CTBC Tabs

The first passage I chose happens to be the first passage of the book. The first chapter, which is only a page and a half, is entirely description of the setting. The setting is established in this passage with the use of a lot of personification and figurative language. It creates an image of South Africa, along with giving the reader a very sad feeling. The tone in the beginning is hopeful, when Paton is describing the valley and the hills of South Africa. By the end of the passage, though, the tone is sad, and the word choice is depressing: "It is not kept, or guarded, or cared for, it no longer keeps men, guards men, cares for men." This seems to illustrate the transformation of the older, beautiful Africa into something broken, desolate, and sad.

I also chose the passage near the end of page 40, beginning with "He went out the door..." and ending just before the little leaf separator thing. That paragraph says that as Kumalo leaves, his wife sits down at the table and puts her head in her arms. She "was silent, with the patient suffering of black women, with the suffering of oxen, with the suffering of any that are mute." This seems to be the beginnings of a theme through the use of language, when Paton talks about the suffering of those who are mute.

Next, the passage on page 42 in the middle, when Kumalo is thinking about the story of the woman who saw her son hit by a car when they moved there. I thought this might have been foreshadowing, since he knows that his own son is somewhere in the city, and he doesn't know what to expect. His son doesn't write anymore and they haven't seen him for a very long time.

Finally I chose the end of page 48, when Kumalo gave the young man his money to buy his ticket for him. The man ends up stealing his money. This shows how naive this character is in the big city, and how he doesn't know the workings of it, either. It gives you an image of how out of place he is, and can also be used to show how he'll change by the end. Showing that he's a naive character in the beginning can be compared to however he changes by the end of the novel.