Gordimer’s “Country Lovers” and Smith’s “What it’s like to be a Black Girl” have been one of the most interesting and studied literary works. Though developed in different centuries and cultural settings, the two literatures gave insiders’ view on the racial discriminations that were dominantly manifest in ancient societies. In Godimer’s short story, a detailed insider’s view is narrated of a black young girl and a white young boy characters who traced their origins to different backgrounds. Gordimer carefully followed and narrated the events and actions that characterized the strong relationships that existed between these two lovers to depict the racial and social boundaries that were evident in the ancient ‘Apartheid’ South Africa. On the other hand, Patricia Smith traced the difficulties that were encountered by the black people in the ancient American societies.
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In addressing the ethnicity or race topic as highlighted above, the two authors spiced up their literary works by applying a host of stylistic devices most of which were unlimited to the following: structure, style, form, content and irony. It is from the rich use of these devices that the author found enough reasons to initiate the following comparative and argumentative analysis of these two works that covered a similar key theme of ethnicity.
To start with, it should be distinguished that Gordimer’s work was a short story that addressed the racial discrimination that was eminent in the South African ‘Apartheid’ regime. On the other hand, Patricia Smith made use of poetry to communicate her ideas to her audience.
Likewise, the author clearly established that the times and cultural backgrounds associated with the setting of these literature works were greatly varying. Gorder’s “Country Lovers” traced its origin in 1975 to a South African farm owned by a white settler (Godimer, 1975, p.332). It is from this farm that the white farmer’s son; Paulus Eysendyck, finds the opportunity to develop a close friendship that later on developed into a ‘sour’ love relationship with a young African girl called Thebedi-who was a casual laborer on this farm. In contrast, Patricia Smith’s story traces its setting in the USA in the period around 1955. It is around this period that the young girl in her poem came face to face with the racism that existed in some sections of the American society, especially in regions where sparsely populated immigrants called their ‘home’.
The context surrounding the setting of these works is also a matter of discussion. In setting up her story, Nadime Gordimer had been motivated by the happenings that were happening in her home country, South Africa. The country had been colonized by the Dutch, who had in in-turn introduced an oppressive leadership style that was locally and commonly referred to as the ‘Apartheid’ (Holcombe, 2008). This system of government had allowed the local South Africans to be exploited, terrorized and segregated. In addition to Africans, Asians and other ‘mixed races’ races were also oppressed by the regime. In oppressing the mentioned races, the Dutch whites would make them to work at low salaries on their expansive farms. As Ray (2007) noted, Gordimer “examines the complexity of white privilege, inviting us to see how weak the liberal response to ‘Apartheid’ was (p.213). It is from the described context that Nadime found it useful to develop her short story. However, Patricia’s case shows some similarities in the context surrounding its setting. The period surrounding 1950’s had been majorly characterized by ‘non-American’ immigrants settling in different regions of the country, albeit for different reasons. Amongst some of the reasons highlighted for their immigration was the need to pursue ‘The American Dream’ and the need to secure their lives from the political upheavals and instabilities that were eminent in their states. In their efforts to settle in foreign American territory, these immigrants had encountered increased cases of racial discrimination. It is from this context that Smith found enough evidence to write her poem of a black young girl who was forced to overcome the much discrimination acts directed towards her; from the pure whites and other mixed races (Wolf et al., 2010, p.234).
In the structures of their setting, the following can be highlighted. In “Country Lover”, Gordimer builds up her story on a step by step approach. She presented her major idea by narrating incidences that might have motivated her audiences into reading further ahead. For example, she begun by highlighting that there was a young girl who worked on a white owned firm. In the course of her duty, this young girl develops friendship with the master’s young boy, Paulus. The story then continues, highlighting key aspects in their lifestyles. In breaking up her work in steps, Nadime wanted to establish the excitement and mystery that would keep her audience reading to the end of her short story. On the other hand, Smith readily availed her idea to the audience when she used sentences that were dynamic, strong and irregularly structured sentences to reveal the seriousness of her idea from the onset. For example she readily and easily availed her idea to the audience when she narrated the following sentence in her fourth syllabus, “it’s being 9 years old and feeling like you’re not finished, like your edges are wild, like there’s something, everything, wrong”(Gillan & Jennifer, 1994). This just presented the view that the young black girl was being discriminated and thus enduring a lot of pain in the process.
In comparing the perspectives as held by the two authors, we clearly note that Gordimer’s perspective kept on changing accordingly in the course of narrating her short story. This was noticeable when she illustrated the separation of the young man, Paulus and her then former lover, Thebedi. Until their separation, the author had involved herself in the story-by providing detailed explanations of the events. However, she distances herself from the story when she only gives slight hints on the factors surrounding the separation of these two former lovers. She fails to clearly mention to the reader the exact thoughts that were manifest in the two lovers at the time of their separation. On the other hand, Smith, as the first persona, is involved in all the details surrounding her lifestyle. She fully took control and ownership of the whole scenario, giving conclusive evidence on the whole sections of her poem. This enabled readers to gain a clear understanding of all sections as was presented in her poem.
More so, the writing style in the two works reveal that Gordimer made use of flowing and long sentences in the opening paragraphs as opposed to the ending paragraphs. For instance, in the first paragraphs, while describing the two friends session at the river bank, she makes use of the following flowing and long sentence, “while he talked he twisted and tugged at the roots of white stinkwood and Cape willow trees that looped out of the eroded earth around them”(Royston, 1998, p.68). Her sentences are shortened in the end paragraphs. For instance, while narrating the court-case scenario, she highlighted that Paulus had insisted that he visited the hut where the child was without any intention of poisoning her. This is implemented to help readers to quickly understand the “fact” that led to Paulus being cleared of the murder charges in the end paragraphs. On the other hand, Patricia made use of short and clear sentences. For instance, to stress on the sufferings that that were imminent in all stages of her life, she makes mention of the following phrase, “It’s growing tall and wearing a lot of White” (Gillan & Jennifer, 1994). This meant the insults directed at her increased year by year. This, as in Gordimer’s case, helped her audience to grasp the meaning of her phrases with ease.
In addition, Patricia employed more imagery in her poem as compared with Nadime who rarely, or if she did, occasionally employed the use of this stylistic device. Throughout Smith’s poems she made mention of imagery phrases such as jumping to the double Dutch until your legs pop up…growing tall and wearing a lot of white (Gillan & Jennifer, 1994). All these were intended to help us grasp the transition of the girl into adulthood or woman-wood as Patricia put it. On the other hand, Gordimer did not directly make use of imagery in her works. The imagery in her short story can only be deduced in users’ own perspectives. For example, the users can deduce that the young girl represented the suffering Africans.
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The number of key characters as used in the two literatures is varied. Gordimer, selected two main characters, Thebedi and Paulus and traced their lifestyles from childhood to their youthful stage. She then incorporated additional minor characters in the course of her narration. On the other hand, Smith remained silent on the identity of her key character, only referring to her as ‘the young-black girl’. Some of the audience, in trying to interpret who the young girl really was, concluded that she described her own lifestyle.
The two works make use of the first person narrative. In the “Country Lovers” , Gordimer takes up both the role of the observer and the narrator and ‘follows’ the two characters in the key stages of their life. She then highlights their key behaviors and actions to give us a clear picture of her idea. On the other hand, Patricia Smith took up the role of the key player and narrated the discrimination and sufferings that she went through in her childhood to woman-wood stage ((Wolf et al., 2010, p.234).).
Tellingly, the two works address the same key theme. The key theme addressed by the two works is that of racism. In Gordimer’s case, she uses the young girl who used to work on a white-owned farm and the secret relationship that existed between this young girl and the white boy to point out the racial discrimination that was eminent in the Apartheid regime in South Africa. On the other hand, Patricia Smith uses the imagery of a black-young girl to highlight the sufferings that black and other mixed races underwent in their efforts to find ‘new’ homes in the ‘stable’ and ‘rich’ United States.
Besides the key theme, it should be noted that variations occur in the other additional themes eminent in these two literatures. Gordimer’s work is characterized by more additional themes. For example, in Gordimer’s work, the following additional themes are clearly established: love, marriage, murder/death, (failed) friendship/relationships, education, wealth, poverty and failed judicial systems. The strength of love is shown in this short story when the young girl, Thebedi falls into a relationship with the young white boy- Paulus. Despite the variations that were clearly evident in their lifestyles, these two young partners decided to engage in friendship that later on developed into a love affair. The theme of murder was revealed when the young boy found out that her former lover had broken her engagement to her and got married to her former peer-Njabuto, whom they had bored a child. The young white boy was irritated by the turn of events leading to him indirectly causing the death of their baby. The discriminatory and failed judicial systems in the early Apartheid regime were evidently represented by the decision of the South African court to vindicate the young white boy of the murder charges that were committed by him-despite all evidence pointing at him. The themes of wealth and education were shown by the young white boy who lived a lavish lifestyle and the young girl who lived a poor lifefestle.
On the other note, the additional theme of suffering, imitation and poverty were eminent in Smith’s work. Suffering is revealed in the insults that are directed at her. For example, she stresses to her audience that she was forced to smell blood, just highlighting the kind of suffering that nearly exposed her to death. The theme of ‘imitation’ or ‘copycatting’ is shown when she tries to adopt the lifestyles of the then ‘adored’ white people. She even applies cosmetics to her body and imitates their mode of dressing to resemble them. Her main intention of doing this was to avoid the pain and suffering she was then undergoing as a result of her black coloring. Furthermore, Smith shows the theme of poverty when she points out that despite her intention to imitate the lifestyles of the whites, the black-girl couldn’t successfully source for the funds to buy some of the luxurious that were associated with the lifestyles of the white people.
Conclusively, it is evident that the two works in trying to represent the key theme of racial discrimination were manifest with many themes and rich literary devices-which all justify the author’s decision to compare and analyze these two great works that addressed the same key theme of ethnicity.
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