Country Lovers
Country Lover’s: A Forbidden Lover Story
I chose to discuss the short story by Nadie Gordimer, Country Lovers, I will identify the theme and the literary elements that helped me with my analysis. I would consider the story Country Lovers to be the story of racial barriers that created a forbidden love story. There are many literary elements that aid my analysis, and support my interpretation of the stories theme. I will discuss how symbolism, characters, and settings supported the forbidden love story theme.
The story Country Lovers is a depiction of racial boundaries and social stratifications in a South African farm in the 1900’s. This was a time when there were strong racial dividers, and mingling between races was not tolerated. This story is about a boy, a girl, and summer love. The girl named Thebedi works on the farm of the boy named Paulus father. The consequences of crossing racial and social class boundaries, forced the young lovers to hide their relationship.
The setting of the story takes place in mainly three areas the farm house where the boy lives, the river where they meet to hide their relationship, and the village where the girl lives. The settings in the story help develop my theme, because it gives me a clear idea and understanding in how social class plays a part in the forbidden love. The boy lives in a beautiful home that is described to be of a high social class. In the text the home is described as, “The kitchen was it lively thoroughfare, with servants, food supplies, begging cats and dogs, pots boiling over, washing being damped for ironing, and the big deep-freezer the missus had ordered from town, bearing a crocheted mate and a vase of plastic iris ( Clungston, 2010)”. This excerpt from the text helps me visualize a wealthy home, one that the girl would be considered to be hired help; but instead she is having a secret love affair with their son. Another line in the story that supporst the setting of Thebedi
I chose to discuss the short story by Nadie Gordimer, Country Lovers, I will identify the theme and the literary elements that helped me with my analysis. I would consider the story Country Lovers to be the story of racial barriers that created a forbidden love story. There are many literary elements that aid my analysis, and support my interpretation of the stories theme. I will discuss how symbolism, characters, and settings supported the forbidden love story theme.
The story Country Lovers is a depiction of racial boundaries and social stratifications in a South African farm in the 1900’s. This was a time when there were strong racial dividers, and mingling between races was not tolerated. This story is about a boy, a girl, and summer love. The girl named Thebedi works on the farm of the boy named Paulus father. The consequences of crossing racial and social class boundaries, forced the young lovers to hide their relationship.
The setting of the story takes place in mainly three areas the farm house where the boy lives, the river where they meet to hide their relationship, and the village where the girl lives. The settings in the story help develop my theme, because it gives me a clear idea and understanding in how social class plays a part in the forbidden love. The boy lives in a beautiful home that is described to be of a high social class. In the text the home is described as, “The kitchen was it lively thoroughfare, with servants, food supplies, begging cats and dogs, pots boiling over, washing being damped for ironing, and the big deep-freezer the missus had ordered from town, bearing a crocheted mate and a vase of plastic iris ( Clungston, 2010)”. This excerpt from the text helps me visualize a wealthy home, one that the girl would be considered to be hired help; but instead she is having a secret love affair with their son. Another line in the story that supporst the setting of Thebedi
References: Clugston, R. W. (2010). Journey into literature. San Diego, California: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. (https://content.ashford.edu/books)