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Rain Clouds Gather Quotes

Good Essays

In Bessie Head’s 1968 novel ‘When Rain Clouds Gather’ the reader is introduced to the protagonist, a South African refugee, Makhaya Maseko. Makhaya is fleeing to Botswana to escape persecution in South Africa. Makhaya has endured great suffering in South Africa and this is another reason why he decides to flee. Makhaya escapes South Africa and settles in a village called Golema Mmidi in Botswana. Here he meets a variety of people from all walks of life and through these people Makhaya is able to heal and find peace in his life. In this essay, we will examine the hardships and suffering Makhaya has experienced in South Africa as well as how the other characters played a role in Makhaya’s healing.
In the first chapter, the speaker mentions …show more content…

This quote highlights how Makhaya also experienced the oppression of the Apartheid system. Makhaya decides he cannot live in a country whereby he is constantly persecuted for the colour of his skin and treated at a sub-human level. In the next line of the text Makhaya further explains how he cannot live in a country that is mentally and spiritually dead “he simply felt like moving out of a part that was mentally and spiritually dead through constant perpetuation of false beliefs.” Again the reader is shown the contempt Makhaya feels towards South Africa and its situation. Makhaya has suffered under the Apartheid system and he can longer withstand the inequality of the …show more content…

Dinorego in the novel takes on the role of Makhaya’s adoptive father. Dinorego constantly refers to Makhaya as his “son.” When he first meets Makhaya, Dinorego believes Makhaya would make the perfect husband for his daughter: “he had a difficult daughter whom he wanted married before he died.” However even though Makhaya did not end up marrying Dinorego’s daughter Maria, Dinorego continues to act as a fatherly figure towards Makhaya. Makhaya accepts Dinorego as the father figure in his life we see this as Makhaya refers to Dinorego as Papa: “I know what I want Papa.” Dinorego contributes to Makhaya’s healing process by accepting him into the community of Golema Mmidi even though he was an outsider and a refugee. Dinorego treated him as his own son and forming a strong connection with Makhaya, we see this in the line “he felt a closer bond with Makhaya, the way God usually feels towards the outcast beggar rolling in the dust.” Dinorego does not feel pity for Makhaya but rather feels a fatherly love for

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