Alice’s Suicide: Her only Way to Freedom
Alice’s Suicide: Her only Way to Freedom
Alice’s Suicide: Her Only Way to Freedom
The Book Kindred, written by Octavia E. Butler, is full of scenes where power, submission and pain are seen throughout its pages. The scene that by far shocked me the most was when Dana discovered that Alice had committed suicide. The whole situation is an act of desperation where a woman has lost the inspiration of her life with nothing to live for.
The scene started when Dana walked into the barn where once she had been whipped. She tried to get used to the darkness. After a few seconds, she saw someone hanging by the neck. The person hanging was Alice. Dana looked at her and touched her not believing what she was seeing. She looked at Alice’s dress, shoes and hair. Dana thought that Alice had dressed up for her death. Dana cut the rope to take her down. Rufus finally walked in. He did not want to look at Dana. Dana asked Rufus if she did it that to herself and he answered yes. Then, Dana asked him for the reason but she did not get an answer. She desired to ask about Alice’s children. Rufus moved his head and walked out of the bard.
Dana later discovered that Rufus had told Alice that he had sold Alice’s children. She also discovered that everything was a lie. Rufus used the idea of the children’s sale as a way to manipulate Alice. This time everyone, including Alice, believed that he had sold them.
This scene gives a mix of emotions: sadness and happiness. It made me sad to know that those children would grow without the love and the protection of a mother. Alice was a woman who was willing to give or do anything for the joy and the freedom of her children. She was a mother whose children had become her hope and her motivation to live. On the other hand, the scene made me happy because Alice’s suicide act was her only way to escape from a man who was sickly in love with her. That man sexually abused and insulted her and had the power to do anything he wanted with her. She was once a free woman and then brought back to slavery. At one time she was in love but her husband was captured, abused and sold. A rope on her neck is the only trail that she could follow to the freedom previously tasted. Moreover, Dana tried to cut her veins once. She felt miss treated, abused and humiliated. Of course, she cut herself because she knew it could bring her to the present or I would say, her way of ending the pain that she felt. Both women were in different situation