Country Lovers Essay

A story of forbidden love on a South African farm, one child nothing more than a farm worker, as the other one prepares for boarding school. Both ignorant to the color of their skins, all they knew they were best friends playing together until they grew up and then it was not allowed. But when Paulus turns fifteen and goes to school things start to change he begins to realize the difference between boys and girls, and then the consequences behind his actions, but then it’s too late to turn back. What drew me into this story was the title country lovers, and then the forbidden love on a South African farm I wanted to see what it was about, curios to know if it was about two people of different races falling in love, creating racial relationships in a place that forbid it. And that was exactly what it was, two kids playing together as kids, a boy white and girl black, everyday playing on his father’s farm. What I couldn’t understand was why they were able to play as kids but not be able to socialize when they got older. If it was because of racial boundaries, why not keep them apart even when they are kids, then it wouldn’t be so confusing. The literary term and concept that best describes they way I am feeling about this would be Imagination because it expresses how the author was feeling about racial differences and allows the reader to feel what the author is writing about. I am using the Reader – Response approach to analyze my story because it asks you to connect with the literature, and find a personal link or imaginative entry into a story. And that is what this author makes you do. While reading this story I had a lot of different emotions like why did he change when he went to school, but when he came home he was with thebedi. Even though he met people at school whose family’s was prosperous famer’s? He still was bringing gifts to thebedi, she making gifts for him and both lying about where they came from and why. They had been sneaking around for months, so when she was eighteen and the farmer’s son was nineteen he left for veterinary college, Njabulo’s parents asked Thebedi’s parents to marry their son and they agreed on it, not telling Paulus or Njabulo that she might be pregnant. When the baby was born looked nothing like Njabulo, but he still was going to take care of her as if she was his own. This would be Satire because he should feel anger but instead he is willing to take care of her. My thinking didn’t change because in that time that’s what happens when two different races mix and have children, I just thank god it’s not like that now to the extreme it was then. Because I love people for who they are not because of where they come from. Because of the author’s background growing up in South Africa I can understand why she feels this way, they have different traditions and beliefs. This was a very good story; I enjoyed reading it and feeling what they were going through.