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Violence is generally viewed as destructive and toxic by contemporary…

- - - - "Tom Weylin had probably marked his son more than he knew with that whip" (Butler 39). Here, Dana inquires that Rufus's father, Tom, frequently whipped Rufus whenever he did something Tom didn't approve of. Over time, however, the frequent whippings taught Rufus that violence is an natural response when faced with a situation in which he does not get what he wants.
        
        Quote with Rufus burning down stable/curtains
        
        Consequently, the whippings had taken a toll on Rufus's perception of violence. Dana, reacting to Rufus's vindictive thoughts and actions against his dad, wondered that "The boy already knew more about revenge than I did. What kind of man was he going to grow up into?" (Butler 25-26). Here, Dana implies the heightened intensity of Rufus's violence (that emerges later on in the text) by recognizing that Rufus's upbringing had already poisoned him with violence-centered mindset at a very young age. Whenever something doesn't go his way, Rufus becomes more accustomed to responding with violence to make sure he gets his way.
        
        Later on in the text, when Rufus becomes the master of the slaves on the Weylin plantation, Dana's prediction is shown to be correct. Rufus, while trying to justify his attempt at raping Alice, exclaimed to Dana that he "wouldn't have hurt her [Alice] if she hadn't just kept saying no" (Butler, 123). Here, Rufus states that the only reason he hurt Alice was that she was not complying when he wanted to have sex with her. Rufus repeatedly uses violence against Alice to fulfill his sexual desires by raping and abusing her, instead of opting to build a more mutual relationship when he had the opportunity to do so. And when Alice denies him consent, Rufus immediately resorts to using violence against her to get what he wants. The fact that Rufus became more and more violent as he grew up highlights the idea that his upbringing was the origin of such malevolence. And if Rufus got the chance to have his kids, his violence would influence his kids' behavior the same way Tom's violence influenced Rufus's behavior, effectively normalizing violence, and therefore slavery, for many generations to come.
        
        NL "I asked her where you went […] and she got mad and said she didn't know. I asked her again later, and she hit me. And she never hits me." (2.2.51)
        Rufus' mother has never hit him before, but there's something about watching Dana disappear that makes her so uncomfortable she has no other way of expressing herself. This detail just goes to show that people tend to react violently whenever they're confronted with something they don't understand.
        
        UNUSED: Tom Weylin's abuse towards Rufus instilled the idea that the use of violence is justified to pursue your goals. Rufus's early exposure to violent behavior will eventually lead up to him developing violent behavior as he grows up.
    - - The inclusion of gender violence, namely the use of violence by men to control or abuse women, is significant because it physically shows the severity of the consequences of power differences between men and women by juxtaposing gender disparities in 1976 to that of the Antebellum Era.
        
        Why do those in the Antebellum South parcitipate in gender violence? Just like violence towards the enslaved, men's use of violence towards women is justified in Antebellum society, and the upbringing of children in this environment numbs them to gender-based violence. This numbing process is seen through Rufus in the text.
        
        Similarly to Margaret, Tom Weylin also played a siginificant role in raising Rufus to be numb to gender-based violence. Dana contemplated that "He [Rufus] had spent his life watching his father ignore, even sell the children he had had with black women. (Butler 231).
        Here, Dana notes that Tom Weylin often used black women to satisy his sexual desires, and then sell the kids off for profit as if they were all objects. This proves that much of Rufus's tendency to view black women as inferiors stems from his early childhood exposure to his father's behavior. Rufus has spent much of his childhood watching Tom Weylin exercising his power and violence onto black women in order to get what he wanted from them, ultimately driving Rufus to normalize the act of using of violence against women for extortion.
        
        Dana, ruminating on Rufus's apology-seeking behavior, inquired that she "remembered suddenly the way he [Rufus] used to talk to his mother. If he couldn't get what he wanted from her gently, he stopped being gentle. Why not? She always forgave him. (Butler 217)."
        In this quote, Dana recalls how Rufus's mother's passive response towards Rufus's negative behavior correlates to how Rufus grew up to be remorselessly violent, especially towards women. To Rufus, Margaret's passiveness signaled to him that acting out when he couldn't get what he wanted from her is acceptable. By doing this, Margaret has unintentionally taught Rufus that a woman will give him whatever he wants and forgive him immediately when he's cruel to them, contributing to Rufus growing up to not respecting women.
        
        Both of these scenarios show how the behavior of Rufus's parents played a major role in fostering the development of Rufus's lack of respect for women. This cycle of numbing children to the objectification of women keeps gender violence justified in the Antebellum South.
        
        Instances of gender violence
  - - - The whipping served its purpose as far as i was concerned. It scared me, made me wonder how long it would be before I made a mistake that would give me a reason to whip me”(92). As Dana is concerned to be whipped, it keeps her in line and hardworking.
  - - - The inclusion of gender violence, namely the use of violence by men to control or abuse women, is significant because it physically represents the power differences between men and women not only in the Antebellum Era, but also in 1976. (by juxtaposing gender disparities in 1976 to that of the Antebellum Era.)
        
        He had spent his life watching his father ignore, even sell the children he had had with black women. (5.11.26)
        It's no wonder Rufus doesn't respect black women. He's spent his entire life watching a father who has children with black women and sells them off for a profit as though they were investments instead of people.