Mandisa

Analysis

  • Mother of three
  • narrator of the story
  • Mandisa's childhood is necessary in understanding Mxolisi's life and circumstances
  • representation of the theme of guilt
  • provides insight into the role of motherhood during the time in Africa

Creating Sympathy

  • Mandisa is victimized by her son's actions and labeled the mother of a murderer, as if she is to be held partially responsible for Amy's death.
  • "people look at me as though i did it. As though i made him do it"
  • "But I am a mother, with a mother's heart. The cup you have given me is too bitter to swallow.The shame. THe hurt of the other mother. The young women whose tender life was cut so cruelly short"
  • A sympathetic tone can also be drawn by the sense of helplessness Mandisa must face as a mother

Real Life Connection

  • estimated that around 222 million women in third world countries are affected by limited access to contraception due to factors like sexism, religion, culture, and qualith of health care avaliable.
  • Egypt, 94% of married women have undergone female genital mutilation
  • Mandisa's struggles represents the struggles of millions of women who also faced sexism and discrimination in their societies

The Police Force

Analysis

  • The police force acts as a symbol of corruption in the novel
  • Police are usually seen as figures of safety and security, but in the novel they are figures of authority that are feared by the citizens
  • The police force shows the reader the mistreatment of the blck citizens in novel which helps in developing the plot

Creating Sympathy

  • Brutality of the corrupted police force that instils fear in the innocent
  • Police raid in Mandisa's house during the search for her son Mxolisi
  • Police as impatient ruthless, unforgiving and corrupted

Real Life Connection

  • Police Brutality-- riots and conflicts seen in Baltimore and Ferguson
  • occurred because institutions that were supposed to be protecting the people had failed and the public felt that they had no other option left for their voices to be heard
  • Relates to the book because Amy Biehl was killed in a riot started on similar grounds; the black population felt angered and frustrated with the dicriminatory laws imposed by the government and felt the need to stand up for themselves

Mxolisi

Analysis

  • Mxolisi shows the reader how one can become a product of their environmnet
  • His childhood is seen to play a role in his current character
  • As a child, he asked where his father was constantly repeating tata as he played, which showed his sense of wanting a father figure. Without expressing these emotions, he seeks guidance in wrong influences that lead to his violent outburst

Creating Sympathy

  • We are shown through the suffering, helpless eyes of a mother; the ruthless, society her son grew up in.
  • Mandisa describes the hatred that the youth of South African Learned to harbor, and develop from a young age.
  • "For that is what he had become at the time when he killed your daughter. My son was only an agent, executing the long-simmering dark desires of his race. Burned hatred for the oppressor possessed his eyes; walked with his feet and wielded the knife that tore mercilessily into her flesh. The resentment of three hundred years plugged his ears; deaf to her pitful entreales"
  • Did any of you find yourselves sympathizing with Mxolisi, and if so, why?

Real life Connection

  • Mxolisi's murder of Amy Biehl would be commonly referred to reverse racism
  • In 2013 in Washington, D.C, there was surge in race-based crimes due to increasing feelings of discrimination against blacks
  • 18 hate crimes, 13 of them were done by black suspects
  • Therefore it shown that Mxolisi's behaviour is not unique to his story but a commonly response that occurs when a group of people feel they are being unfairly disavantaged
back