Violence In Coetzee's Age Of Iron

South Africa’s history helped set the stage for major violence to occur. Readers of Coetzee’s Age of Iron were able to experience this first hand, and through lecture were able to gain an understanding of South Africa’s history. The history of South Africa is significant because, it shows a story in history that has been told many times, the story of a need for change, a revolution. This feeling and emotion of violence is not native to South African history, but World History. People feel responsible for others actions, even after generations have passed. People feel personally responsible for the violence that their ancestors afflicted on others. While some feel what their ancestors did was wrong, people aren’t necessarily sure how to …show more content…
Apartheid society was justified because it kept African culture away from those who were European, and this further enhanced white supremacy and a division of the two cultures(textbook). South Africa was, and may continue to this day, be a divided society. Proof of this divided society is most of what we learned about in lecture and as well as in the readings. Division of South Africa can be seen simply from pictures, such as the one of the beach sign stating that those of a different race weren’t allowed at the beach, and it was only for a certain group of people. This kind of division is what brought up the violence (South African Colonialism). Pictures of two cities were shown Johannesburg, and Sophiatown. The two pictures show a vast inequality of living, and shows the separation of a society. Many had to commute from Sophiatown to Johannesburg to work, and they often worked as the labor force. Those who worked in Johannesburg saw the luxuries of this city compared to theirs. Johannesburg had drinking water, and wasn’t in constant threat of getting bulldozed (class lecture) (South African Colonialism) . These people wanted the chance to break free from the chains of colonialism, and have equality in their apartheid society. The reason there was so much violence in South Africa is because people wanted equality and a voice in this society. , Those who realized that wrong doings had occurred usually didn’t know what to do, but violence for change no longer let them look the other