Character Analysis: Inspector Fats Makaye

Inspector Fats Makaye has an overall negative, bitter and disheartened attitude towards his work as a police officer. However his attitude is sometimes significantly contradicted by his commitment and optimistic actions towards his work. This essay will provide the evidence which accounts for attitude and actions displayed by this particular officer. The essay will then identify the structural aspects which explain the officer’s actions and attitude and discuss how and why the mentioned structural aspects lead to his attitude and action. Furthermore the essay will discuss how structure and the exercise of agency contribute to ‘Fats’ attitude and actions.
Before discussing essential parts of this essay, it is important to address the issue surrounding …show more content…

This is because he is unhappy and dissatisfied with the treatment he receives from the police force. He has been part of the service for almost thirty years and throughout these years he has been only receiving R8000 per month. ‘Fats’ exclaims ‘Nearly thirty years of this shit. And I am still an Inspector’ (Albeker, 2005). He further states that the police force has always overlooked him especially when he was supposed to receive a promotion. ‘The old excuse was the exams…You’ll find that they were failing us because we were black’ (Albeker, 2005). His bitter and negative actions surfaces to the exterior when the drunkard young man at the tavern, not acknowledge his presence or his work he has done as a police officer. What made him angrier and bitter is that the man, praised someone else for his work and effort so then he rudely dismissed the drunken gentleman. His attitude is also negative towards the post-apartheid government; he says that he does not ‘understand this democracy’ (Albeker, 2005). He says that things have not improved since apartheid, instead it has worsened. Even though ‘Fats’ is disillusioned and negative towards his work, sometimes his actions and actions are a contradictory. ‘Fats’ shows a positive approach and commitment when it comes to his work and role as a police officer. In fact he is neither what Albeker (2005) described of typical policeman; ‘drones’, …show more content…

Role a set of behavioral expectations associated with a given status (Kendall, 2013). Values ‘are general, shared and conception of what is good, right or desirable with regard to ways o conduction the self’ (Ferrante, 2011). Fats is obedient and knows that he has a responsibility to protect and serve his community. However the values he has does not originate from only the exercise of agency but through socialization – the process in which children or other new members of the society learn the way of life of their society (Giddens, 2001). Fats was taught the values and expectations but in the end he is free to act and make choices. Therefore ‘structures are not repressive of the individual’s capacity to act, or agency but rather provide the means by which individuals act and are also the outcome of those actions’ (Giddens,