THE LEMON ORCHARD
BY
ALEX LA GUMA
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
• Alex La Guma (born 1925) was a black South African novelist.
• He was a member of the black liberation movement which fought
against apartheid in South Africa.
• During his life he was detained and imprisoned several times for his
anti-apartheid activities.
• Most of his novels depict characters’ struggles against oppression
and the negative effects of apartheid.
• Present in his short stories are the use of vivid style, colourful
dialogue and an ability to present sympathetically people living
under sordid and oppressive circumstances.
SETTING- APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA
• The story is set in 1960s South Africa, in a lemon orchard at
night during apartheid in South Africa.
• The story shows what life was like during the apartheid.
• White men called black men “Kaffir”.
• Coloured people (a person who is mixed European and
African black) were referred to as “hotnot”
• Whites insisted blacks call them “boss”(baas) while black men
of all ages were referred to as “boy”, a common practice.
PLOT OVERVIEW
One night a young coloured man is dragged from his bed
by several white men. He is led through an orchard to a
place where the white men intend to beat him. Earlier,
the young man, a teacher, had ‘been cheeky” to a white
church minister.
He had been beaten but insisting on his rights, had
registered a complaint with the local authorities. This
“uppidy-ness” inflamed the white vigilantes who decide
to teach the coloured man ‘his place’.
NARRATION
• Third person limited (limited to the coloured person’s point of view).
• The white people being unnamed creates an atmosphere of threat
and mystery and shows their possible cowardice.
CHARACTERS
• There were 4 white people and one coloured man
• Coloured man is a teacher, educated, who has registered his
complaint against a white man. He is determined to mask his fear in a
scary situation and tries to remain dignified throughout. He is
determined to receive respect “he was afraid but his fear was mixed
with stubbornness”
• Three white men are uneducated, South African. They speak broad
Afrikaans and believe in their superiority over the black man and
engage in violence.
• The leader of the group is described as very short-tempered and a
person who handles guns well.
LANGUAGE
• The language conveys hatred and callousness.
• The leader says: “He is a slim hotnot; one of those educated bushmen.” His use
of Afrikaans Dutch slang ‘hotnotʼ and the crudeness of his language reflect how
uneducated and rough he is.
• When the bounded man says “Yes baas”, the author explains the tone by
writing “…speaking with a mixture of dignity and contempt which was missed
by those who surrounded him.
• “I will shoot whatever hotnot or kaffir I desire… when they are spoken to”
shows the anger present in the leader.
• Words like “Oom” (Boss/Uncle/Sir) illustrate the racial discrimination that was
occurring between the blacks and whites in South Africa.
• The author used certain language as dialogues to convey character traits.
SUBJECT MATTER/THEMES
• Racism
• Discrimination
• Hierarchy
• Injustice/Abuse of Power
• Oppression
• Fear and Dignity
CONFLICT
• Man vs. Society – The story reflects the conflict between a
young black man against the Apartheid governance and
discriminatory attitudes of 1960s South Africa.
SYMBOLISM
• The clouds are described as being like “dirty cotton wool”- symbolizes
that something is not right and symbolizes what is about to happen
to the man. Clouds are usually described as being white and in
literature white is often used to symbolize innocence and beauty. By
having the clouds “dirty” La Guma may be suggesting that nature is
tainted in some way.
• The moon is mentioned on several occasions. It is described as being
“hidden”. Later on in the story there is moonlight which suggests that
the moon is showing itself in the sky. It is possible that by hiding the
moonlight at the beginning of the story La Guma is symbolically
suggesting that people hid themselves away when it came to racism
in South Africa. Nobody (who was white) ever stood up to racism.
SYMBOLISM- CONTINUED
• The crickets are symbolic of human nature. Those that are near the
white men who are holding the coloured man prisoner are described
as having “stopped their small noises.” While further away those not
near the men are continuing to creek. La Guma is suggesting that the
crickets (as human nature) that are far away are turning a blind eye to
what is occurring while those that are near the men are waiting to
see what will happen, possibly in support of the men.
What do these symbolize?
• Winter chill in the air “coolness of the night”.
• “They could not be seen in the dark”, “as dark as a kaffir’s soul”
LITERARY DEVICES
• Alliteration- “quivering shine of scattered quicksilver”, could suggest the fear of
the colored man, as another term for quivering could be trembling and a
synonym of quicksilver is unstable.
• Metaphor- The metaphor “the moonlight clung for a while to the leaves”
affects the audience by giving us hope of change. It has the effect of the light
breaking through the dark, shining a light on the hidden perils of our world. The
word “clung” further emphasizes the colored man’s fear and this powerful term
makes the desperate atmosphere thicken.
SIMILE
• Simile- “his eyes were hard and blue like two frozen lakes” reflects the cruelty
and unforgiving nature of the white leader. Eyes are often described as
windows to the soul, and in this case the leader’s soul were “two frozen lakes”
telling of the brutal, unyielding, and mercilessly cold nature of the leader.
There is inconsistency or contradiction between the evil intentions of the white
men and the beautiful, sweet-scented surroundings.
“…a sharp bitter-sweet citrus smell hung gently on the night air”
“fragrant growth”
Questions
1. How does the author make us feel sympathy for the
coloured man in the story?
2. Explore the effect of language choice and diction on the
ending of the story.
3. Explore the ways in which the author makes the ending of
the story interesting.