Yong Cheng Low
Plot
The black man was being dragged in the cold out of
his bed by five white man, one who is carrying a
gun. The black person being beaten up by white
people because of being cheeky to the minister of a
church. The man was dragged all the way to the
lemon orchard and was eventually beaten up and
killed.
Genre
 The Genre of the Story
is about realism of the
events happening in
South Africa where the
white use their power
to abuse the black
where they are unjustly
shot.
Themes
 Violence
 Hatred
 Racism
 Bitterness & Oppression
 Abuse of Power
 Fear and Dignity
Characters
 The Black men – He his a school teacher, well
educated person who has been cheeky to the
minister church. He is scared of what is going to
happen but he still keeps his head up for pride.
 The White men – They hated the blacks so they use
their power to bully the black people, make them
fear of the white and making treating the blacks
without any dignity.
Language
 The story is in a 3rd person narration.
 The author has used lots of symbolic images to tell
the reader what the narrator what he feels about the
situation.
 Alex la Guma has used different economical
language to convey callous and hatred in the story.
 It is a very short story, it includes nothing about the
attack and what actually happened.
How Tension is Created
 Alex la Guma builds up tension by using symbolic images:
 “The moon was hidden behind long high parallels of cloud.”
 “The men were walking through an orchard of lemon and the
sharp bittersweet citrus smell hung gently on the night air.”
 “In the dark this man’s face was invisible except for a blur of
shadowed hollows and lighter crags.”
 “The moonlight clung for awhile to the leaves and the angled
branches.”
 “The Lemon Orchard”
How it links to other stories
 The lemon orchard links with the other short story
The Yellow Wall Paper as most of the themes are
the same. They both included used imagery and
symbolism in their writing. They both include
oppressions in their story, and both talk about some
of the political and social issues such as racism and
women empowerment.