July's People

In July’s People by Nadine Gordimer, Bam, Maureen and the Smales’ children are whites living in South Africa with their black servant July. Initially, Bam demands total respect because he is a white male adult in apartheid society. However, as black unrest threatens to disturb the balance of power, apartheid begins to disintegrate in the wake of black rebellion. Bam is left with a choice, stay in Johannesburg and have hima and his face the wrath of black rebels or join July’s village people. Bam chooses to take his family in his Bakkie car to July’s village and stay in one of the huts belonging to July. The larger change in privilege occurring in South Africa forces the Smales to integrate into black society and as a result Bam’s status and …show more content…
One morning Bam and Maureen are awoken by the sound of the bakkie’s engine and see two black figures, one of which is assumed to by July, drive away in the bakkie. As this happens, Maureen watches her husband raise himself from bed and comments that he “had the menacing aspect of maleness a man has before the superego has gained control of his body. His penis was swollen under his rumpled trousers” (Gordimer, 39). The “aspect of maleness” (39) Maureen is referring to is Bam’s erect penis. Bam’s engorged penis exemplifies that he is a man and symbolizes that taking his bakkie is dangerous because Bam, in his masculinity, is ‘menacing’ (39). The lack of control from the superego hints Bam is not truly a threat to July. The superego is the part of human personality responsible for ethical and moral decision making, which govern over the ego. Thus, Bam’s maleness only exists as long as the symbolically swollen penis; in the fleeting moment between sleep and true wakefulness. As Bam attempts to find and punish July, he realizes he cannot use his gun to punish July, “If he [Bam] took it out and killed, could that be a defence against what might come, once outside July’s protection? I am a boy with a pea-shooter” (Gordimer, 41). Bam now comprehends his is not menacing, in fact, he is powerless. Bam has not been able to fulfill the typical male family role of protector. Not only did he need to move them to July’s village, but he cannot protect the families bakkie because because he needs ‘July’s protection’ (41). Bam self-realizes his emasculation when the calls himself a “boy” (41) and when he references to his gun as ‘pea-shooter’ (41). Bams gun is a powerful phallic symbol which has now been reduced a boy’s toy. The gun is only a prop, Bam cannot use it to protect himself and his family from July and the wave of change sweeping over South Africa. Thus, Bam is forced to accept his emasculation and the change is