Gordimer's "Good Climate, Friendly Inhabitants", "Amnesty" & "Six Feet of the Country"

Three works by Nadine Gordimer.

Nadine Gordimer, a notoriously powerful South African author, expresses her first-hand witnessings of apartheid through her subtle but meaningful literature by imboding the narrators of her stories. Gordimer, in three of her stories, "Good Climate, Friendly Inhabitants", "Amnesty" & "Six Feet of the Country" assumes the narrator's character, she becomes the narrator, convincing the reader that the story-teller is a real person with a particular view of their surroundings, which results in a lesson or opinion concerning apartheid.

In "Good Climate" Gordimer's unreliable narrator is a 49 year old white woman who is anything but humble. She is a character that we as readers pity for her loneliness and colonized mind. Gordimer does not give this woman a name, but rather she gives the only black African in the story a name. His name is Jack Mpanza Makiwane and he is the contradiction to stereotypes of Africans, he is intelligent, literate and he contains more depth than the white woman. At the end of the story, Gordimer's lesson regarding apartheid is that such segregated upbringing can change good people's minds to believe that such colonial thinking is the right, ethical and only option.

Gordimer imbodies another of her unreliable narrators in "Amnesty" but this time she speaks through a young woman struggling to balance a life on an African farm alone raising her child while her not-yet-husband deals with more worldly matters of the Movement. Gordimer, unlike many authors who agree with the ANC, decides to tell this story through the eyes of someone who is not a seeminlgy direct fighter for the end of apartheid. The story ends with the mother "waiting for him to come back home" this however is a sad realization because the no-named narrator accepts that she is going to be without her love but at the same time she is willing to sacrafice because the broader picture is the future of her children and of the next generation in general. Gordimer is suggesting here that the end of apartheid is only possible when everyone works together, even if their fight is in different ways.

In my opinion, Gordimer's "Six Feet.." is the most intriguing and entertaining story of the three and this story is meant to elaborate to the audience that apartheid is a lose-lose policy because neither the black men and women nor the white men and women hold the power, but rather the institution itself is the sole wiedler of power. Gordimer's (yet-another) unrealiable narrator is a white man who is burdened with having to live in the country with a wife that is martyr-like in actions and beliefs. Through this man, we the readers realize that he has little power over any institution of the era. After being powerless in his vain efforts to get the dead body of a black worker's brother back, the reader is left with a underlying disappointment and pity for the black African family who is now unable to bury their relative properly. Nadine Gordimer's point is subtle and not given to the reader in words, but rather in all three of the previously mentioned works, the view and lesson of the story must be implied and pieced together.

Nadine Gordimer's ability to evoke emotion through the rhetorical appeal of pathos is undeniably impressive but this ability combined with her underlying meanings and passion is what makes her stories very interesting to read. Gordimer's view of apartheid and the characteristics of the segregation she grew up in has opened my eyes to more than just one standard, directional view. I now know that apartheid does not just negatively affect the owned or the dark skinned Africans but that whites were negatively affected too. Their minds were warped to believe that racism was an accepted way of life and that in the end many people suffered from such persuasion invading their minds.

I believe that Gordimer's views of segregation are what make such organizations such as the ANC and the Congress of South African Writers possible as well as a success. In a way she is a peaceful protestor. She believes in an awakening and a change that will end apartheid but the answer is not through violence like African writer Jomo Kenyatta. I believe her writings are successfully balanced with passion, intensity, honesty and just enough subtly to get people's minds thinking for themselves.

However, apartheid is still an ongoing institution. I have witnessed such segregatory practices right here in the United States. Our states may claim to be united but not all of the nation's citizens can unite with different races. This is an issue that I personally care about and I want the future to consist of more open minds and welcoming hearts and with encouragement to write there is a chance that writers with views shared by Gordimer will be able to penetrate the barrier between light and dark.