Freedom is not free when your identity is the price. Throughout the semester we read literature that has honed in on the idea of apartheid and post-apartheid affecting a nation. Zoe Wicomb 's You Can 't Get Lost in Cape Town and Phaswane Mpe Welcome to Our Hillbrow both share the themes of identity crisis through language. This theme has shaped what I grasped from South African literature is that identity does not belong to you but is shaped by what others perceive. Who you are is not defined by what you do in the world by how others label you based on race and language. If you look a certain way or speak a certain way you will be judged and that judgement will be who you are despite knowing your entirety.
Zoe Wicomb 's You Can 't Get Lost in Cape Town is set in the time when Apartheid was ending and …show more content…
Phaswane Mpe’s novel Welcome to our Hillbrow portrays South Africa post-apartheid through two characters. The story shifts between two central characters Refilwe and Refent ̆se but we are focusing on Refilwe. Refilwe is a young black woman given the opportunity to study in Oxford and receive a better education. This is something she is grateful at first until she comprehends what the English perceive her as. “She was of course grateful, but not entirely happy about her privileged South African status.” (Mpe 100). Refilwe had gained the privilege to come and go as freely as she pleased without restrictions. However she witnessed other cultures being violated at custom checks based on where they came from which is racial profiling. These events lead to Refilwe to truly observe the area around her and obtained that the English did not distinguish the different culture. Her identity in England was belittled down to Africans. Like Freida the idea of language is touched up, but in an opposite
Zoe Wicomb 's You Can 't Get Lost in Cape Town is set in the time when Apartheid was ending and …show more content…
Phaswane Mpe’s novel Welcome to our Hillbrow portrays South Africa post-apartheid through two characters. The story shifts between two central characters Refilwe and Refent ̆se but we are focusing on Refilwe. Refilwe is a young black woman given the opportunity to study in Oxford and receive a better education. This is something she is grateful at first until she comprehends what the English perceive her as. “She was of course grateful, but not entirely happy about her privileged South African status.” (Mpe 100). Refilwe had gained the privilege to come and go as freely as she pleased without restrictions. However she witnessed other cultures being violated at custom checks based on where they came from which is racial profiling. These events lead to Refilwe to truly observe the area around her and obtained that the English did not distinguish the different culture. Her identity in England was belittled down to Africans. Like Freida the idea of language is touched up, but in an opposite