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Country Lovers vs Welcome Table

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Country Lovers vs Welcome Table
Running head: COUNTRY LOVERS

Country Lovers Tanya Looney

Country Lovers
The story “Country Lovers” captured my interest in this week’s reading assignment. Nadine Gordimer the author was born and raised in South Africa, an activist who dealt with racial inequality, especially the Apartheid in South Africa. In the 1991 Gordimer won the Nobel Prize for her literature. Country Lovers is a short story about a forbidden love that occurred in South Africa. The poor female character suffered because of the color of her skin. However the white privileged male was not punished for his role in the story. Gordimer wrote this story to enlighten the prejudice that occurred in the 1900’s. In this paper, I will describe what the theme is and identify how the point of view and the setting contribute to the theme. Without these components “Country Lovers” one reading the story would not be able to experience the true feeling of being treated different because of color, gender or social status.
Country Lovers was written during the time of Apartheid a former policy of segregation and political and economic discrimination against non-European groups in the Republic of South Africa. This story is about Thebedi the farm worker and Paulus the son of the farm owner and their secret love affair that started as a childhood crush. Once the two became adults the crush turned into sexual curiosity. The two would secretly meet at the river-bed and explore their sexual inquisitiveness. Thebedi became pregnant, but knew she had to keep another secret. Her parents sold her to Njabulo who became her husband. One would believe Gordimer’s theme is regarding racism of black females and the special treatment of white people even if they commit murder. The theme in literature is complex and cannot be defined in one word. It is a representation of the idea behind the story (Clugston, 2010). The theme is also the subject, idea, and the main topic, that the writer is trying to



References: Clugston, R.W. (2010) Journey into literature. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/ https://content.ashfprd.edu/print/AUENG 125 http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1991/gordimer-bibl.html

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