How Past Trauma Influences the Future in Octavia Butler’s Kindred

If a domino in a line of thousands was knocked over, all the dominos in that line would fall. The laws of physics are simply undeniable as energy is converted from one form to another, springing the beginning of a chain reaction. While dominos and people may seem pretty incomparable, a similar chain reaction takes place in Octavia Butler’s, Kindred. However, instead of energy being transferred between objects, it is trauma passed through generations. In the book, Dana, a young black woman living in the 70’s, is transported back through time to the Antebellum South. It is there she finds the ancestral hand responsible for toppling the trauma dominos of her family: a young white boy named Rufus Weylin. As Dana is called back to the past several more times to save Rufus from the consequences of his actions, she discovers that her life was the result of trauma, influencing her upbringing and how she would live her future. In Kindred, Octavia Butler uses Rufus and Dana’s relationship to demonstrate that intergenerational trauma can influence individuals and society, for better or worse. 

Although trauma is capable of tearing lives apart, it can also serve as a powerful force for positive change, and in Octavia Butler’s Kindred, trauma is not always the end, but sometimes the beginning of new life. Early on in the story, Dana’s connection to Rufus and Alice is revealed by an old family Bible and she discovers that they are her several times great grandparents. However, unbeknownst to Dana for quite some time, she was not the product of love, or even consent, but rather rape and sexual trauma. During one of her trips back to the past, Dana suspects Rufus of sexually assaulting Alice, and when asked about it he replies, “I wouldn’t have hurt her if she hadn’t just kept saying no” (Butler 123). Children born of rape face a painful legacy and are additional victims of the assault that their ancestors faced. Grappling with this truth is no easy task, and the psychological effects can leave these people feeling unwanted, unvalued, and part monster like the men that helped create them. While Dana is forced to come to terms with this new information, she is faced with another struggle as she has to act as a bystander in the past in order to not disrupt the paradox she is trapped in. She has to stand by and witness the repeated assault of Alice, and since Rufus’s desire for Alice is not reciprocated, he pressures Dana to sway Alice; “Send her to me. I’ll have her whether you help or not. All I want you to do is fix it so I don’t have to beat her” (Butler 164). To let Rufus die is a direct threat to Dana’s own existence but watching as he traumatizes Alice is a threat to her well-being in an equally serious manner. The moral obligation to help Alice directly battles with Dana’s very human instinct to act in self-preservation, and this internal conflict tears her apart. Dana is a consequence of Rufus’s infliction of pain, and she faces the repercussions of his actions throughout the entirety of the story, demonstrating the direct and transgenerational effects that trauma can leave. 

Similar to how the traditions of one’s ancestors are passed down through generations, influencing the early life of many, Rufus’s actions play a large role in shaping Dana’s upbringing and the values held by not just her family but society as a whole. Family is an essential part of many people’s lives, so when Kevin asks Dana to get married, she seeks approval and support from her aunt and uncle. However, she describes her uncle’s reaction as far from supportive; “Now…it’s as though I’ve rejected him. Or at least that’s the way he feels. It bothered me, really. He was more hurt than mad. Honestly hurt” (Butler 111). Her Uncle feels that by choosing to marry a white man she is turning her back on her family and the black community. While Rufus is not directly responsible for her uncle’s personal feelings, it is men like him who abused, raped, and oppressed black women which led to the mistrust of white men for many people and created a barrier between races. Due to Rufus’s traumatizing of Alice, Dana is brought up in a family that views white people as a threat and on the opposing end of a struggle over skin color. The idea of society being influenced by the actions taken in the past is reinforced when Dana’s cousin sees Dana’s whipping injuries and is quick to assume Kevin is responsible, saying; “I never thought you’d be fool enough to let a man beat you” (Butler 116). Again, it’s not directly Rufus’s fault that her cousin assumes that her white, male, significant other is abusing her, but he did contribute to the normalizing of domestic abuse through his actions. Like many other men at the time, Rufus was a white and influential man that abused his power and traumatized black women, so it is understandable that, to her cousin, it’s not so hard to believe that Kevin, who is similar to Rufus in the eyes of society, would also be an abuser. Rufus’s trauma didn’t inflict pain on just Alice – it was instead passed through their family and rippled through society as a whole.

To watch a movie or learn about the traumatic events of history is one thing, but to physically live that history and those moments is a completely different experience with a drastically different impact. While the action of witnessing past trauma takes a tremendous toll on Dana’s mental wellbeing, the past also forces her to experience trauma of her own which leaves much more evident marks. When it comes to traveling back to the past, Dana has absolutely no control over when she goes back or to where she goes. Her total helplessness is demonstrated through her initial confusion as she attempts to explain it to Rufus; “I was at home; then suddenly, I was here helping you. I don’t know how it happens—how I move that way—or when it’s going to happen. I can’t control it” (Butler 23). Rufus holds all the power as it is his own fear that often manifests from the consequences of his mistakes and trauma inflicting actions, that calls Dana back to the past. Dana is also unable to leave the past until she feels her life is in immediate danger. Having to continuously face life threatening experiences means enduring many traumatic moments like whippings and self-harm. She is sent back in time to relive the trauma of others and in return must also experience new trauma of her own leading to the creation of a vicious cycle. The trauma induced by Rufus and the past affect Dana psychologically, but also leave physical marks that won’t ever fade. As Rufus takes his final breaths, he traumatizes Dana one last time and grabs her arm. This is a monumental moment for Dana as she begins of the retelling of her story saying, “I lost an arm on my last trip home. My left arm. And I lost about a year of my life and much of the comfort and security I had not valued until it was gone” (Butler 9). Dana losing her arm is just one example of how the trauma induced by Rufus forever changed her life in the present. The past just keeps taking from Dana, and this will certainly influence the way she chooses to live her life in her timeline. Rufus’s role as a traumatizer in the past led to so much trauma for Dana to deal with in the future, proving that the past is not always in the past. 

Rick Warren, an American Baptist, and author, once remarked, “We are products of our past, but we don’t have to be prisoners of it”, and cases like 9/11 when past traumas have influenced modern society prove that Warrens words are needed more than ever. 9/11 changed lives forever, but alongside an increase in airport security, there was a rise in Islamophobia, and Muslim people were treated as the enemy for past actions they were not even responsible for.  In Kindred, Butler suggests that the past is capable of trapping people into vicious cycles of hatred and fixed mindsets rather than allowing for new growth. Butler quite literally sends Dana helplessly into the past, perhaps to prove that the past simply cannot be changed; however, in focusing on the present, where she has the power of choice, she is not condemned to continue the cycle, but instead move forward and create a past that she can be proud of. She can move the domino out of the way and prevent trauma from being the deciding factor of her life. Intergenerational trauma plays an essential role in shaping individuals and society, and while remembering the past is key for growth, it can also cause holding of unnecessary hatred. If society continues to allow the events of the past to make all the decisions, a future imprisoned by history and hatred will be all that remains.