The second half of The Fight was a fairly traumatic read. Dana experiences a million emotions and events that are unfathomable. The first part of the reading dives straight into the relations between Alice and Rufus. We see complications arise with Rufus especially during the conversations about this particular relationship. Rufus displays his potential to be cruel and selfish when he explains to Dana that he would wait for Alice to recover before anything more happened. They go back and forth on the matter and Rufus replies, ““Don’t look at me like that,”... “I wouldn’t bother her. It would be like hurting a baby.” Later it would be like hurting a woman. I suspected that wouldn’t bother him at all”(Butler 153). Rufus shows a shred of humanity by suggesting that he will not approach Alice in any manner until she is healthy, yet that is immediately stripped of him when he implies that once she is healed she has no say in what happens to her. I find Rufus’s behavior towards Alice particularly disturbing because it is all done in the name of love, when in reality it is a compulsive need for him to be in control. If Rufus truly loved Alice the way he claims to, both of their lives would look very very different.
Throughout the chapter we also feel an intense feeling of fear in all aspects of the storyline. Dana not only experiences fear for herself, but also for others as she continues to display her empathetic and kind nature. Towards the end of The Fight though we see Dana’s patience wearing thin as she contemplates killing Rufus if she has to in order to survive because he has turned violent on her. I think we have finally reached the point in the story where Dana is faced with a choice to continue supporting her cruel white ancestor and his endeavors or attempt to save his soul and teach him that his actions have severe consequences for others.
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