Compare Rufus and his dad. Is Rufus an improvement over his father? How is Dana's influence evident on the adult Rufus?

In 's
historical time-travel novel , the two characters Rufus Weylin, and his
father Tom Weylin, are white slave owners in the antebellum South. The , Dana, a black woman
from the 1970s, is summoned back in time to the Weylin plantation in order to save Rufus' life
multiple times. Rufus will then go on to impregnate Alice, whose child will be the next step in
Dana's bloodline.

Dana is called back to save Rufus numerous times over the
course of his childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, and as she gets to know him and forms a
relationship with him, she tries very hard to impart on him a sense of morality and equity.
While there are glimpses of Dana's influence on him, Rufus is steeped in the social mores of his
time and goes long periods without seeing or interacting with her. He ends up taking on not just
the responsibilities of his father as owner of the plantation and its slaves, but also many of
the learned racist customs of slave culture. By the end
of...