Kevin

Kevin is a vital support system for Dana throughout the book. She constantly mentions him and wishes she could be with him -- not only for comfort but for protection too. When Dana and Kevin are separated and Kevin is left behind in 1819 with no way of getting home, we barely get any insight into how five years away from his home time affected him. I simply don't think the book focused on his experience enough. Five years is not a measly time to be (unwillingly) separated from everything you know. I know Dana is the main protagonist and the narrator of the book, but we got a total of three pages to see how Kevin changed. Spending five years as a white man during slavery is certainly not the worst position to be in, but it's still a drastic change for Kevin to experience completely alone. Plus, Dana voiced her concerns about Kevin getting stuck without her so I'm surprised that Dana didn't show more concern for him or try to understand what happened. Given the support Kevin provided to Dana at every point in the book (even if it wasn't great at times), I would have expected more from her in return. I understand their experiences are completely different, but I wish we could have seen more of Kevin after his five years. Kevin got a somewhat bad reputation from our class, but I think Dana deserves some blame for not supporting him almost at all after he arrived back. It's not her fault he got left behind and it's not her fault he was upset when he got back, but I would be slightly more concerned in that situation than she seemed to be.

Comments

  1. TeoApril 26, 2022 at 11:11 AM

    I think that despite the fact that almost none of us trusted Kevin to stay as strong as he did, he pulled through even stronger than Dana did. However, I can see why Dana didn't have the energy to give Kevin more in return for his efforts because of how draining her experience was at the plantation. Nice job!

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  2. FarahMay 9, 2022 at 10:01 AM

    This is interesting, I also wish that we had gotten a better perspective of how Kevin had changed. We got the insight that he fared batter than Dana had initially feared, as he even started rescuing and freeing slaves at great risk to himself, and kept all of his morals. But I'm sure that more changed about him than the reader got to see, which is a little disappointing. Great post!

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  3. AnuprovaMay 16, 2022 at 8:24 AM

    After Dana returns back to the present day, we see that Kevin is doing alright so it is safe to assume that his experiences in the past did not change his character in a major way. In the beginning of the book, it was hinted that Kevin might be influenced by the environment as a white man and become more like Rufus. It is a relief to see that Kevin still seems to be the same after his return. I agree that I would have liked to see more about how Kevin spent his 5 years and learn about how he managed to keep his morals despite the unusual circumstances. Awesome job!

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  4. Tracy LiMay 20, 2022 at 5:02 PM

    Good point -- I think that we all wanted a little more insight onto what happened to Kevin. I was so sure, after lots of foreshadowing about how living in the past would twist Kevin's personality, that the endgame would have something to do with Kevin maybe even turning on Dana. Unfortunately, things went in a completely different direction (or same, just with a different character going bad) and I wonder what Butler would have planned for Kevin.

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