Pride and devotion to the natives’ land are major themes in this novel, which is reinforced in chapter 9 through their reflection of how the physical landscape affects the social dynamic. This chapter illustrates the challenges of the development of the shanty towns within South Africa, and specifically how the natives are suffering due to this change. As the dying child’s mother, she is aware of her child’s upcoming death and how strongly it influences her personal connection between the serenity of the land and heaven. As the young child gets sick, her mother soothes her with the words, “Quietly my child, there is a lovely valley where you were born. The water sings over the stones, and the wind cools you” (89). The mother’s efforts to comfort
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This cyclical process is the reasoning behind the creation of new laws and policies, which also confirm the white South Africans’ identity as superior. One of the narrative voices in this chapter explain that, “Some will ask for a new native policy, that will show the natives who is the master” (111). The white people show desperation in order to reinforce their superiority through the only means they know how (creating a new policy), which therefore widens the segregation between the natives and the whites. “Master” also has a connotation of white superiority and racial segregation in and of itself, reiterating that the whites have not separated from the idea that in order to maintain their community, they must be condescending towards the natives. This policy is not only the defining factor in determining who has the power in South Africa, but it’s creation is due to the white people's fear of racial change. The white South Africans are so concrete about their beliefs that laws create a sense of community, which leads them to only value the materialistic things in life. The fear of losing control and losing their identity go hand in hand when another narrative voice explains, “we fear not only the loss of our possessions, but the loss of our superiority and the loss of our whiteness”
This cyclical process is the reasoning behind the creation of new laws and policies, which also confirm the white South Africans’ identity as superior. One of the narrative voices in this chapter explain that, “Some will ask for a new native policy, that will show the natives who is the master” (111). The white people show desperation in order to reinforce their superiority through the only means they know how (creating a new policy), which therefore widens the segregation between the natives and the whites. “Master” also has a connotation of white superiority and racial segregation in and of itself, reiterating that the whites have not separated from the idea that in order to maintain their community, they must be condescending towards the natives. This policy is not only the defining factor in determining who has the power in South Africa, but it’s creation is due to the white people's fear of racial change. The white South Africans are so concrete about their beliefs that laws create a sense of community, which leads them to only value the materialistic things in life. The fear of losing control and losing their identity go hand in hand when another narrative voice explains, “we fear not only the loss of our possessions, but the loss of our superiority and the loss of our whiteness”