Extended in Class Arm Comments

So in class we were asked to comment on Dana losing her arm and I wanted to continue my thoughts from my notebook.

The arm presents a weird correlation, is it the arm she lost the one she used to stab Rufus? Maybe she lost that arm because it was the one that finally ended her "job" of keeping Rufus away from death. Every time Dana gets home it's because she fears for her life; I think many of the reasons she has feared are caused by Rufus. While there may not be a direct correlation, like him being the one about to hurt her or doing something so extreme as to drive Dana to suicide, if nothing else we can link her fear of death to being transported back in time in the first place which Rufus causes. My thinking is, if Rufus causes her fear of death, but he's dead, maybe she had to pay an alternative price (a physical one instead of a mental one that could cause trauma).

This theory does read a lot into the writing, but the point was also brought up that she lost her arm from wear Rufus grabbed her, down. It's a really interesting point that I can't believe I overlooked. In his last moments Rufus's clingy-ness and desperation not to be alone took more freedom from Dana. In his own time Rufus was able to steal her agency by emotionally manipulating her and reminding her of their co-dependence-- basically, much of his abuse is mental. However, in the end Rufus's desperation reaches new heights and he finally stoops to truly stealing her physical agency. Yes, he had had her whipped before and beaten, but I believe all of those instances had mental undertones. When he chooses to try to replace Alice with her and grabs her arm as she travels back (which I'm going to assume is the reason she lost it) he stoops to the level he treats the slaves with. He stoops to physical manipulation, which is the last shred of freedom she has in the past.