Nadine Gordimer and Apartheid

In three of Nadine Gordimer's short stories, "Good Climate, Friendly Inhabitants," "Amnesty," and "Six Feet of the Country," the topic of Apartheid was displayed in all of them.  Apartheid occured in South Africa.  It was a system of segregation (or discrimination) between races.

In "Six Feet of the Country,” not only disgusted me but made me furious.  This story hit home with me, because when they went to town and were told to just pick a body, I was mortified.  To think if you had to just choose a body (and not a loved one, just a random person) to have a burial…  This creates a very negative view upon the world during this time, because this shows that they honestly didn’t give a flying rats a*** about anyone that a different skin color.  Baas is huge a**hole!  He didn’t care about anyone else, besides himself.  I mean he was playing golf while the funeral was going on!  This text really made me think about what really went on in South Africa during this time, because there had to have been disturbing actions that happened behind closed doors.  To me, equality among on races is important, and no one should be discriminated against!  This story really shows how big of a deal apartheid is, because your skin color means everything. 

In “Amnesty,” I felt sad, but also proud of the main woman character.  This story was to me very sad, but turned out very happy.  Throughout the text she was mostly on her own, because her “lover” was sent to Robins Island and then constantly gone due to his work.  He gave her children, which was the basic reason for being a woman, and she was happy about that.  I couldn’t imagine being a single parent, while my significant other was always gone.  This story created a negative view for me, because of a woman’s duty to have children, and how he constantly put her down, because of the instant with the permit.  This story made me think about not only the time then, but now-a-days, when a child’s parent just leaves or abandons them.  I don’t understand how people could do that!  No child should be without parents, some people need to grow up and realize that they have someone other than themselves to take care of.

I would read more stories by Nadine Gordimer, because they have been interesting and very good to read.  I thought that both of these texts where really good at showing what was going on at the time of apartheid.