Burger’s Daughter
Nadine Gordimer
Presenters: Shannon Blais and
Julia Vandersluis
Part 1
•Rosa’s mother is imprisoned
and dies.
•Lionel Burger is tried and
convicted, and dies while in
prison.
•Rosa grows from a girl to a
young woman.
•A man dies on the park bench
across from Rosa during lunch.
•Rosa visits old comrades of her parents.
•Rosa relives memories, addressing her lover Conrad.
•Brandt Vermeulen obtains a passport for Rosa, and
she leaves South Africa.
•Rosa learns that Conrad is probably dead.
Part 2




Rosa (Rose) lives with
Katya (Mme. Bagnelli,
Lionel’s ex-wife) in France.
Rose meets Bernard
Chabalier and they become
lovers; they make plans for
a future together.
Rose reunites with her
childhood friend ‘Baasie’ at
an anti-Apartheid gathering.
‘Baasie’ phones Rose at
night and they argue.
Part 3





Rosa returns to South Africa and
works with children with disabilities.
Orde Greer the journalist is
imprisoned.
1976 – Soweto children’s uprising
Rosa is eventually imprisoned along
with Marisa (a friend of her father’s)
and other South African
revolutionaries.
Rosa sends a letter to Katya, hinting
that she now occupies the same cell
as her father once did.
Narration




There are two distinct narration styles of this novel:
1. Third-person omniscient narrator (outside authorial
narrator)
The presence of a third person narrator is needed to explain
and create a context of the political events that drive the novel
and Rosa’s personal growth and understanding. This allows a
much more panoramic view of the time period.
The omniscient narrator also allows the reader to understand
the motivations of the secondary characters. Burger’s
Daughter is a novel where both the context and views of other
characters play significant roles in the development of Rosa’s
identity. Most notably:




The motivations of Lionel Burger as a political-moral figure, father, and
doctor.
Rosa’s mother Cathy, as the political counterpart to Lionel. A woman
with her own political goals who sees her role as a mother secondary to
her part in ending the suffering of Blacks by the apartheid.
The people of “the Future:” the Burger’s political comrades (Clare, Dick
and Ivy Terblanche, Flora Donaldson, Orde Greer, and Noel de Witt).
These people sacrifice their personal lives for the liberation of apartheid.
Katya and her friends, women and men who live only to fulfill their own
personal drives and desires.
Narration Cont’d



2. Limited perspective first-person narration/internal
monologue (Rosa’s personal perspective)
The novel is largely driven by Rosa’s narration and internal
monologue. This allows the reader insight into Rosa’s struggle
with developing an understanding of “the self” as she battles
with separating her political and private lives.
The power of this narrative style is represented by three
distinct stages of growth as Rosa addresses her monologues
to three different characters.



Part one: Rosa addresses Conrad: This represents Rosa’s
deconstruction of her past. How her political and private lives
were bound and developed together through her childhood.
Part two: Rosa speaks to Katya: This reflects Rosa’s desire to
understand her present self as she attempts to foster a personal
life in France, trying to defect from her past, and ignoring her
feelings of inadequacy as a political being.
Part Three: Rosa finally confronts Lionel: The significance of the
dialogue to her father symbolizes the acceptance of her identity
and her inability to avoid her destiny, the future.
Theme: Identity
•The theme of Burger’s Daughter is the struggle to find a
balance between personal and public lives.
•Having famous parents ensured that Rosa’s identity would be
constantly invaded by the political; she was a onedimensional political identity: “Burger’s Daughter”
•In an effort to discover her own personal identity, Rosa
escaped to France and rejected this political label. As a strictly
personal Rose, she became a one-dimensional personal
identity: “Bernard’s Mistress”
•When Baasie confronts her with the realities
of apartheid, Rosa returns to South Africa as
Rosa Burger; she is a whole individual who
recognizes her social, political, and moral
value and no longer tries to assume her
former political identity or hide within her
constructed personal self.
Metaphors/Symbolism





Rosa attempts to interpret her identity and her place in the world
through the use of personal metaphors and symbolism in her
internal monologues.
Lionel as a doctor: a metaphor for his desire to heal the illness of the
individual juxtaposed with his political desire to cure the disease of
apartheid stemming from political oppression and racial injustice.
Rosa gets her first period at the beginning of the novel during her
mother’s imprisonment. This signifies Rosa’s awareness of the
womb and her entry into adulthood as a woman and a political figure
in the eyes of “the Future.”
Rosa disapproves of Dick and Ivy’s personal sacrifice and constant
devotion to the cause. She refers to Dick and Ivy and the other exmembers of the Communist Party as “ageing poor and alive”; the
only difference between them and the dead Lionel Burger. Rosa
views them only as the living dead.
Rosa examines the fusion of her personal and private identity
through her name: Rosemarie Burger. She is named after her
grandmother Marie Burger who lived a private and personal farming
life like her Aunt and Uncle. A life based on the preservation of the
self and family outside of the public spectrum. She is also named
after Rosa Luxemburg, a famous revolutionary of the Communist
Party of Germany. This union of the private and personal figure, an
identity Rosa cannot escape, is represented in the very construction
of her name.
Rosa’s Loves

Noel de Witt – Rosa’s first love and fake fiancé


Conrad


Rosa truly loved de Witt, but their relationship was
strictly for political purposes.
Represents the fusion of Rosa’s public and private
lives; they met through her father, and he was a
liberalist, but he was never really involved in the antiapartheid movement like de Witt or Lionel himself.
Bernard Chabalier

Offered Rosa a relationship that was strictly private
and would have nothing to do with South Africa,
communism, or apartheid.
The Swimming Pool
The pool is mentioned many times as part
of Rosa’s childhood memories
 Lionel taught Rosa and Baasie (and other
children) how to swim
 Rosa’s brother Tony drowned in their
swimming pool
 The pool remained open; Lionel and
Cathy’s political activism came before their
grief over their son’s death

Dead Man



The dead man represents the
Rosa’s dissatisfaction with her
father’s philosophy about
human suffering.
Lionel’s utopian ideals of how
to end apartheid are
inadequate when faced with the
reality of death; for Rosa, the
death signifies the unanswered
questions regarding the identity
her father has cultivated for her.
She is unsure of the
significance of her possible role
in ending apartheid, as there
will always be suffering and
death.
The Donkey





Rosa witnesses a black man whipping the donkey that
pulls his cart.
The violence of this scene is described explicitly, and as
it symbolizes apartheid, it should produce a strong
reaction in the reader.
At the time, Rosa explains that she does not want to
report the crime because the criminal is black, and she
feels that in her role as a white woman, stopping a black
man would perpetuate the cycle of oppression between
the races.
However, her reluctance to interfere symbolizes the
rejection of her political identity as “Burger’s Daughter,”
and her refusal to participate in the anti-apartheid
movement.
Soon after she witnesses this violent crime, she flees
South Africa in pursuit of a personal identity.
Katya



Lionel’s ex-wife provides Rosa
with the mother figure she was
denied while growing up.
A retired ballerina, Katya
exemplifies the ideal feminine: she
never quite fit in with Lionel’s
activist comrades, and after their
divorce, she was content to
become Bagnelli’s mistress and
live a life of comfort and passivity
in France.
Katya represents what Rosa could
have become had she stayed with
Bernard rather than return to SA
and join the anti-apartheid cause.
Phone Call from ‘Baasie’

‘Baasie’’s phone call is the catalyst that drives Rosa to
return to South Africa





At first, Rosa tries to prevent the upcoming confrontation; her
efforts to delay it are a symbol of her unwillingness to face the
facts of South Africa and apartheid.
Baasie is angry that Lionel Burger’s imprisonment and death
garnered so much attention; he feels that Rosa does not deserve
the respect people automatically give her because of who her
father is.
He points out that many black fathers have died in an effort to
end apartheid, but no one seems to care about them.
Rosa defends her father’s work and politics explicitly for the first
time, and the two childhood friends get into an argument.
When Baasie confronts her with realities she has been trying to
ignore, Rosa realizes that her past, political identity is not
something she can separate herself from; the personal, private
life she has been living in Europe is no more complete than her
former public life as “Burger’s Daughter.”
Impressions
Shannon
 It’s a “think book.”
 Can appreciate the
ideas explored, even
if the style of writing
was difficult to
grapple with.
 Thought a book about
apartheid would be
more exciting.
Julia
 It felt almost like a
political manifesto.
 Developed an
appreciation for
narrative style as
novel progressed.
 Found the internal
struggle with identity
moving.
Questions






How does communism/economics work as a metaphor
for the search for identity?
Can the scope and tragedy of apartheid really be
expressed in the feelings and experiences of one white
woman? Why was the book written from this
perspective?
Does destiny exist? Was Rosa’s return to SA
predetermined?
Is this an optimistic book about self discovery?
Did Nadine Gordimer have political goals with this novel?
Do you think this novel made a difference in the fight
against apartheid?
Is it possible to live a fulfilling life by sacrificing personal
needs for a greater social cause? Or is it possible to live
a fulfilling life strictly providing for the personal needs of
the self and family while disregarding social
responsibility?