Rufe

It's very hard to say whether I like Rufus or not. When he was younger and more innocent I found myself liking him a lot. He seemed like an intelligent boy who had a silent strength about him who wasn't threatened by having Dana suddenly appear in his bedroom. He treated her with respect despite his upbringing which would give him no reason to respect Dana, even though she is his senior. Even his use of the n-word is arguably excused by his ignorance, though to his credit he does follow Dana's request to call them black people instead. One couldn't help but hope along with Dana that maybe Rufus will turn out different than his father.

When Dana  says "And there was Rufus, swung from his father's indifference to his mother's sugary concern. I wondered whether he was too used to the contrast to find it dizzying." (Butler, 69) I couldn't help but see a similar comparison to Hitler's childhood. Apparently he too had a very strict and abusive father and an overbearing mother who smothered him with affection. I don't think because of the dynamic he has with his parents that Rufus will grow up as messed up as Hitler, but you can certainly see how swinging from being severely punished by his father to hugged and fed cake by his mother can be emotionally confusing.

Then flash forward ten years. We see Rufus getting beaten for trying to/succeeding in raping Alice, yet claiming to love her. But then we see him joking around with Nigel and appearing kinder and more humane than Tom Weylin was. The swings Rufus can go from are about as dizzying as his parents swings. However, Rufus still realizes that the culture he lives him allows him to do whatever he wants to black people with no repercussions, and he takes advantage of it when he gets desperate and feels he needs to that he will threaten Alice and even Dana. Of course, we as the reader may not agree that he actually "needs" to. It doesn't excuse his actions in the slightest, but you out someone in power in a culture like that and you can't be surprised if every now and then they use that power to their full advantage. It really makes you wonder if/how people we know would change if they were put in a culture like the antebellum south.