Dana's roles in Kindred

As Dana travel back in time in Kindred, the roles she has to fulfill, whether they are done unconsciously or consciously, gradually add up due to the fact she is far more knowledgeable compared to the people during this time period. Throughout the book, Dana play many roles including a slave (even though she is a free woman), a cook, a counselor, but most importantly a healer and a friend of Alice.

When Dana travels back in time, she found herself in a forest where she sees Rufus in a near death experience (shocker), fighting a black man, who we shortly found out was Alice's husband, Isaac. Dana then noticed that Alice was raped by Rufus, hence why Isaac wants to kill Rufus. After Dana convinced Isaac not to kill Rufus, Alice and Isaac took off, while Dana waits for Rufus to gain consciousness. After five days, Isaac and Alice were found and separated, and Alice was bought by Rufus, which makes her a slave. Alice is in horrible condition, with many wounds due to the fact she was attacked by dogs and beaten brutally. Because of this Dana has to play a role of a healer because at that time slaves were not allowed to be treated by a doctor. Dana cleaned her wounds and bandaged her, and basically took care of her until she started walking again. I don't think Dana is aware of how she is playing this role of a doctor/ a healer. Due to the fact Alice is dying, and cannot be treated by a doctor, Dana knows that she is the only one smart enough to actually save Alice, so in a way she felt responsible to do this. However, she can also be playing this role consciously because she knows that if she does not save Alice, then she will never be alive in the future.

Since Alice belongs to Rufus now, Dana and Alice interacts with each other a lot more now. After Alice's health improved, Rufus asked Dana to help him to convince Alice to sleep with him. Although Dana rejected him at first, she eventually gave in and decided to talk to Alice. Although Dana seemed like a traitor to Alice, I do believe that she was also being a friend to Alice because she was watching out for her well being. If Alice did not agree to sleep with Rufus, Rufus would have whipped her until she agreed, or Alice could have ran away, but would have gotten caught just to be brutally punished. Dana did not tell Alice what to do, but she showed Alice that this was a better option than resisting. I do believe that Dana was playing this role consciously, Dana knew that she had to get Alice to agree to Rufus's term not only for Alice's well being, but also for Dana's own well being. If Alice does not sleep with Rufus, Rufus will make both of their lives miserable, and most importantly, if Rufus and Alice does not conceive a child, Dana would have never been born in the future.