Alice and Dana

Alice and Dana are an experiment in time: The same "substance" is placed in two different time periods and produce as many similarities as there are differences between them. Dana and Alice both come into slavery after being free, Rufus obsesses, controls, and loves both of them, they look the same, and they both stubbornly try to protect their dignity. However, Dana and Alice grew up and lived in separate times which obviously shaped them both as people. The fundamental things are the same between them, but the environments that they were exposed to affected and changed those "default" characteristics. Dana and Alice are the same, but the circumstances of the times gave Dana literacy and basic freedoms that the 1970's allowed, while Alice was forced into illiteracy and violent denial of her human freedoms by her time period. The novel suggests that if Dana lived in Alice's time, she would be almost identical to Alice and if Alice lived when Dana did, then she would be almost identical to Dana.

When Dana finds herself thrown into Alice's time, the similarities between them are present, but minimal. As time goes by when Dana is in the past, she begins to let go of her 1970's self and starts to adapt to her environment, becoming more and more like Alice. They both have some form of control over Rufus, while he still has a more overbearing control over them. Their approaches to his mastery is different, but not by much. Alice gives in to Rufus' demands to preserve herself and her family from being sold, beaten, or otherwise abused. Dana gives in to Rufus' demands to preserve herself and her family, because without Rufus, both she and her family would not exist.

An interesting section to read to develop this idea further can be found on pages 156-157:
In this excerpt, Alice has been beaten to the point of short-term amnesia. Dana had been cleaning her wounds and taking care of her while she was hurt, so she was there when Alice woke up. The part of this excerpt that resonates most is when Alice asks Dana, "What's it like to be a slave?" and Dana's response is, "I don't know. I wonder how Carrie is doing--in all that pain and not even able to scream." Alice replies, "How could you not know what it's like to be a slave. You are one."
What Alice, and some readers, don't recognize is that Dana answers Alice's question: that she is in all that pain and not even able to scream.
Back to my original point though, this dialogue could have been switched so that Dana was asking Alice what it's like to be a slave. The interchangeability of the two is alarming. That's all I've got developed so far. I'll revisit this blog later. :)