The soft voice of the serpent
Background & Setting:
*in a young couple’s garden
over a period of time
*The garden is surrounded
by strongly scented fir trees,
roses and colourful flowers.
*Setting is central to story
because the man has a
‘curious’ faith in the garden.
*It is like the Garden of
Eden, a kind of paradise.
Characters:
*Young man – has difficulty
accepting loss of left leg.
Empathy with locust ends
up irritable.
*Young woman – clumsy
and defensive, gentle and
supportive, cares lovingly
for her husband, is
compassionate.
*Locust – has lost front left
leg, instils fear in humans,
fails in effort to walk, but is
able to fly away.
Plot:
*Allegory – deeper meaning, with
surprise ending
*A nameless man struggles to come to
terms with his disability. He forces
himself to read rather than face up to
what has happened to him. His wife is
clumsy with his wheelchair and she is the
one who injures the locust. It is also her
fault that the locust flies away.
Symbols:
*Serpent – reference to
Garden of Eden. With its
soft voice it reminded the
man of the reality of his
situation. Serpent was
there to remind him that
life is complex and a
struggle an that more
difficulties lay ahead.
Language:
*Third person narrator (omniscient)
*Descriptive language emphasising
movement contrasts sharply with
young man’s inability to walk.
*Metaphors (‘slack, furled sail of
himself”) create vivid images.
Themes:
*Confronting challenges head-on
Human beings’ inner conflict and struggle – He struggles to come to terms with the loss of his leg.
He hopes that he will eventually simply ‘feel as if he had always been like that’. By the end of the
story, through his connection with the locust, he has been forced to confront what has happened
to him.
*Confronting change
Shows how individuals struggle to confront /change the conditions in which they live.
*Accepting yourself
*Self-deception
The Luncheon by William Somerset Maugham
Background & Setting:
*A lunch ate one Thursday, 20 years earlier in
Foyot’s, a very expensive restaurant in Paris.
*The period is the first half of the 20th century.
*Interval during a play
Plot
In the opening 3 paragraphs, the writer is speaking in
the present tense. He then takes the reader back to an
experience that he had 20 years before. In the final
paragraph of the story he returns to the present and
surprises us with what he discovers.
There is an ironic twist in the final sentence of the story.
Now 20 years later, the man has his revenge: her
gluttony has made her obese an she weighs 21 stone
(133,4kg)
Characters:
*Narrator (protagonist) – a poor young writer
*The woman – about 40, talkative, greedy,
self-centred, manipulative, obese when they
meet again.
*The waiter – encourages the woman to eat
more
Language/Style:
*First person narrator
*Flashback – the narrator remembers an
awkward, potentially embarrassing
luncheon 20 years previously.
*Sarcasm and irony are use to satirise (poke
fun at) polite society.
Themes:
*Vanity and pride
*Revenge
*Greed
* Self-deception
* Truth and lies
This story questions truth and lies. The woman says things that are obviously untrue,
yet she seems to believe that she’s telling the truth.
The writer has not got the courage to be honest to her and admit that he cannot afford
to pay for the expensive meal. Twenty years later, it is clear that she never confronted
the truth about herself – that she was greedy and over-ate!
Manhood by John Wain
Background & Setting:
*The story is set in a rural part of England an in the
Willison home.
*The events take place over 12 to 18 months
Language/Style:
*Third person narrator (omniscient)
*Dialogue reveals the characters, their
thoughts, feelings, an reasons for acting the
way they do.
*Colloquial language helps the reader
identify with the characters. (“To hell with
Baroness Summerskill!”, “All right”)
Characters:
*Rob Willison – 13 going on 14 years old, is not
particularly strong, or good at sports, or
ambitious, wants his father’s approval (wants to
be pleased), is passive, pretends he is in the
boxing team.
*Mr Willison – Rob’s father, is plump, of average
height and flat-chested, lacks self-esteem,
inferiority complex, obsessed with masculinity.
Grace Willison – Rob’s mother, disagrees with
her husband regarding Rob’s upbringing, is
protective of Rob, is concerned about his health
and well-being.
Plot
*The plot revolves around Mr Willison’s obsession with
developing Rob’s physique an masculinity. He trains Rob
for the boxing tournament. The story builds to a climax
as the readers along with Mr Willison, believe Rob is
training for the tournament.
Themes:
*Father-son relationships
*Identity development
*Parenting
*The effect of low self-esteem
*Masculinity and society’s expectations of men
The main theme, as the title indicates, is masculinity. The story shows the length to
which people can be driven to live up to what they think the standard of being a man
should be. The consequences of Mr Willison’s obsession with “manliness” are serious.
Rob resorts to dishonesty an the family becomes seriously divided.
Relatives by Chris van Wyk
Background & Setting:
*Actual story set on return
train journey from Hutchison
Station to Johannesburg.
*Story within the story set on
journey from Johannesburg to
Cape Town.
Characters:
*Chris van Wyk – aspirant writer
at 21
*Two unfriendly brothers –
“delinquents’, threatening,
vengeful, gangsters, turn out to
be distant family of the narrator.
*Three friendly men on train –
draw him out with stories
Plot:
Most of the story is structure around the
narrator’s train journey from Cape Town to
Johannesburg. There is a very short story
within the main story.
The plot has two ‘twists’. The first occurs
when the narrator’s three friendly travelling
companions get off the train and he is left
alone with the two delinquents.
Symbols:
*Narrator’s notebook – he
wrote some of the family sagas
and made notes for this story.
*The train itself – this
symbolises a journey in the
narrator’s life in terms of an
experience that made him
think about life and provided
material for his novel and for
this story.
*The graves of the three
brothers symbolise the
tragedy of gangsterism and the
waste of young lives.
Language:
*First person narrator – author/protagonist speaks
of own experiences which adds authenticity.
*Style of writing is lively, personal and chatty.
*Writer uses long sentences and short sentences
for particular effects.
*Language fits characters (Marina, a nurse, tells
him to come and see her in the morning, as if
speaking to a patient).
*Personal touch in use of Afrikaans words like
“oupa”.
Themes:
*Memories
*Family bonds
Coincidences of life
*Fears, real and imaginary
*The importance of family ties – the writer devotes quite a bit of attention to family and roots.
*The tragedy of gangsterism – comes through strongly towards end of story. Ends story on note
of sadness that is was a waste of young lives.
The sisters by Pauline Smith
Characters:
Background & Setting:
*Little Karoo, near
Oudtshoorn, neighbouring
farms, Bitterwater and
Zeekoegatt in vicinity of
Platkops.
*The water rights from the
Ghamka River.
*Over 100 years ago.
*Sukey de Jager - Marta’s younger sister;
fearless, loyal, loving, loses faith in God,
is very perceptive
*Marta Magdalena de Jager – 16 when
mother dies; sold in marriage to Jan;
submits to her fate, loves her sister; not
judgemental, is willing to sacrifice self for
family; dies
*Burgert de Jager – owns Zeekoegatt,
envies Jan, greedy, weak, values material
things, sells marta to save farm
*Jan Redlinghuis – owns Bitterwater,
greedy, cruel, har-hearted, vengeful
vindictive, ruthless, a bit mad
Plot:
*The conflict at the heart of the plot is Sukey’s unwillingness
to have Marta married off to Jan Redlinghuis.
*She tries everything to stop this marriage going ahead.
*Her conflict is with her father and his obsessive greed to
keep his lands and water rights.
*The story ends with Marta’s death but there is an ironic
twist as well.
*Jan Redlinghuis’s remorse over his treatment of Marta
comes as a surprise. His character has not prepared us for
this and for his suicide.
*Burget de Jager also expresses remorse for “selling” Marta
and for her consequent death.
*To show his remorse, he closes up the furrow that had
been leading water from the river onto his lands.
Symbols:
*Furrow symbolises the
terrible bargain de Jager made
with Redlinghuis to keep his
water rights and sell Marta to
Redlinghuis.
*Jan Redlinghuis’s new tentcart symbolises his greed and
obsessive pride in his
possessions.
Language:
*The style of narration is simple and oldfashioned.
*suggests events in story took place some
time ago & community in which they took
place consisted of simple farming people.
*Story seems to be translated from Afrikaans
Themes:
*Greed and how it affects people’s lives – Burgert de Jager’s obsessive greed to keep his lands & to have water to
irrigate them blinds him to the effect of his actions on his daughters. Jan Redlinghuis’s greed to possess Marta
de Jager & to display her around the district in the end killed both her and him.
*Madness and obsession – this theme is linked to greed. Burgert de Jager’s obsession with keeping his lands and
water rights is overwhelming.
*The narrator mentions more than once that Jan Relinghuis goes “at times a little man in his head”. He parades
Marta around the district, boasting that her father had sold her in exchange for his lands.
*Powerlessness of women – The powerlessness of women an how they suffer as a result of the greed and power
of men is shown in the way that Burgert de Jager uses his daughter, Marta, as a pawn in his battle to keep his
lands. She has no power over her fate, and is married off to Jan Redlinghuis. Sukey tries to reason with her
father but he is deaf to her pleas. Sukey tries to offer herself to Jan Redlinghuis. He laughs at her.
When they are married, Marta has no power to stop Jan Redlinghuis from parading her around the district and
boasting to everyone that her father had sold her to him, even though she is becoming more and more ill and
weak.
*The power of love between sisters – is shown in the way that Sukey is prepared to sacrifice herself to Jan
Redlinghuis in order to save her weaker sister from marriage to him. Marta tries to comfort and reassure Sukey
that she,Marta, is ready to accept her fate. Marta on her deathbed again comforts Sukey by saying that it has
The secret life of Walter Mitty by James Thurber
all worked out for the best.
The secret life of Walter Misty – James Thurber
The secret life of Walter Mitty by James Thurber
Background & Setting:
*Story is set on a snowy day in an American town,
Waterbury
*Much of the action takes place in a car, but we
also follow the main character, Walter Mitty,
as he makes his way around town.
Characters:
*Walter – old, inadequate & hen-pecked, forgetful,
his life is mundane, lives in fantasy world.
*Walter’s wife – bossy, self-absorbed & nagging,
overprotective & demanding, controlling and
condescending, also forgetful, ignores Walter’s
needs, humiliates him
Language:
*Language is colloquial and idiomatic.
*Onomatopoeia – “pocketa-pocketa-pocketa” and “rat-tat-tatting”
* Vocabulary
•Archies;
• Auprès de Ma Blonde: romantic song
• Hydroplane: a plane that can take off and land on water
• Liberty;
• Von Richtman’s circus;von Richtman was a German commander
• Webley-Vickers 50.80: gun
• Overshoes: rubber shoes that you wear over ordinary shoes to keep your feet dry
• Waterbury trial:
• Saulier: place in France
• Dugout: a trench for soldiers
Plot:
*A mix of fantasy and reality
*The plot moves between Walter’s fantasy world and the real one.
*Walter has five fantasties:
Fantasy 1: Mitty imagines himself as the Commander of a Navy seaplane going through a storm. In real
life he is driving a car, taking his wife to the hairdresser, and she is shouting at him for going too fast.
Fantasy 2: This is the fantasy of himself as a great surgeon.
Fantasy 3: The newspaper vendor announcing the Waterbury trial (p.271) sparks off Mitty‟s fantasy of
himself as an accused murderer Fantasy 4: Waiting for his wife in the hotel Mitty reads an article about
Germany‟s air power (remember that this is during the Second World War). This sets off his fantasy of
himself as the Captain of a bomber about to go on a mission to take out an ammunition dump.
Fantasy 5: Waiting for his wife outside the chemist („drugstore‟ is the American term) he has a
cigarette (p.273). This makes him imagine himself as the condemned man having his final cigarette
before he faces execution by firing squad.
Themes:
*Appearance versus reality
*Hero versus victim
In Walter’s real life he is anything but a hero. He is the victim of his wife’s ridicule and criticism.
However, we are taken into Walter’s secret life – his fantasy world. Here he is admired. Clever and
courageous.
It seems that the only way Walter can manage his real life is to withdraw from it into his fantasies.
*Success and failure
*Fantasy and imagination
The Dube Train by Themba Can
The Dube Train by Can Themba
Background & Setting:
*Apartheid in the 1950s
*Third-class carriage on a train.
*Train is making its way from
Dube Station to Johannesburg
on a Monday morning.
*During apartheid, black people
could not travel first or second
class, only allowed to travel on
third-class carriages.
Characters:
*Narrator: observer, doesn’t get
Involved
*Huge man
*Township girl
*The angry woman
*The tsotsi
Plot:
*At beginning of story, one would think the
narrator is going to write a descriptive
piece of a typical Monday morning train
ride-cold, unpleasant and predictable.
*However, it is the plot, which describes a
violent episode on the train, that is central
to this story.
Symbols:
*the knife symbolises the
dangerous life le by the tsotsi
*third-class carriage reminder
of apartheid era
Language:
*Similes and metaphors are effectively used to
capture a sense of place and character in story.
*Even though the subject matter is serious, story is
written with humour. Helps to keep writer
detached from the action.
Themes:
*Violence and abuse – key in story.
The tsotsi threatens the girl & verbally abuses the woman who has insulted the men on the train for
being “poltroons” or cowards.
The tsotsi stabs the big man in his throat but the big man throws the tsotsi out of the train.
Most of the passengers, in particular the women, are helpless in the face of this violence.
*Courage and respect – explore in story.
As one woman says: “If there were real men here, they’d pull his pants off an give him such a leathering
he’d never sit down for a week.” The narrator does not seem surprised by what happens. It just
becomes another episode to talk about that day.
The coffee-cart girl by Es’kia Mphahlele
Background & Setting:
*Apartheid
*In the business area of a big
city, probably Johannesburg
The first part of story takes
Place during a strike in a
downtown area of the city.
Strike turns violent & there is a
clash with police. Later, many of
the workers lose their jobs.
Ruben continues to visit Zodwa
At her cart. When he earns
money from a new job, he takes
Characters:
*China (Ruben): mixture of love
and violence, jealous
*Pinkie (Zodwa): vulnerable,
innocent, generous
*Mr Nadoo: cheapjack, finds
Pinkie attractive & enjoys her
company, shares funny stories
with her.
Plot:
*Story explores relationship between Pinkie
& China.
*Narrated in the third person by an
omniscient narrator.
*Scene is set for the development of the
relationship during a violent strike. The
relationship is explored and develop through
dialogue and description.
Relationship seems to flower when China
gets a new job and buys Pinkie presents.
*Crisis ins tory is when Pinkie’s acceptance of
Naidoo’s gift sparks China’s violent jealousy
& he threatens her with a knife.
*Anticlimas/reversal- China decides to go and
ask Pinkie’s forgiveness & develop their
intimacy further.
However, this never happens because all the
coffee-cart traders have been removed from
the city.
*The story ends with a suggestion that he has
lost Pinkie.
Symbols:
*Coffee-cart symbolises the
beginning and the end of the
relationship between Pinkie
& China.
*China’s knife symbolises both
his violent past and the violent
side of his character.
Language:
*Writer uses dialogue frequently in order to tell story &
explore relationship between Pinkie & China.
Makes story like a play or film.
It makes it more vivid and alive for the reader.
*Writer uses a lot of description in story and makes
frequent use of figures of speech in his descriptions,
especially main characters. Find examples of
metaphors and similes.
*Writer uses strong, vivid language to describe city
scenes.
*When writer describes the stirrings of attraction and
love in both Pinkie 7 China he uses violent language
to show both how strong the attraction is an how
frightened both people are of these feelings.
Themes:
*The effect of political events on people and their relationships
Zodwa/Pinkie & Ruben/China feel a strong attraction to each other. However, each is afraid to show it.
Things come to a head when China is overcome with violent jealousy of Naidoo’s attentions to Pinkie.
Because China is a product of a violent apartheid society he reacts in a violent way and threatens Zodwa
with a knife.
Both Pinkie and China lead insecure lives. China has lost his job as a result of the strike and could lose his
new job at any time.
One day police clear coffee-cart traders from the city and Pinkie loses her livelihood.
Important summary of the NOVEL:
Important to remember!
The Setting:
This is the background of where and when the story takes place.
It may be in one time and place or change through the story.
The setting is important to understand the theme and the characters.
Plot:
This is what happens in the story (sequence of events)
Some novels have a lot of action in the story line BUT some are very “slow” and nothing seems to
happen. All the action is then “inside” the characters’ hearts and minds.
Theme:
This is the main message that the writer wishes to get across to the reader.
A novel may have more than one theme.
Themes are often linked.
Certain characters are linked to certain themes.
Common themes are: love, hate, family struggles, politics and social comments, childhood
memories and justice.
Characters:
May have a large number of characters – depending on the length of novel.
Always one or a few MAJOR (main) characters – most important to the development of the story.
Always a few minor (smaller) characters in a novel – linked to the main characters.
Characters usually develop/change through the story.
Round characters: -are characters that grow and develop during the course of the novel. What
makes them change? 1) Interaction with other characters and 2) Things that happen in the plot.
Flat characters: - do not really develop or change throughout the novel. These characters are
usually very predictable and they don’t really surprise the reader, because you know what they are
going to do or how they are going to react.
How do we get to know the characters? 1) Their words 2) What they think and how they feel 3)
What they do and 4) What other characters say about them or how they react to them.
Example: “Joan was a very brave woman”
Narrator:
The writer of the story has to decide how the story will be told and by whom narrator)
First person narrator (I/we): One of the characters tells the story and we have phrases like: “I drove
far to find the deserted house.” (Writer can’t always be present in ALL actions in story)
Third person narrator: the writer tells the story and refers to each character as “she”, “he” or “they”.
The writer is always present and knows what goes on in every character’s life = omniscient
author.
Persona writing: where the story is told by a first person narrator who really exists, like a famous
movie star or politician. The person also makes comments about him- or herself.
Structure: (how plot is organized)
Linear: Novel develops in “order” from beginning to the end.
Circular: Novel starts almost at the end of the story, then goes back to the beginning. The whole
story is told until it reaches the end again (conclusion).
Flashbacks: Novel moves backwards and forwards in time throughout the book.
Looks into the future: Somewhere in the story, characters may have a look into the future by either
what they see, dream or wish.
Ending:
Most story lines are built around CONFLICT between two characters or even amongst many
characters. The ending of the story usually is a conclusion of this conflict and a resolution (solving)
of the problem(s).
A story may be open-ended= no proper ending and the reader must decide on its ending
Important summary of the DRAMA:
The DRAMA genre refers to all kinds of plays. You have to remember that plays are written to be
acted and not only for reading in class. While reading a play, you should always imagine the play
being performed on stage. When studying a drama, we have to look at factors like lighting, stage
directions, costumes, setting and not only at the plot, characters and theme.
Hints: The following questions should be asked when studying a drama:
 Who is the playwright (writer) of the play? What is his background?
 What is the TITLE of the play? Does the TITLE mean something important in relation to the
play?
 What is the SETTING of the play – where and when does it take place?
 What is the THEME of the play? (What is it about?)
 What is the STRUCTURE of the play? (Arrangement of Acts and Scenes)
 What is the PLOT of the play? (Main events)
 What kinds of CONFLICT happen in the play?
 Who are the CHARACTERS in the play? (Characteristics, roles they play, relationships between
characters)
 Your PERSONAL RESPONSE to the play. (How do you feel?)