Table of Contents
What is comrades by Nadine Gordimer about?
The main theme explored in the short story “Comrades” by Nadine Gordimer is the theme of race relations during apartheid in South Africa. This theme dominates the short story. Apartheid is a political system which began around the 1950s and created a system of racial discrimination in South Africa.
What is the message of Once Upon a Time by Nadine Gordimer?
Gordimer experienced the apartheid system in South Africa firsthand and uses “Once Upon a Time” to express the fear and anxiety she and others felt during that violent period. Gordimer’s theme is likely a statement against the fear, cruelty and social injustices associated with racial segregation.
How does the story Train from Rhodesia portray the racial and class barriers?
Themes. In “The Train from Rhodesia,” a train’s short stop in a poor African village highlights the racial and class barriers that typify South African life in the 1950s. Though only a few pages long, Gordimer’s story encompasses several themes besides racial inequality, including greed, poverty, and conscience.
Why is the story called comrades?
The term “comrade” generally means ‘mate’, ‘colleague’, or ‘ally’, and derives from the Spanish and Portuguese, term camarada, literally meaning ‘chamber mate’, from Latin camera, meaning ‘chamber’ or ‘room’. It may also specifically mean “fellow soldier”.
What is the irony behind the title once upon a time?
The words once upon a time are a “fairy tale approach and style” and they create a certain expectation that comes along with those words. The irony in that is the disastrous ending that is very unusual for a story that starts with such a cliché name and title.
What is Nadine Gordimer’s vision for South Africa?
Nadine Gordimer’s great themes are love and politics. Behind the most intimate relations, as well as the most public, there is the same search for an identity, a self-confirmation, and a wish to belong and exist.
What is the main conflict in the train from Rhodesia?
The conflict of interests here is evident: the struggle for the poor man to survive and the necessity to charge what he imagines to be grand price tag, and the gluttony of the man with mountains of cash, yet not wanting to relinquish the tiniest bit more than he need to.
What is the historical context of the train from Rhodesia?
When Gordimer published “The Train from Rhodesia” in 1952, South African society was legally divided along racial lines by apartheid. The all-white National Party won control of the government in 1948 and dominated South African politics for much of the next two decades.
What connotation does the word comrade have?
Comrade means friend, which has a positive connotation, because as Old Major uses it, he says it as if they are all friends, which adds comfort to the situation.
What type of word is comrade?
comrade noun [C] (FRIEND)
What are the themes of the story once upon a time?
Once Upon a Time Themes
- Wealth Inequality and Fear. Set in the 1980s in apartheid South Africa, Nadine Gordimer’s “Once Upon a Time” shows how societies with tremendous wealth inequality are doomed to fail.
- Apartheid, Racism, and Property.
- Separation and the Illusion of Security.
- Storytelling.
What literary devices are used in Once Upon a Time by Nadine Gordimer?
In Nadine Gordimer’s “Once Upon a Time”, several literary terms- such as symbolism, irony, and foreshadowing- are used to put an unusual twist to this backwards fairytale. “Once Upon a Time” uses symbolism as a key element in twisting up a normal everyday fairy tale and giving it a disturbing sort of mood.
What is the main themes of Nadine Gordimer story?
Nadine Gordimer, (born November 20, 1923, Springs, Transvaal [now in Gauteng], South Africa—died July 13, 2014, Johannesburg), South African novelist and short-story writer whose major theme was exile and alienation.
What are the main features of “comrades” by Nadine Gordimer?
Here are the main features that will help you with the analysis of the short story “Comrades” by Nadine Gordimer. The short story is structured chronologically, with the narrative presenting events that happen over the course of a few hours.
What is Nadine Gordimer known for?
Nadine Gordimer (20 November 1923 – 13 July 2014) is a distinguished novelist and short-story writer. About Selected Stories, drawn from her earlier volumes of stories, a reviewer said that the stories “are marked by the courage of moral vision and the beauty of artistic complexity.
How is Gordimer sympathetic towards Mehring?
There is little that is sympathetic about Mehring, which leaves Gordimer with the difficult task of keeping the reader interested in his activities. Once he begins to spend more time on the farm, his activities inevitably involve his black workers. Gordimer seizes the opportunity to render in some detail the life of their community.
Is a sport of nature by Winnie Gordimer good?
A Sport of Nature may not be Gordimer’s best book, but it is as thought-provoking as any of her earlier works. Its portrayal of the future, which includes a black African state installed in place of South Africa, has caused some critics to label the work weak and unbelievable.