Rufus

I HATE RUFUS. No really, I do. Never, not once, in the entire book have I felt even an ounce of sympathy for Rufus' character. Okay, maybe that's a little harsh. When he was a little boy drowning in the river, or maybe when he set the curtains on fire, I felt for him because he was little and cute. When he was Alice's friend he was okay, too, but when he grows up I wish I could stop knowing him as a character.

I know he's just a victim of his time, and that there were probably guys way worse than him, and that by making him monstrous, Butler is showing us how the system corrupts everyone, even the people who you think are going to be good. But I hate him, I hate everything he does. To quote Nikita, reading about the things Rufus does is like "an affront to my humanity." I just can't stand it. Is it because I'm a woman? Is it because I feel some gender based connection to these characters as Rufus tries to rape them or beat them, or even simply justify their beatings? Maybe it's all the political heat around issues concerning women these days that is making me so sensitive, but I don't care. He makes me sick.

In a way, it makes me hate Dana a little bit, too. Perhaps it's just me being a reader, looking at the situation from the safety of my couch, just thinking, "If that was me, he'd be dead in a second," even if it wasn't really true. But so what? It makes me hate her, the way she puts up with him, the way she was willing to "forgive him even this," at the end of the book, the way she sees herself starting to mold into the time and accept human atrocities and be a victim of them herself like it's no big deal.

Anyway, back to Rufus. He's just a child in a man's body. Maybe that's the point of the antebellum system -- he never really matures, because if he had matured, maybe he would have seen he flaws. You can sort of see him start to mature when he finally allows Joe to call him daddy, but that's far too late in the game for him to get any sort of forgiveness out of me.

He's pathetic -- all slave owners were, and don't tell me that's why I should sympathize with him, because he's a victim, and he's trying, and he's not as bad as he could be, save it, please! I don't agree. I don't think, in anyway, I could sympathize for Rufus ever. Pity him, maybe on a good day. But sympathy? Never.