Kindred: Margaret Weylin Anaylsis

   Kinred by Octavia E. Butler, was by far my favorite novel we have read in class so far. Many different things made me like the novel, like the science fiction aspect, the slave narrative aspect, and the fact that the narrator of the story is a woman slave, letting us see first hand what she had to experience in this strange life of hers. Although, what I am choosing to write about is the power that changes characters, in particular, Margaret Weylin.
   Today, everyone is supposed to be treated equally in America, whether is has to do with sex or race or sexual orientation. Although there is definitely pregidous still out there, there is not much and it is not openly accepted. To be in a world where that is not the way things are is some what terrifying. That just because of sex or race, our peers could have power over us is quite ridiculous. That is one of the things that is so interesting about the novel being a female. It shows not just through the narrator, but supporting characters just what some power can really do to a person.
   In the 1800s while slavery was still legal, white people had the power over black people, no questions asked. Something that is not as emphasized, but still relavant in the novel, is the power men have over women. I have chosen to talk about Margaret Weylin because of the effect that being under the power of her husband seems to have on her.
   Due to the fact that Tom Weylin controls his wife Margaret, she seems to take her anger out of the slave women to try to overcompensate for the lose of power in her life. The first time we see this is when Dana comes to the Weylin house and is tortured by Margaret. While Dana some what takes the role of Margarets personal servant, she has her cook, clean, and is never satisfied. She even physically abused her by pouring scalding hot coffee on her. We see she is abusing power when Dana says "I did know how to sweep and dust no matter what century it was. Margaret Weylin complained because she couldnt find anything to complain about" (Butler, 81). This quote shows that she just feels a need to be mean try and salvage some sort of power over these women.
   Another woman that takes the lash of Margarets furry is Sarah, the head cookhouse slave. Margaret seems to take a liking of bringing specific agony to Sarah, as we find out in the novel. Sarah did have other children besides Carrie, but they were all sold. To show dominance of her, Margaret convinced her husband to sell her children. Sarah says she sold them because "she wanted new furniture, new china dishes, fancy things you see in the house" (Butler, 95). Destructing the family Sarah had created was the worst way to break the woman and show her exactly what she could do to her.
   Not only does she take her fury and frustration out on the women slaves, she takes it out on the children of the affairs that Tom Weylin has. Kevin and Dana can easily see reseemabance in the children, obviously telling of Tom's affairs. Margaret Weylin can't do much about the unfaithfulness, seeing that divorces were rare during the time. So, she takes her anger out on the children. Dana describes as following: "I'd seen Margaret Weylin slap one of them hard across the face. The child had done nothing more than toddle into her path" (Butler, 85). Her inablity to control her husbands behavior makes her focus on hurting others to prove her worth and power.
   Margarets abusive behavior shows because of her lack of power in her personal relationship with her husband really emphasizes the struggles women went through in the past. Not that Margaret suffered anywhere close to how the slaves suffered, but we do see womens oppression. So, I think that the novel not only gives insight to slaves, but to womens struggles as well.