OPRF English Myers Tsotsi Essay Final Draft

Thug Life No More Being unrightfully controlled and forced into slums creates pain shrouded by violence and chaos. During apartheid in South Africa, many African lost hope for humanity and began to fall down an unrighteous path, often pertaining to gang violence, murder, drugs, and theft. A select few were not entirely lost to that mentality and lifestyle. Throughout the novel Tsotsi by Athol Fugard, Tsotsi, the protagonist, encounters people who begin to unravel the true empathetic young man under Tsotsi’s hardened outer shell. Though apartheid has ripped apart the emotional quota for non-whites in South Africa, Fugard introduces characters who gradually envelop hope into Tsotsi showing his true feelings: Morris, a man unable to walk due to a horrific mining accident, Boston, a man with his own sense of “decency” but caught up in gang activity, and the baby and Miriam, teach Tsotsi deference and maternal responsibility which enables Tsotsi to become a loving sympathetic young adult. To begin with, Morris Tshabalala is a crippled man who gradually teaches Tsotsi sympathy. As Morris is crawling away from Tsotsi, Tsotsi tells himself, “The truth persisted. His man had escaped into a few more hours of troubled living and he was desperately glad. It was obvious now what had been happening to him as he followed Morris Tshabalala down the main street. He was also right in thinking it had never happened before. He had felt for his victim” (105). Tsotsi finally admits that to the truth of his experience that he feels for a poor helpless victim he is preying upon and that he has never felt this way before. He then followed Morris knowing he would not harm him he followed him to understand this growing sense of worth of others life. After cautiously tailing Morris more, Tsotsi finally confronts him.
Through Morris’ words however cause Tsotsi to reflect, “He didn’t understand the outward meaning of the words. He didn’t need to. Their intimacy at that moment was of so