Kindred

by

Octavia E. Butler

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A white, red-headed slave owner in Antebellum Maryland, and Dana’s ancestor. Rufus is a product of his time and culture, becoming harsher, more selfish, and crueler as the years go by and he is more immersed in the patriarchal slave-holding culture of the South. While Dana attempts to teach Rufus respect for all people regardless of race, Rufus is unable to overcome his upbringing and societal pressure. He loves Alice, but the obsessive and possessive nature of his affection provides a horrifying glimpse into an interracial relationship gone wrong. Throughout the novel, Butler uses Rufus to show the complicated relationship that slaves can have for their masters, as Dana comes to regard Rufus with a mix of fear, loathing, and even a small amount of affection. However, Rufus never learns to truly treat black people with respect and becomes an irredeemable character by the end of the novel.

Rufus Weylin Quotes in Kindred

The Kindred quotes below are all either spoken by Rufus Weylin or refer to Rufus Weylin. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Family and Home Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2: The Fire Quotes

Alice Greenwood. How would she marry this boy? Or would it be marriage? And why hadn't someone in my family mentioned that Rufus Weylin was white? If they knew. Probably, they didn't. Hagar Weylin Blake had died in 1880, long before the time of any member of my family that I had known. No doubt most information about her life had died with her.

Related Characters: Dana (Edana) Franklin (speaker), Rufus Weylin, Alice Jackson (Greenwood), Hagar Weylin
Page Number: 28
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4: The Fight Quotes

I said nothing. I was beginning to realize that he loved the woman—to her misfortune. There was no shame in raping a black woman, but there could be shame in loving one.
"I didn't want to just drag her off into the bushes," said Rufus. "I never wanted it to be like that. But she kept saying no. I could have had her in the bushes years ago if that was all I wanted."
"I know," I said.
"If I lived in your time, I would have married her. Or tried to."

Related Characters: Dana (Edana) Franklin (speaker), Rufus Weylin (speaker), Kevin Franklin, Alice Jackson (Greenwood)
Page Number: 124
Explanation and Analysis:

His father wasn't the monster he could have been with the power he held over his slaves. He wasn't a monster at all. Just an ordinary man who sometimes did the monstrous things his society said were legal and proper. But I had seen no particular fairness in him. He did as he pleased. If you told him he wasn't being fair, he would whip you for talking back.

Related Characters: Dana (Edana) Franklin (speaker), Rufus Weylin, Tom Weylin
Related Symbols: The Whip
Page Number: 134
Explanation and Analysis:

"Daddy's the only man I know," he said softly, "who cares as much about giving his word to a black as to a white."
"Does that bother you?"
"No! It's one of the few things about him I can respect."
"It's one of the few things about him you should copy."

Related Characters: Dana (Edana) Franklin (speaker), Rufus Weylin (speaker), Tom Weylin
Page Number: 181
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5: The Storm Quotes

I felt as though I were losing my place here in my own time. Rufus's time was a sharper, stronger reality. The work was harder, the smells and tastes were stronger, the danger was greater, the pain was worse ... Rufus's time demanded things of me that had never been demanded before, and it could easily kill me if I did not meet its demands. That was a stark, powerful reality that the gentle conveniences and luxuries of this house, of now, could not touch.

Related Characters: Dana (Edana) Franklin (speaker), Rufus Weylin
Page Number: 191
Explanation and Analysis:

Carrie clasped her hands around her neck again. Then she drew closer to me and clasped them around my neck. Finally, she went over to the crib that her youngest child had recently outgrown and there, symbolically, clasped her hands again, leaving enough of an open circle for a small neck…. Margaret Weylin could not run the plantation. Both the land and the people would be sold. And if Tom Weylin was any example, the people would be sold without regard for family ties.

Related Characters: Dana (Edana) Franklin (speaker), Rufus Weylin, Tom Weylin, Margaret Weylin, Carrie
Page Number: 223
Explanation and Analysis:

“I know what he means. He likes me in bed, and you out of bed, and you and I look alike if you can believe what people say.”
“We look alike if we can believe our own eyes!”
“I guess so. Anyway, all that means we're two halves of the same woman—at least in his crazy head.”

Related Characters: Dana (Edana) Franklin (speaker), Alice Jackson (Greenwood) (speaker), Rufus Weylin
Page Number: 228
Explanation and Analysis:

Her names were only symbolic, but I had more than symbols to remind me that freedom was possible—probable—and for me, very near.
Or was it?
Slowly, I began to calm down. The danger to my family was past, yes. Hagar had been born. But the danger to me personally ... the danger to me personally still walked and talked and sometimes sat with Alice in her cabin in the evening as she nursed Hagar.

Related Characters: Dana (Edana) Franklin (speaker), Rufus Weylin, Alice Jackson (Greenwood), Hagar Weylin, Joseph (Joe) Weylin
Page Number: 234
Explanation and Analysis:

Sarah had cornered me once and said, "What you let her talk to you like that for? She can't get away with it with nobody else."
I didn't know. Guilt, maybe. In spite of everything, my life was easier than hers. Maybe I tried to make up for that by taking her abuse…
"If you go on talking to me the way you do, I won't care what he does to you."
She looked at me for a long time without saying anything. Finally, she smiled. "You'll care. And you'll help me. Else, you'd have to see yourself for the white nigger you are, and you couldn't stand that."

Related Characters: Dana (Edana) Franklin (speaker), Alice Jackson (Greenwood) (speaker), Sarah (speaker), Rufus Weylin
Page Number: 235
Explanation and Analysis:

He gave me a long searching look. "You want to be with that white man, girl?"
"If I were anywhere else, no black child on the place would be learning anything."

"Some folks say ..."
"Hold on." I was suddenly angry. "I don't want to hear what 'some folks' say. 'Some folks' let Fowler drive them into the fields every day and work them like mules."
"Let him...?"
"Let him! They do it to keep the skin on their backs and breath in their bodies. Well, they're not the only ones who have to do things they don't like to stay alive and whole. Now you tell me why that should be so hard for 'some folks' to understand?"

Related Characters: Dana (Edana) Franklin (speaker), Sam Jones (speaker), Rufus Weylin
Page Number: 237
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6: The Rope Quotes

"I'm not property, Kevin. I'm not a horse or a sack of wheat. If I have to seem to be property, if I have to accept limits on my freedom for Rufus's sake, then he also has to accept limits - on his behavior toward me. He has to leave me enough control of my own life to make living look better to me than killing and dying."
"If your black ancestors had felt that way, you wouldn't be here," said Kevin.
"I told you when all this started that I didn't have their endurance. I still don't. Some of them will go on struggling to survive, no matter what. I'm not like that."

Related Characters: Dana (Edana) Franklin (speaker), Kevin Franklin (speaker), Rufus Weylin
Page Number: 246
Explanation and Analysis:

A slave was a slave. Anything could be done to her. And Rufus was Rufus—erratic, alternately generous and vicious. I could accept him as my ancestor, my younger brother, my friend, but not as my master, and not as my lover. He had understood that once.

Related Characters: Dana (Edana) Franklin (speaker), Rufus Weylin
Page Number: 260
Explanation and Analysis:
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Kindred PDF

Rufus Weylin Quotes in Kindred

The Kindred quotes below are all either spoken by Rufus Weylin or refer to Rufus Weylin. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Family and Home Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2: The Fire Quotes

Alice Greenwood. How would she marry this boy? Or would it be marriage? And why hadn't someone in my family mentioned that Rufus Weylin was white? If they knew. Probably, they didn't. Hagar Weylin Blake had died in 1880, long before the time of any member of my family that I had known. No doubt most information about her life had died with her.

Related Characters: Dana (Edana) Franklin (speaker), Rufus Weylin, Alice Jackson (Greenwood), Hagar Weylin
Page Number: 28
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4: The Fight Quotes

I said nothing. I was beginning to realize that he loved the woman—to her misfortune. There was no shame in raping a black woman, but there could be shame in loving one.
"I didn't want to just drag her off into the bushes," said Rufus. "I never wanted it to be like that. But she kept saying no. I could have had her in the bushes years ago if that was all I wanted."
"I know," I said.
"If I lived in your time, I would have married her. Or tried to."

Related Characters: Dana (Edana) Franklin (speaker), Rufus Weylin (speaker), Kevin Franklin, Alice Jackson (Greenwood)
Page Number: 124
Explanation and Analysis:

His father wasn't the monster he could have been with the power he held over his slaves. He wasn't a monster at all. Just an ordinary man who sometimes did the monstrous things his society said were legal and proper. But I had seen no particular fairness in him. He did as he pleased. If you told him he wasn't being fair, he would whip you for talking back.

Related Characters: Dana (Edana) Franklin (speaker), Rufus Weylin, Tom Weylin
Related Symbols: The Whip
Page Number: 134
Explanation and Analysis:

"Daddy's the only man I know," he said softly, "who cares as much about giving his word to a black as to a white."
"Does that bother you?"
"No! It's one of the few things about him I can respect."
"It's one of the few things about him you should copy."

Related Characters: Dana (Edana) Franklin (speaker), Rufus Weylin (speaker), Tom Weylin
Page Number: 181
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5: The Storm Quotes

I felt as though I were losing my place here in my own time. Rufus's time was a sharper, stronger reality. The work was harder, the smells and tastes were stronger, the danger was greater, the pain was worse ... Rufus's time demanded things of me that had never been demanded before, and it could easily kill me if I did not meet its demands. That was a stark, powerful reality that the gentle conveniences and luxuries of this house, of now, could not touch.

Related Characters: Dana (Edana) Franklin (speaker), Rufus Weylin
Page Number: 191
Explanation and Analysis:

Carrie clasped her hands around her neck again. Then she drew closer to me and clasped them around my neck. Finally, she went over to the crib that her youngest child had recently outgrown and there, symbolically, clasped her hands again, leaving enough of an open circle for a small neck…. Margaret Weylin could not run the plantation. Both the land and the people would be sold. And if Tom Weylin was any example, the people would be sold without regard for family ties.

Related Characters: Dana (Edana) Franklin (speaker), Rufus Weylin, Tom Weylin, Margaret Weylin, Carrie
Page Number: 223
Explanation and Analysis:

“I know what he means. He likes me in bed, and you out of bed, and you and I look alike if you can believe what people say.”
“We look alike if we can believe our own eyes!”
“I guess so. Anyway, all that means we're two halves of the same woman—at least in his crazy head.”

Related Characters: Dana (Edana) Franklin (speaker), Alice Jackson (Greenwood) (speaker), Rufus Weylin
Page Number: 228
Explanation and Analysis:

Her names were only symbolic, but I had more than symbols to remind me that freedom was possible—probable—and for me, very near.
Or was it?
Slowly, I began to calm down. The danger to my family was past, yes. Hagar had been born. But the danger to me personally ... the danger to me personally still walked and talked and sometimes sat with Alice in her cabin in the evening as she nursed Hagar.

Related Characters: Dana (Edana) Franklin (speaker), Rufus Weylin, Alice Jackson (Greenwood), Hagar Weylin, Joseph (Joe) Weylin
Page Number: 234
Explanation and Analysis:

Sarah had cornered me once and said, "What you let her talk to you like that for? She can't get away with it with nobody else."
I didn't know. Guilt, maybe. In spite of everything, my life was easier than hers. Maybe I tried to make up for that by taking her abuse…
"If you go on talking to me the way you do, I won't care what he does to you."
She looked at me for a long time without saying anything. Finally, she smiled. "You'll care. And you'll help me. Else, you'd have to see yourself for the white nigger you are, and you couldn't stand that."

Related Characters: Dana (Edana) Franklin (speaker), Alice Jackson (Greenwood) (speaker), Sarah (speaker), Rufus Weylin
Page Number: 235
Explanation and Analysis:

He gave me a long searching look. "You want to be with that white man, girl?"
"If I were anywhere else, no black child on the place would be learning anything."

"Some folks say ..."
"Hold on." I was suddenly angry. "I don't want to hear what 'some folks' say. 'Some folks' let Fowler drive them into the fields every day and work them like mules."
"Let him...?"
"Let him! They do it to keep the skin on their backs and breath in their bodies. Well, they're not the only ones who have to do things they don't like to stay alive and whole. Now you tell me why that should be so hard for 'some folks' to understand?"

Related Characters: Dana (Edana) Franklin (speaker), Sam Jones (speaker), Rufus Weylin
Page Number: 237
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6: The Rope Quotes

"I'm not property, Kevin. I'm not a horse or a sack of wheat. If I have to seem to be property, if I have to accept limits on my freedom for Rufus's sake, then he also has to accept limits - on his behavior toward me. He has to leave me enough control of my own life to make living look better to me than killing and dying."
"If your black ancestors had felt that way, you wouldn't be here," said Kevin.
"I told you when all this started that I didn't have their endurance. I still don't. Some of them will go on struggling to survive, no matter what. I'm not like that."

Related Characters: Dana (Edana) Franklin (speaker), Kevin Franklin (speaker), Rufus Weylin
Page Number: 246
Explanation and Analysis:

A slave was a slave. Anything could be done to her. And Rufus was Rufus—erratic, alternately generous and vicious. I could accept him as my ancestor, my younger brother, my friend, but not as my master, and not as my lover. He had understood that once.

Related Characters: Dana (Edana) Franklin (speaker), Rufus Weylin
Page Number: 260
Explanation and Analysis: