Kevin in Kindred

Through our reading of Kindred, the character I am constantly changing my mind about is Kevin.  When Dana is in the hospital at the beginning of the book, I was mostly just interested in reading further in the book to find out how the incident of losing her arm had happened, but I also took notice that Kevin was there comforting her. When Dana starts traveling back in time, however, there were some details in the book that made me a little uneasy about how Kevin would turn out as a character. For instance, her description of his eyes being similar to those of Tom Weylin’s, a very racist and cruel man, seemed like foreshadowing. Similarly, Dana mistaking Kevin for the patroller who beats her, and Kevin then asking her about it seems too specific to just be a random detail. I was also worried about their relationship in 1976 when Kevin became angry that Dana wouldn’t type things for him.

Another thing that makes it easy to doubt Kevin’s character is the amount of control he has over Dana as a result of the situation they are put in when they travel in time. Because of Kevin’s skin color and his role of being Dana’s owner, he has so much control over everything that happens to them. Dana spends a lot of time contemplating how easy it is to accept slavery and how her and Kevin fit into their roles so easily. Because Kevin isn’t in the same role as Dana and doesn’t have to change how he acts as much, it seems much easier for him to just brush off the awful things happening to the slaves. Kevin doesn’t have to change who he is as much. Dana, on the other hand, has to take up the role of a slave and be careful with every word she says, or she might get whipped. For instance, when he expresses excitement about being in a different time period and being able to travel, he does not seem to consider how Dana must feel about being put in a time period where she is treated as less than human. At this point of the book, I was not a big fan of Kevin as a character.

In class, we also talked about how Kevin is not intentionally acting racist or numb to what Dana is feeling, but just doesn’t always articulate things the way he should. When he and Dana discuss the whippings, Kevin, as Dana points out, minimizes the wrong that is being done even though he doesn’t mean to: “One is too many, yes, but still, this place isn’t what I would have imagined. No overseer. No more work than the people can manage…” (100). Even though it’s hard for him to understand Dana’s experience, we see evidence that Kevin isn’t actually racist. He still got into trouble for “not being able to tell the difference between black and white,” and when he remained in 1819 without Dana, he moved to the north where there is more equality. 

Even though I know that there is support in the book for Kevin’s lack of racism, I was again worried when Dana traveled back to 1976 without him. When they were united again, I was curious to see how much he would change and if he would have become more racist as a result of conforming to society. When Kevin and Dana returned home, seeing Kevin’s anger made me anxious, but I was also comforted by the fact that while he was away he had tried to help black people. So, although there are definitely things about his character that I don’t like, I am comforted in knowing that at the end of the book he will be supportive of Dana in the hospital, and I am eager to see Kevin and Dana’s interactions for the rest of the book.

Billy's "Transformation"

Slaughterhouse-5 is very different from most fictional books I read. Usually there is a main character who develops or solves a conflict throughout the story. For the most part of Slaughterhouse-5, this is not the case. In fact, Billy Pilgrim seems to be the opposite what you would expect out of a main character in a war novel. He seems completely neutral about everything, and other people even have to tell him what to do. Really, he is more of a bystander during the war scenes. Part of this could be because of his unique situation of being unstuck in time. You could argue that it’s impossible for him to have any character development, since he already knows everything that will happen in his life. Vonnegut has reasons other than this, making Billy’s detachment dare readers to shrug off all the deaths as well, and seeing the evils of war more clearly.

Despite his typical neutrality, Billy has an experience in chapter 8 that makes him self-conscious about his past. Seeing the  barbershop quartet sing at his wedding anniversary celebration shakes Billy, and he recalls the memory of seeing the four German guards after the bombing of Dresden, standing together with their mouths agape. This realization of past trauma shows more self awareness in Billy than has been shown in the rest of the book. Furthermore, it’s interesting that when he remembers this trauma, he doesn’t travel in time, but stays rooted in the present. This moment is one of Billy’s sanest moments, since he is remembering something that actually happened, rather than taking the choice of traveling in time, which might make the memory seem less realistic to some readers. Realizing the lives lost in the war helps Billy grieve more openly and discuss it with Montana Wildhack. In contrast, earlier in the book Billy was not able to talk about his war experience to his wife on their wedding night. Now, understanding his own experience, he is able to talk about it to others. So, even though Billy is still not the quintessential war hero, he still changes somewhat during Vonnegut’s story.

So I guess the real question is, why does Vonnegut choose to portray Billy this way after making him seem so detached the rest of the novel?