answer for this -- it's kind of a confusing aspect of the novel. But I also feel like on some level we're not really supposed to be that concerned with having logical "explanations" for all of the weird stuff that goes on in Kindred. Like the entire time travel thing doesn't make any logical sense but Butler just kind of ignores the contradictions that could come up with it. It seems like instead, the point of all the surreal aspects is just to build this situation that Butler can use to analyze the complex moral questions the novel brings up.
ReplyDeleteI think its more of a symbol than anything else. Through the rest of the book the time travel makes little more sense, so while it annoyed me that the event of Dana's arm being cut off weren't logically coherent, I'm not that surprised in hindsight.
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