Changes in Dana

Dana is the main character in the book Kindred. During the book there are some notable changes about Dana due to the circumstances of her traveling back into time. My first impressions of Dana were not that strong. I felt that she did not really have a purpose in life. Sure she wanted to become an author, but that goal was not really close. Instead she spent most of her days searching for odd jobs to earn money.

As Dana began spending more time in the nineteenth century my views about her changed. At first she seemed strong, she fought against all the opposition she was up against and won. An example of this would be when she started teaching some slaves how to read and write. This stood out to me especially because of how brave I thought Dana was. However, these actions may have been her naivety that she brought with her from the future.

As the novel continues, Rufus gets older, and with that Rufus gains more power as a white male on a plantation. Rufus is no longer that innocent child that we first met at the start of the book. Dana however looks more and more like any other female slave on the Weylin plantation as she does not age.

Near the end of the book it felt like Dana just kind of gave up. She becomes more submissive as she learns what society thinks of slaves. Rufus begins ordering her around doing stuff, and even blackmailing her. She does not have much power to do otherwise. It was only at the very end where she finally could not stand it and she kills Rufus. I guess this just shows how much change Dana goes through as she experiences these traumatic events.