The 2 main relationships throughout the novel are those between Dana and Kevin and Rufus and Alice. Although Rufus tries to compare them they are very different.
The relationship between Dana and Kevin is very loving and caring. Dana feels that she needs Kevin, it appears that he feels the same way about her. Even after they are separated for what to Kevin is years and for Dana is days all they can think about it each other. Well at least we know this about Dana. She worries about Kevin almost the entire time that she is not with him. Kevin while separated from Dana stays true to her and does not forget her, even after 6 years.
Their relationship may have its flaws but over all it is very good. They have the occasional tension due to their racial and cultural differences, but they don't let that get to them very much. Dana fears that Kevin will be changed by the 19th century and many times she compares him Tom Weylin, but she still loves him all the same. Even when he seems to be changing and they have their disagreements, such as when they see the children playing, and Kevin seems to think that it is just normal, but for Dana she is concerned to see children playing at such real atrocities such as "slave market" that she herself fears and finds revolting.
On the other hand, the relationship between Rufus and Alice is terrible. It is built and founded purely on desire and abuse. Rufus says that he loves Alice, but he has a very funny way of showing it. He rapes her numerous times, and takes her away from the man she really loves. Alice does not choose to love Rufus, nor does she ever really love him she wishes him death numerous times. Yet Alice must act as though she loves him, in acts of submission, because Rufus owns her. And that fact makes it further more difficult for Alice to love Rufus. How can one love someone that they are forced to love?? Is it not a natural reaction to reject things forced upon us?
Rufus tries to compare his love for Alice to the love that Dana has for Kevin, but the only real similarity is that they are both interracial relationships. Rufus and Dana both love people who are from a different worlds than their own, but in the case of Dana the love is reciprocated.
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