Kevin's Transformation
Kevin’s actions in the first few chapters of Kindred cause the reader to question his morals and relation to Alice. Kevin himself is also a questionable guy; for example, when we are first properly introduced to him, Dana describes his “pale, almost colorless eyes that made him seem distant and angry whether he was or not,” that he used “to intimidate people” (Butler 13). While Dana defends Kevin, arguing that his eyes are only lifeless to strangers and that for those that he really cares for, he isn’t so soulless and harsh, many readers end up still finding Kevin unsettling because of the actions he has done while married with Dana and when in the nineteenth century, notably his somewhat positive perception of the Weylin plantation. However, after Kevin is stuck in the past for 5 years, he comes out a different man, as while he is more detached from the world (rightfully so, as the modern day is foreign to him after living in the antebellum South), he seems to have transformed by being more empathetic towards slaves and by being unafraid to have an impact on history.
Before travelling to the past with Dana, Kevin has treated Dana in ways that imply he is inconsiderate of others. For example, when Kevin and Dana were trying to remove some of their books so that Kevin’s place wouldn’t be overcrowded, Kevin suggests that Dana get rid of her books so that she could fit in his place (108). Similarly, when Kevin proposes to Dana, he jokes that he’ll let her type all his manuscripts, which is something that Dana hates and that Kevin gets upset when she doesn’t do it (109). While these are seemingly harmless actions, they still cause Kevin to come off as slightly manipulative and inconsiderate of Dana’s preferences and beliefs. They also set the stage for when Kevin is transported to Weylin plantation and his lack of understanding of the slaves.
When both Kevin and Dana are sent to the past, they both have to assume different roles in order to blend in. Naturally, this means that Dana is a slave and Kevin is a slaveowner, and it is from Kevin’s role as a white man in the south that he adopts questionable views. In particular, when Dana and Kevin observe the slave children’s game, he finds Dana to be overthinking the game and he is surprised by how “there’s so little to see” in the plantation, with Weylin not paying attention to what the slaves do (100). Dana is rightfully upset by these suggestions, and she correctly points out how he is never called over to witness the beatings, see the terrible living conditions of the slaves, or even endure the invisible fear present in all slaves. To put it in more concise terms, she states that “you don’t have to beat people to treat them badly” (109). Kevin gets defensive when Dana starts accusing him, and from this it is clear that he does have good intentions, but he is perhaps ignorant of parts of the world around him. This leaves the reader in a strange position, where Kevin does seem to genuinely dislike slavery (we see him despise Dana’s position and support her efforts to help the other slaves, for example) and support Dana, but he also treats Dana manipulatively and doesn’t seem to be too concerned with the wellbeing of all the slaves. However, this all changes after Kevin is stuck in the past.
When Kevin eventually returns from his 5 year stay in the nineteenth century, he seems to have undergone some sort of transformation as a result of the experience. Not only is the modern day unfamiliar to him, but he seems to have undergone a mental shift. We see this clearly when Dana asks Kevin whether he helped slaves escape, to which he responds defensively, and almost angrily, with the following:
“Of course I was [helping slaves to escape]! I fed them, hid them during the day, and when night came, I pointed them toward a free black family who would feed and hide them the next day” (193).
This claim, if taken to be true, suggests that Kevin truly does care about the wellbeing of the slaves and was willing to risk his life (getting scars in the process) to help them achieve freedom. Kevin seems to have changed from a few years earlier, where he found the situation of the slaves to not be that bad, and he seemed less concerned with trying to mess with history to help the slaves out. He seems less soulless, more compassionate, and more inspirational as a character. While we would like to think that it was obvious that Kevin would care and risk his life for the freedom of slaves, some of his earlier actions brought doubt into his character, and if there should be anything taken away from this book, it is that we can never know if we are true to our claims until we are taken back in time to put them to the test.
I like your analysis of Kevin's earlier relationship and treatment of Dana, and I would like to posit that Dana's relationship with Kevin, where he holds power over her, both in the actual context of the relationship, and also in the context of a societally imposed power dynamic tipped in Kevin's favor by their differing genders, races, ages, and employment statuses, primes her for Rufus's abuse of her. She's already used to making excuses for a white man, and then Rufus takes her to the logical extreme of that as she bends over backwards and repeatedly shifts goalposts further. It made me kind of worried about Dana's ability to defend herself from Kevin if he became abusive towards her, something that her (cousin, I think?) kind of lampshades when she assumes Dana's injuries are from Kevin.
ReplyDeleteI did not catch that much onto how Kevin changed into a better person as a result of his stay, so having this highlighted is relieving.
The whole thing is very "ehhh..." in the end, because they end up staying together out of needing someone who can understand what happened to them, but also being stuck in the past together was divisive to them, and I think that if they had been together for longer there is a risk of the master/slave dynamic further infecting their relationship.
Note: "ehh..." used to show ambivalence here.
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ReplyDeleteHi Mahdi, very intriguing thoughts here. In my opinion, it seems like Kevin is depicted as a good person throughout the book—he's thoughtful and clearly cares for Dana, however, I think placing him in the antebellum south forces him to do some questionable actions, just because of the racist nature of the society. I wonder if Kevin would end up a racist if he had grown up in the 19th century south or if he would still be the same person he is in the book...
ReplyDeleteYou present a clear contrast between the person Kevin was before and after his journey in this post, true to your title. I think it's very interesting how Butler seems to cultivate a sense of fear about the future of Kevin and Dana's relationship in us right from the start with her descriptions of his unsettling, maybe even "pre-abusive" behavior. This makes it all the more surprising when his time in the 1800s doesn't actually lead him down this path, instead changing him for the better. In a way, this reinforces Dana's feeling from the start of the book that even though Kevin may seem scary on the outside, his appearance really does hide a caring personality.
ReplyDeleteGood morrow His Majesty Mahdi! You give a very good, almost angelic like analysis on how Kevin changes, despite being a the caring husband of Dana, placing him in pre-Civil War era forces him to adapt the similar ideals of Rufus as they both share a similarity of changing from good people (For Rufus it makes more sense since he was a kid at the beginning and was only doing what he perceived to be good for the time) to adopting similar ideals and the emphasis that maybe those same ideals that Rufus had would transfer to Dana and Kevin's relationship almost like a disease. Keep on riding!
ReplyDeleteThis is a very good explication of Kevin's ambiguity as a character in this novel, and I agree that this ambiguity is figured through Dana's description of his unsettling eyes--even though he doesn't *mean* to be unsettling, it's still a feature of his visage and demeanor that he can't control. Not to mention all the distressing moments when Kevin and Tom Weylin or the slave patroller start to "flicker" in Dana's perception. But he's not a bad guy, or a raging misogynist, as you note--he makes some ill-timed jokes and does minimize how seriously Dana feels about the domestic divisions of labor, but he is "joking." There are key points where he simply seems not to "get it," and he often puts his foot in his mouth ("this would be a fun time to visit--maybe go out West!"). Even after his transformative time in the past, during which he "passes the test" and takes significant antislavery actions, he continues to minimize the threat to Dana: for her final trip home, remember, it's July 4 and he's off to enjoy the fireworks at the Rose Bowl with his buddies. He has no problem celebrating the Bicentennial as Dana is grappling with Rufus the rapist.
ReplyDeleteHi Mahdi, great post! There's also a point made in 8th period about how Kevin's suggestion that Dana write up his manuscripts instead has subtle parallels to slavery... and Butler seems to at least slightly entertain that notion, describing Kevin in ambiguous ways. While it's not directly slavery, there are some interesting parts about Kevin, including the continuous power dynamic that he had above Dana---when she was working at a warehouse, he was already a writer.
ReplyDeleteHi Mahdi, I like how your blog gets into the moral ambiguity of Kevin. You show how in the beginning, his behavior leads us as readers to question his morals. Living in the past exposes Kevin's lapses in understanding, which can sometimes be attributed to being a privileged white man. I also think that him spending 5 years during slavery has made him more empathetic, but I also start to wonder whether Kevin would have this same level of growth if he had lived his whole life in that era?
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