Nadine Gordimer

In the three stories written by Nadine Gordimer, “Good Climate, Friendly Inhabitants”, “Amnesty”, and “Six Feet of the Country”, she discusses and shows how nobody can win with apartheid. She uses different examples in “Six Feet of the Country” on how people are taken advantage by the system, even the people that implemented apartheid. The man was not able to get what he wanted from the government. He felt that as a white man, he was able to get whatever he wanted and it frustrated him. This shows that even white men are unable to benefit from the system. Gordimer also shows in “Amnesty” how people in all parts of the country are affected by apartheid. In this story, she shows how change needs to happen not just by the men fighting in the cities but by the women raising the children in the country. She felt so strongly that the change needed to come with the raising of the children that she only gave one character a name, their little girl and her name was Inkululeko. The man wanted the woman to know what was going with the Movement. He allowed her to sit and listen when he and the other men from the union gathered to discuss what needed to be done. He wanted her to be able to raise their children to be able to fight against it if they needed to and so that they would understand who he was and why he was not around.

I found these three stories easier to read and much more entertaining. Gordimer develops her stories better and makes them seem more personal. She uses the first person narrative to set this more intimate look into the effects of apartheid. This does not affect me personally but it does clash some with my views on government. I feel that it is a mistake to give a government or system too much power over the people. I do agree with the concept of a government as long as there are a series of checks and balances. I see this as a problem even in our own government. We have a series of checks and balances but they are not all elected by the people. Some are appointed by the heads of the government. I think that this needs to change before anything can be done to change the country for the better. We need people like the man in “Amnesty” to fight to get things changed.

Gordimer is my favorite author that we have read so far. Her stories are just so much easier to read and are more entertaining than any of the others that I have read. The first person narrative makes it easier to relate to the stories and easier for me to understand. It also makes it easier for me to find the hidden message and to figure out the irony. She has wrote the stories for a wider audience, so that more people could read and understand it.