Sunday, September 6, 2015

Marriage in 1815 vs. marriage in 1975

As I read along the chapters of Kindred, it has become obvious that marriage is a different subject depending on what time period you live in. In present time, Dana and Kevin are an interracial couple who seems to be content with their marriage. It is expected for their marriage to not be completely accepted during this time period(1975), which was mentioned in the chapter, The Fight, when it was said that Dana's uncle was hurt by Dana's decision to marry a white man. It also struck me that instead of getting a typical marriage in a church, it has been said in the chapter that Dana and Kevin married in Las Vegas. Personally, a Las Vegas wedding makes it seem they are eloping, due to the lack of support they have received from both sides of the family.

Meanwhile, in 1815, a marriage between a white man and a black women is not only discriminated, but it is illegal. Because of that, Dana and Kevin has to pretend like they are not married during this time period. This only portrays that not only is marriage discriminated in 1815, but a marriage is also treated as if the man owns the woman, similar to slavery. The influence of the circumstance Dana and Kevin are in, it seems like the equality that marriage is supposed to have slowly diminishes as they continue to live in this time period.

1 comment:

  1. What makes you think that the equality in the marriage of Dana and Kevin diminishes slowly as they live in the 19th century? For me, personally, it began back when Kevin first tried to explain to Rufus that he owned Dana "in a way." I was torn when I first read this between making an excuse for Kevin and saying that he was just trying to get Rufus to understand his marriage using any framework he could and viewing it as evidence that Kevin, a white man, doesn't actually see his wife, a black woman, as his equal. I definitely continued to have conflicted feelings about this as I read the rest of the book. Just my thoughts!

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