The Construction and Meaning of “Home” in Nadine Gordimer’s Tale of Postcolonial Africa, “The Ultimate Safari”
Nadine Gordimer’s “The Ultimate Safari” takes the reader on a journey as the main character, a little girl, flees from Mozambique with her brothers and grandparents. Throughout the short story, the girl describes her trek out of Mozambique and through Kruger Park into South Africa, and details the hunger, loss, and overall feeling of deprivation that came with the unavoidable circumstances she was thrust into. Gordimer’s story paints a picture of postcolonial Africa, particularly Mozambique during the civil war, and how one girl (and what remains of her family) survives in that environment. The story has many thematic points of …show more content…
The park itself is designated as a national park, meaning its land and animals are protected, and it exists as a remnant of affluent environmentalism. In short: “the parks reflected the worst aspects of ‘colonial’ conservation,” (Cock & Fig). Because Kruger Park exists as protected land, the group that travels through it in “The Ultimate Safari” face the imminent threats of starvation, exhaustion, and being caught and thus sent back to war-torn Mozambique. African land. In order to maintain “the colonial notion of pristine wilderness and human exclusion,” (Cock & Fig), the girl and her family risk their lives in order to achieve safety, and to find …show more content…
Rather than buying herself a pair of shoes for church, the grandmother purchased pairs of black school shoes for the girl and her older brother, and ensures that they polish them frequently. This act of goodwill, and of utter selflessness from her grandmother is what gives the girl a sense of comfort and stability: “[n]o other children in the tent have real schoolshoes. When we three look at them it’s as if we are in a real house again, with no war, no away,” (Gordimer 20). This quote also implies that her family, or at least her older brother and grandmother, have found home in each other as well. Though the story is told through the eyes of the girl, her older brother must certainly be feeling similarly, and would likely find refuge in his grandmother’s love as well. The grandmother, having made incredibly difficult decisions for her grandchildren and feeling the full gravity of her daughter’s disappearance, perhaps finds her home within her grandchildren. They are who she makes sacrifices for, and who she stays strong for. She is their home, and they are
Nadine Gordimer’s “The Ultimate Safari” takes the reader on a journey as the main character, a little girl, flees from Mozambique with her brothers and grandparents. Throughout the short story, the girl describes her trek out of Mozambique and through Kruger Park into South Africa, and details the hunger, loss, and overall feeling of deprivation that came with the unavoidable circumstances she was thrust into. Gordimer’s story paints a picture of postcolonial Africa, particularly Mozambique during the civil war, and how one girl (and what remains of her family) survives in that environment. The story has many thematic points of …show more content…
The park itself is designated as a national park, meaning its land and animals are protected, and it exists as a remnant of affluent environmentalism. In short: “the parks reflected the worst aspects of ‘colonial’ conservation,” (Cock & Fig). Because Kruger Park exists as protected land, the group that travels through it in “The Ultimate Safari” face the imminent threats of starvation, exhaustion, and being caught and thus sent back to war-torn Mozambique. African land. In order to maintain “the colonial notion of pristine wilderness and human exclusion,” (Cock & Fig), the girl and her family risk their lives in order to achieve safety, and to find …show more content…
Rather than buying herself a pair of shoes for church, the grandmother purchased pairs of black school shoes for the girl and her older brother, and ensures that they polish them frequently. This act of goodwill, and of utter selflessness from her grandmother is what gives the girl a sense of comfort and stability: “[n]o other children in the tent have real schoolshoes. When we three look at them it’s as if we are in a real house again, with no war, no away,” (Gordimer 20). This quote also implies that her family, or at least her older brother and grandmother, have found home in each other as well. Though the story is told through the eyes of the girl, her older brother must certainly be feeling similarly, and would likely find refuge in his grandmother’s love as well. The grandmother, having made incredibly difficult decisions for her grandchildren and feeling the full gravity of her daughter’s disappearance, perhaps finds her home within her grandchildren. They are who she makes sacrifices for, and who she stays strong for. She is their home, and they are