City Johannesburg was set during the struggle-filled era of Apartheid, in South Africa. Apartheid was a time of major hardships, for blacks, in the, now called, ‘Rainbow Nation’. During the times of Apartheid, blacks were made to feel inferior to the whites. The Boers had a better education, better amenities and a better quality of life. In City Johannesburg, Serote powerfully, and clearly, conveys his strong feelings of freedom and justice by manipulating the power of figures of speech.
In the first stanza of the poem, he says:
“My hand pulses to my back trousers pocket
Or into my inner jacket pocket
For my pass, my life,”
In these three lines, Serote uses two figures of speech; personification and a metaphor. He uses the personification of, “My hand pulses,” to give the feeling of fright to the reader on account of the word ‘pulses’. It reminds the reader of heartbeats, and the …show more content…
This is because during the times of Apartheid in South Africa, whites had a better standard of education compared to blacks, due to the Bantu Education Act. This law affected millions of black people in South Africa because it limited them to professions with a low salary or wage. These restrictions are the likely cause of what eventually led Serote to his ‘thin, ever lean wallet’. These couple of lines show us that he does not want to live this struggle-filled life and that he desires freedom.
Serote clearly expresses his feelings of racism, separation and justice in lines 19-20. Manipulating the metaphor of travelling on Jo’burg’s ‘black and white roboted roads’ gave me the feeling that he was informing me about the strict rules and regulations of Apartheid. The ‘black and white roboted roads’ represent the lives that the South Africans had to experience and the different laws that they had to abide by, according to their respective
In the first stanza of the poem, he says:
“My hand pulses to my back trousers pocket
Or into my inner jacket pocket
For my pass, my life,”
In these three lines, Serote uses two figures of speech; personification and a metaphor. He uses the personification of, “My hand pulses,” to give the feeling of fright to the reader on account of the word ‘pulses’. It reminds the reader of heartbeats, and the …show more content…
This is because during the times of Apartheid in South Africa, whites had a better standard of education compared to blacks, due to the Bantu Education Act. This law affected millions of black people in South Africa because it limited them to professions with a low salary or wage. These restrictions are the likely cause of what eventually led Serote to his ‘thin, ever lean wallet’. These couple of lines show us that he does not want to live this struggle-filled life and that he desires freedom.
Serote clearly expresses his feelings of racism, separation and justice in lines 19-20. Manipulating the metaphor of travelling on Jo’burg’s ‘black and white roboted roads’ gave me the feeling that he was informing me about the strict rules and regulations of Apartheid. The ‘black and white roboted roads’ represent the lives that the South Africans had to experience and the different laws that they had to abide by, according to their respective