This has been on my mind for a while but is it just me or are some of y’all also bothered with how the novel ended?! Dana is a mysterious character. She doesn’t control her time travel, but she does control whether or not she actually saves Rufus when she gets there. Dana chooses to save Rufus every time she gets pulled into the early 1800s, she even goes out of her way to pack a bag with modern medicine to bring with her when she’s brought to Rufus. Granted, the first two times when Dana met Rufus, when he was drowning and later when he set the curtains on fire, she saved him without knowing who he was, but after that it was her choice. It’s weird how she’d spend so much time (months in the 1800s world) caring and tending to Rufus, and then just take his life at the end.
I know Rufus was no angel, but did he really deserve to die? Although Dana was only there for a fraction of his life, she was there during the most traumatic/memorable times, when Rufus was on the verge of death, and she must’ve influenced him a bit. Nevertheless, she gave up on him at the end. I know she was staying around because she needed to ensure Hagar was born (also it wasn’t her choice how long she stayed), but she must’ve developed an emotional attachment to Rufus. Throughout her time, Dana taught Rufus to be kinder and and how to act less like the stereotypical white slave owner. Dana killing Rufus at the end took me by shock because she seemed to truly care about him, at least she tried to really change and better him, which is why I’m thinking was her kind attitude towards Rufus all an act? Like did she stay around just to make sure Alice and Rufus get together and have Hagar, or did she really care about how Rufus is as a person?
Another side to this is yes, Dana killing Rufus is justifiable. He continuously (emotionally) abused her and took advantage of the fact that she was black, and with any other slave owner she’d be treated like any other slave, working on the field or in the house. Another big thing is that Rufus never mailed her letters to Kevin, and if it weren’t for Tom Weylin actually keeping his word to slaves, she probably wouldn’t have found Kevin and brought him back home. I think that instance really made Rufus lose Dana’s trust, because she realized that at the core maybe he’s just as bad as any other slave owner. Also, Dana maybe thought that the only way to break her connection to the 1800s was to kill Rufus, and she already got enough scars and injuries for her to handle. Either way, the ending of this novel has been on my mind and I really want to know y’alls opinions, do you think Dana is justified in murdering Rufus?
