What distinguishes Rufus, Dana, and Kevin's relationships in Kindred?

Well, the most fundamental difference is that Dana (and then eventually Kevin) travels through time. This means that her interaction with each of the men is interrupted by markedly non-standard means. (In other words, she vanishes.) This means that they wonder about her, and that she skips forward in their history, understanding things with new perspective. Simply being from another time provides another fundamental difference. She must see things differently, because she is not of that time. On a more symbolic level, they are all bound together, by fate, in ways that other people are not. That means their interactions are more meaningful.

What connections are made between Dana and Alice, Rufus and Kevin, or Rufus and Nigel in Kindred?

Kindred is situated in two different, broad time periods of the twentieth and nineteenth centuries, and it also jumps around among different points in the nineteenth-century setting. Dana, the African American female protagonist, had initially only known her life in modern times, but she finds herself experiencing episodes more than one hundred years earlier. Each time she is transported back, she cannot predict the point of her arrival.

Dana remains an adult in her twenties when she enters the pre–Civil War environments. Alice is an enslaved African American woman who lives in that earlier era. Their relationship is crucial, because Alice will become Dana’s ancestor. While Dana genuinely struggles to empathize with the dilemmas of enslaved women and physically aids and nurtures Alice, her perspective is also problematically self-involved, because of her stake in Alice’s survival. Although Alice lives long enough to bear her child with Rufus, she can envision escape only through death.

Rufus ages throughout Dana’s visits and as an adult has problematic relationships with both Dana and her modern husband, Kevin, who is white. Rufus reluctantly accepts that Dana and Kevin come from the future but cannot comprehend the changes. Kevin, however, must come to terms with his privilege and liberty as a white man and even pretend to place himself in an equal status to Rufus as a fellow slaveholder.

The young Rufus is allowed to play with an enslaved African American boy, Nigel. Their playing together when Rufus broke his leg brought Nigel into contact with Dana. Her influence includes teaching Nigel to read, which was forbidden; this in turn helps him envision a different future for himself and his family. The boys grow apart as adults, reducing Nigel’s influence on Rufus and ultimately swaying him to cover up Dana’s fatal actions.

What similarities exist between Dana's relationships with Rufus and Kevin in "Kindred"?

The similarities between Dana's relationships with Kevin and Rufus are surprisingly many.  Both are white men in love with her, and in the early nineteenth century they are both her protectors by virtue of their sex and race.  Dana depends on each of them at different times.  She relies on Rufus to orient her in the world of the past where she is so abruptly thrust, and of Kevin she says, "He was my anchor here in my own time" (Rope 2).

Although Dana depends on both Kevin and Rufus, each of them abandon her at one time or another.  Rufus allows his father to beat her, and sends her out to slave in the fields when he is angry, and Kevin, traumatized by his experience in the past, leaves Dana to return again on her own.  Both men in turn have a deep need for Dana.  Kevin says, "Just keep coming home...I need you here" (Fire 6), and Rufus pleads in desperation, "What am I going to do when you go home?" (Rope 4).

Rufus and Kevin are both white males, and there are things about Dana as a member of an oppressed race that are beyond their grasp.  Kevin does not comprehend that in the context of slavery Dana's strongest reason for denying Rufus as a lover is because she will not allow herself to be treated as property.  Rufus does not understand that Dana, even if circumstances were different, "could accept him as (her) ancestor...brother...friend, but not as (her) master, and not as (her) lover" (Rope 4).

What similarities exist between Dana's relationships with Rufus and Kevin in "Kindred"?

Dana cares about both Kevin and Rufus, even though she grows to fear what Rufus is becoming.

Kevin is Dana’s husband, and Rufus is the boy that keeps dragging her back to the past whenever his life is in danger.  Dana and Kevin have a closeness that comes from understanding time travel.

We didn’t seem to have to grow back into each other.  The separations hadn’t been good for us, but they hadn’t hurt us much either.  It was easy for us to be together, knowing we shared experiences no one else would believe. (“The Rope”, 2, p. 243)

 In some ways, this is true of Dana and Rufus as well.  Rufus is one of the few people that really knows about and understands Dana’s situation. He knows about the time travel, and even comes to understand the connection between his life being in danger and pulling her from the future.  He sees a vision of her in the future, but does not go to the future.