Dana recognizes on some level when she meets Kevin that they are kindred spirits in that they are basically alienated form the mainstream. She has developed the ability to identify this quality and use it to her advantage by drawing to herself those that would normally be on the fringe of whatever society they belong in. For example, she befriends Carrie, who is a mute slave. Because of her handicap everyone believes her to be mentally handicapped as well, but this turns out not to be true. Since the other slaves and the owners believe Carrie to be slow, they do not include her as an equal among the slaves. Also Dana befriends Alice, who is shunned because of her relationship with Rufus. This idea is reinforced in the modern world when Dana relates this to the connection that she and Kevin have simply because they share the one thing that sets them apart from the rest of the world, and that is their experiences in Maryland, which no one would believe besides them. Dana's experiences in Maryland served not only to educate her in the history of her family...
She learned that she is just as much of a victim in the 20th century as she was in the 19th because her modern world has not prepared her for survival should society in her modern world break down. In addition she learned how her relationship with her husband strongly reflects the slave/master relationship on levels that she never even acknowledged as existing before her experience in Maryland. In fact, she and Kevin went through a lot of effort to deny the existence of these influences on them when they married by shunning their families and ignoring traditions. Her experiences compounded these things somewhat in her relationship with Kevin because now they must recognize them and deal with them. Thankfully there were no major repercussions from Dana killing Rufus, but the effect of her ordeal will reverberate through Dana's psyche for the rest of her life.
This is the view taken by Salvaggio (1984), who observes that "Butler places her heroines in worlds filled with racial and sexual obstacles, forcing her characters to survive and eventually overcome these societal barriers to their independence. Sometimes her black heroines are paired with white men who challenge their abilities; sometimes they are paired with powerful black men who threaten their very autonomy and existence. And always, the society in
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