As kids get older, they look up to their parents and the other people around them. If their parents act a certain way, they will most likely do the same. During the time of slavery, whites basically treated blacks with hate, cruelty, and disrespect. Today most people teach their children not to be prejudice towards others, but back then, that wasn’t the case. Children weren't taught about rights and wrongs when it comes to prejudice because their parents did it all the time. They were there to witness it. Their parents made African Americans feel worthless and made them feel like they weren’t people. In Kindred, Octavia Butler uses the growth of Rufus from childhood to adulthood to convey that prejudice is learned through the environment and …show more content…
Rufus is really good friends with Alice and Nigel when he is younger, and they are both black. He also treats other adult slaves around the plantation no different than he does white people. He doesn’t care about the color of their skin. As he gets older, he starts thinking of Alice in a different way. He loves her and wants to be with her, but she decides to marry a black man. This makes Rufus belligerent and gives him the desire to rape her. “When we were little, we were friends. We grew up. She got so she’d rather have a buck nigger than me!” Rufus says (123). In this scene, Rufus just got done fighting with Alice’s husband Isaac because Rufus raped her. This fight really solved nothing, but it debilitated Rufus. He shows how brutal and selfish he is by his actions. Dana comes off very disappointed after she finds out what he did. Seeing the raping and fighting happen around Rufus as he grows up causes him to think it’s okay to do. This only exacerbates the situation. As an adult, he can make his own decisions now. It’s not like his father, the man that raised him this way, is going to put a stop to …show more content…
As he get’s older, his feeling towards her change. Eventually, Tom Weylin becomes sick and dies in Dana’s care. In this scene, Rufus gets very mad and punishes Dana by making her do his dirty work. She is in so much pain from the whippings and beatings. Working in the field all day doesn’t help either. Especially when it wasn’t her forte. Dana can hardly believe that after saving his life, Rufus would still put her through all of this suffering. “ Maybe he just needed to hurt someone. He did lash out on others when he was hurt; I had already seen that,.” Dana says (210). Dana never thought that Rufus would be the one to bark orders at her, or constantly abuse her. Instead of begging her to stay and read a book to him every night, he’s forcing her to stay and take orders from him. His father’s actions rub off on Rufus, but it doesn’t really show until after his father dies. He feels he needs to follow his footsteps and take his place,. eEven if it means abusing and raping the ones he use to love and breaking up innocent families. Dana never would have imagined that one of her relatives would act this