51 pages • 1 hour read
Nadine GordimerA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
On the way home from the awkward meeting with the chief, Bam and Maureen are cautiously silent, which goads July into uncharacteristically airing his feelings. He asserts that the chief’s scheme to “fight” the Black rebels and their allies is just “talking.” The chief, he says, is a poor man, largely a figurehead: He never challenged the white men when they pushed him around and took his cattle, and he has no means of fighting off his new, Black rulers when (and if) they come. Bam and Maureen enter their dark hovel with sinking spirits, trying to tune the radio for news. Like safecrackers, both try, in turn, to find a station, without success. Recalling a previous report that suggested the US might arrange airlifts to rescue Americans and European citizens, Bam fumes to himself that their family might have become Canadians, if not for Maureen’s objections.
Bam broaches the absurdity of the chief’s request that he help defend the old man’s meager estate against other Black people with his one shotgun, but as Maureen points out, the chief likely believes that Bam, being white, can provide Army weapons as well. Bam struggles for words to help him process this new reality, but all he finds is stilted terminology from “back there” that offers no real insight into these unprecedented events.
By Nadine Gordimer
Burger's Daughter
Nadine Gordimer
Jump and Other Stories
Nadine Gordimer
None to Accompany Me
Nadine Gordimer
Once Upon a Time
Nadine Gordimer
Six Feet of the Country
Nadine Gordimer
The Conservationist
Nadine Gordimer
The Moment Before the Gun Went Off
Nadine Gordimer
The Pickup
Nadine Gordimer
The Train From Rhodesia
Nadine Gordimer
The Ultimate Safari
Nadine Gordimer
African Literature
View Collection
Books on Justice & Injustice
View Collection
Challenging Authority
View Collection
Class
View Collection
Class
View Collection
Colonialism & Postcolonialism
View Collection
Community
View Collection
Equality
View Collection
Family
View Collection
Fate
View Collection
Fear
View Collection
Guilt
View Collection
Loyalty & Betrayal
View Collection
Marriage
View Collection
Memorial Day Reads
View Collection
Memory
View Collection
Military Reads
View Collection
Nation & Nationalism
View Collection
Nobel Laureates in Literature
View Collection
Order & Chaos
View Collection
Power
View Collection
Safety & Danger
View Collection
South African Literature
View Collection
Trust & Doubt
View Collection
Truth & Lies
View Collection
War
View Collection