Country Lovers Essay

Danielle Hawkins
English 125: Introduction to Literature
Instructor: Corey King
April 28, 2014

Reading this story reveals how two young children grew up together and started a love affair on an African Farm owned by one of the wealthy white farmers in their country town. This story is an intriguing depiction of an interracial relationship between two kids growing up on this Africa farm with their families and telling how the two of them come together despite their cultural differences and forbidden love for one another. I particularly like this story because the author set the tone immediately by advising the reader; “This story is about a forbidden love on a South African farm” which in my opinion will entail or describe two people being in a love affair that is prohibited. I particularly was drawn to this story one because of the title and two after reading the first couple of sentences I was hooked on the story line. I particular like this love story because it’s written in a first point of view where the narrator continuously describe what life is like being raised on an African farm and give continuous depictions of the two children’s love affair throughout their childhood a great example I captured from the story was; “The farm children play together when they are small, but once the white children go away to school they soon don't play together any more, even in the holidays. Although most of the black children get some sort of schooling, they drop every year farther behind the grades passed by the white children; the childish vocabulary, the child's exploration of the adventurous possibilities of dam, koppies, mealie lands, and veld—there comes a time when the white children have surpassed these with the vocabulary of boarding–school and the possibilities of inter–school sports matches and the kind of adventures seen at the cinema.” Gordimer, N. (1975). Thebedi and Paulus are the two children who had a forbidden love affair they both played together throughout their child hood and later as they grew older into adolescents 18 and 19 years old to be exact. Paulus the wealthy farmers’ son who went away to boarding school returning to his family farm occasionally during school breaks and later from Veterinary college to help out and see Thebedi the young girl whom he loved since childhood. Their relationship remained for many years as they grew older. After years of seeing each other secretly Thebedi the young farm girl who grew into a beautiful young woman got pregnant and had a baby for Paulus. She and the baby stayed in a hut built particularly for her with a tiny chimney and windows with glass panes set in straight and walls made of unfired brick built as the author called the home, “white man’s style”.
After Thebedi had her child she exposed their relationship to many of the other workers on the farm in particular the older woman whom worked for Paulus. Once the baby was born the baby’s identity told the story that she had been involved with a white man, and in all too familiar depiction an interracial relationship took place between Thebedi and Paulus. The child was described as “pale, plumb tiny face, with a bubble of spit at the corner of the mouth, the spidery pink hands stirring. She took off the woolen cap and the straight fine hair flew up after it in static electricity, showing glided strands here and there” Gordimer, N. (1975). When Paulus saw the baby

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