In our last few class discussions, we all began to notice how much we were piling it on Kevin. He just couldn't do anything right in our eyes. We all pointed out how quickly Kevin seems to adapt the antebellum South attitude and to a certain degree seems to be okay with the idea that they may be staying in that time period for some time. We all expected Kevin to be strongly against the ideas of the 1815 South and its views on slavery because he's married to Dana. But, then again, Dana is glad to have Kevin there with her because he offers Dana some sort of protection because he's white. Therefore, if Kevin doesn't play along, his cover is blown. It's really quite the conundrum for Kevin as he has to balance maintaining his relationship with his wife while maintaining the security he provides Dana by being white. Yet, despite knowing this, why are we the readers so quick to dislike him?
Personally, I think we hate him because of his disingenuous nature in general. Since Dana is the main character we want only the best for her because we are already emotionally invested in her. Because Dana wants her marriage to work despite the stigma of an interracial couple in the 1970s, we find it outrageous that Kevin is so quick to mention how he wouldn't mind living on the Weylin Plantation. We even find it more callous of Kevin that he seems to play along just fine with the white male dominance line that is prevalent. Perhaps if Octavia Butler had made Kevin a more central character to the plot, we might have more sympathy towards Kevin given the difficult situation he is in.
2 comments:
Personally I don't hate Kevin. I think he's put in a situation where he is automatically scrutinized by the reader for any sense of ease with being in the antebellum south and then jumped on for it. I do like how you mention that we would probably feel differently about him if we saw things from his point of view because I think that's an important note to keep in mind while looking at his character.
And I also think it's worth pointing out that *Dana* doesn't seem to resent Kevin at all--she (rightly) worries about what spending time in this place might do to him (and they have their arguments), but in a way this is similar to her anxiety about how Rufus will grow up--the extent to which being a white man in a white-supremacist/patriarchal society will "leave its mark."
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