Analysis Of Nadine Gordimer 's ' The Lying Days '

In the 1930’s it was rare for a black South African to attend college. But Mandela not only attended, he graduated, got a degree from law school, and set up a practice in Johannesburg which he hoped could support his small family. Yet apartheid was always a humiliation to him. When the Afrikaner, or Dutch South African, Nationalists came to power in the 1948 election, the segregation habits of the past three hundred years became law. Hoping for a brighter future, Mandela joined the African National Congress (ANC) and became its first Youth Leader.

Mandela once said, “A man who takes away another man’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness.” (Page 32). This quote is an accurate description of all the people who supported the apartheid in South Africa starting when the National Party was elected in 1948. Knowing why this happened and what brought the apartheid to an end is vital to not making the same detrimental mistake again. Apartheid came to an end because of internal unrest, external pressure, and great leaders.

The Apartheid was initiated as a ploy for Europeans to better control the exploited populations for economic gain, as maintaining tension between the different racial classifications diverted attention from the Europeans as it fed hatred between groups. This assisted in minimizing unity between the exploited to rally against European control as it backhandedly induced “submission” for survival. One way of accomplishing this was by instilling laws that’d force segregation, classification, educational “requirements”, and economic purposes. The Population Registration Act of 1950 enacted, requiring segregation of Europeans from Afrikaans . Following shortly, the Group Areas Act of 1950 was enacted as a new form of legislation alongside the Population Registration Act. This detailed act separated tribes based on ethnics; consequently, further detailing segregation amongst the natives .

Queen, by Audrey Flack is a very captivating piece of artwork. It was painted in 1976, originally Audrey Flack took a picture and then used it as the basis for this painting. Queen is a painting of box that is full of special mementos. It has features such as a quarter of an open orange, a rose, a pocket watch, a queen playing card, a locket of an older and a younger woman, lip balm, perfume, a chess piece, blush, and a chain necklace with the letter “F” on it. The painting almost looks like a vanity drawer or a keepsake drawer. However, realizing the fruits and flower in the painting I understood it to be a collection of the artist's memories as opposed to a drawer. Audrey Flack was demonstrating the many things that were significant to her while aging. Queen signifies the fight against time. It shows that no matter what possessions you retain it will not keep you young. No one can win the battle against time.

| Relevant Biographical Information About the Author: * White * Born in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa in 1903 * Father was Scottish and mother was South African of English heritage * Worked at a reformatory with black youths

“She came here to look for her husband who was recruited for the mines… She lives in Claremont, not far from here. It is one of the worst places in Johannesburg… … that is her work, she makes and sells it… These women sleep with any man for their price… She has been in prison, more than once.” (53)

My room-mate had a single story of Africa; a single story of catastrophe”. Adichie also tells how growing up in Nigeria reading only American and English children’s books made her deaf to her authentic voice. As a child, she wrote about such things as blue-eyed white children easting apples, thinking brown skin and mangos had no place in Literature. That changed as she discovered African writers.

Throughout the poem, “White Lies”, Natasha Tretheway was able to show the difficulty of growing up biracial by using different literary elements that include puns, irony, and flashbacks to demonstrate how self-love is required in order to find one’s identity. By using first person, the author was able to connect with her audience on a deeper level by letting them experience what she did by taking them on a journey as she reflects back on her tough childhood.

Dry September is a story where citizens of a Jefferson, Mississippi have heard a rumor that Will Mayes, a black man has raped a white woman named Minnie Cooper. The story explores the reactions of the town’s citizens as this rumor is spread. Individuals begin to make individual conclusions and assumptions drawing hasty ideas based on insufficient or miniscule evidence, even going as far as to make up some of the evidence to draw a conclusion. There is a relationship between racism and violence in the world of the text.

In the first half of the historical nonfiction novel, Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, Louie Zamperini endures many hardships in his life. These struggles make me feel sorry for him and the trouble he is in. As a child, he was unable to fit in, his peers considered him “a bad kid”. Louie would unfortunately steal things on the streets, and consistently get into fights with others, commonly for no reason at all. However, the positive side to his actions, was the speed and running ability he built up. I felt relieved when his brother encouraged his participation on the school track team. In a nutshell, Louie was a natural star. His large, skinny frame and long frame gave him ideal running characteristics. No longer was Louie a bad kid, he was a

The national party achieved power in South Africa in 1948 the government, usually comprised on “white people”, and racially segregated the country by a policy under the Apartheid legislation system. With this new policy in place the black South African people were forced to live segregated from the white people and use separate public facilities. There were many attempts to overthrow the Apartheid regime, it persisted to control for almost 50 years.

Many of the contemporary issues in South Africa can easily be associated with the apartheid laws which devastated the country. The people of South Africa struggle day by day to reverse “the most cruel, yet well-crafted,” horrific tactic “of social engineering.” The concept behind apartheid emerged in 1948 when the nationalist party took over government, and the all-white government enforced “racial segregation under a system of legislation” . The central issues stem from 50 years of apartheid include poverty, income inequality, land ownership rates and many other long term affects that still plague the brunt of the South African population while the small white minority still enjoy much of the wealth, most of the land and opportunities

These strong, and independent African women authors use insightful and educational language, which invites the western world to be a part of their world through the power of literature. One of the

A Nobel Prize winning writer, Nadine Gordimer discovers moral, racial and social issues in Africa under apartheid rule. Her novel “Burger’s Daughter” shows the struggles of a group of antiapartheid activities which depict the journey of soul searching.

The short story “Country Lovers” written by Nadine Gordimer, who in 1991 received the Nobel Prize for Literature, writes about forbidden love and racial politics between a black girl and a white boy on a South Africa