An African Sermon Essay
An African Sermon
The short story “An African Sermon”, written by Damon Galgut, was a very fascinating piece. What the author is trying to do in this story is give us a synopsis of what his opinion of human nature is. Throughout the story he gives different examples of his views and errors that human beings are prone to do. One of the first things that the author shows is a man who is racist. It is true that racism has decreased over the past few years, but the racial “jokes” and rude remarks still remain. People will hold their valuables a little closer when an African American is near. They will always watch out of the corner of their eye because they are suspicious of those who are different. This shows that human nature is very judgemental. People generally take a look at someone or listen to the first words that come out of their mouth and judge them completely on that one aspect. The old man first makes the jugement based on the fact that the man black, so he will be trouble. Later on however the old man states “He’s all right. No trouble”, this proves that if you get to know somebody before you judge them, they can turn out to be somebody completely different then you expected. Everyone is being judged after they do anything. Mr. Sagatwa was judged for being black, but the old man was judged just as quickly for making the remark that “he hoped that there would be no blacks”. Even Douglas, who was a priest, judged the old man for making this remark.
Another point that Damon makes is that human beings are selfish and disrespectful. When Douglas Clarke changes the story that Mr. Sagatwa told him, he was only thinking about what the church would want to hear. He knew that even though there wasn’t a happy ending to the story that he had just heard, he could change it to fit into the beliefs of his religion. Mr. Sagatwa made it quite clear that he was not going to forgive his “brother”, but one of the main things taught in Christian religion
The short story “An African Sermon”, written by Damon Galgut, was a very fascinating piece. What the author is trying to do in this story is give us a synopsis of what his opinion of human nature is. Throughout the story he gives different examples of his views and errors that human beings are prone to do. One of the first things that the author shows is a man who is racist. It is true that racism has decreased over the past few years, but the racial “jokes” and rude remarks still remain. People will hold their valuables a little closer when an African American is near. They will always watch out of the corner of their eye because they are suspicious of those who are different. This shows that human nature is very judgemental. People generally take a look at someone or listen to the first words that come out of their mouth and judge them completely on that one aspect. The old man first makes the jugement based on the fact that the man black, so he will be trouble. Later on however the old man states “He’s all right. No trouble”, this proves that if you get to know somebody before you judge them, they can turn out to be somebody completely different then you expected. Everyone is being judged after they do anything. Mr. Sagatwa was judged for being black, but the old man was judged just as quickly for making the remark that “he hoped that there would be no blacks”. Even Douglas, who was a priest, judged the old man for making this remark.
Another point that Damon makes is that human beings are selfish and disrespectful. When Douglas Clarke changes the story that Mr. Sagatwa told him, he was only thinking about what the church would want to hear. He knew that even though there wasn’t a happy ending to the story that he had just heard, he could change it to fit into the beliefs of his religion. Mr. Sagatwa made it quite clear that he was not going to forgive his “brother”, but one of the main things taught in Christian religion