The Bench By Richard Rive

Register to read the introduction… He gets the sense of a world without oppression, without racial segregation, a world where he can live as a human equal to whites. In Cape Town he attends a public rally at the Grand Parade. A lot of speakers is up on the stage and is by turns speaking to the great crowd of spectators. There is no doubt that Karlie is happily surprised, maybe slightly overwhelmed by this sight “Every shade of color was represented.” (l. 15-16 p. 21) But once again he feels confused that this can pass by without anyone, whites indeed, would do anything about it. He certainly feels enriched by all theses emotions filling his head.
Especially one speaker moves something inside of him. A thought saying that all these words, all these great words, seemed true. The words “challenge any discriminatory laws or measures in their own way.” (l. 29-30 p. 32) fills his head.
When he enters the railways station on his way home, the story takes a sharp turn; he sees his way of challenging. Though whites and blacks walk among each other without the sense of difference between them, it seems wrong to …show more content…
Rive uses a very obvious narrative technique in order to control the mind of the readers. Through the entire story Karlie is called all kinds of offending words. Common for it all is that it grounds in his pigmentation. Here are some “you black bastard!” (l. 15 p. 33) “you swine!!” (l. 29 p. 35) “scum like you?” (l. 10 p. 36) just to name a few. All these rude things are written to make the reader sympathies with Karlie which we indeed do.
Summing up, this short story deals with a huge part of the South African history. R. Rive has taken the major problem of the oppression of blacks and putting it into a story that everyone who ever read it can understand. It is clearly displayed that Karlie symbols the South African majority, the black, and their struggle with the superior white