The Lemon Orchard
Background
Themes
Took place in South Africa, 1962 on a winter night.
Hierarchy
Apartheid: legal segregation of blacks and whites
Discrimination
Symbolism
Injustice
Racism / Discrimination
Light vs. Dark
Churches were given more importance than law and government.
Characterization
"bobbing lantern": creates suspense
Racism
Hunting was common at the time: the leader of the group was described as a very short-tempered person who handles guns well. He wore laced up riding boots which was common as well.
Derogatory Terms
"baas" (superior), "sjambok" (whip), "hotnot" & "kaffir" (n-word), "verdomte" (damn)
Big racial influence: slang terms such as: hotnot(colored man), kaffir(black man)
"hotnot"
"kaffir"
"donders"
Job
"educated hotnot" vs. farmers
The story delves into discriminating against skin color, for it involves a colored man being punished by his white captors.
"the beam of the battery-lamp on his face the shadows...[revealed]": light is used to reveal the truth.
Motives in punishing the colored man seem to have resulted from a hierarchy of sorts, where the black community is at the bottom and the white community reigns above them.
"the moon was hidden behind the sky," & "the moon came from behind the banks of cloud": the moon shines a light upon the truth
Lemons
"his face like the myriad lines which indicate rivers, streams, roads and railways on a map": the traditional racists ways have guided these people.
Imagery
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One can argue that the colored man's fate is rather unjust for his punishment was decreed by white individuals who took matters into their owns hands rather than the jurisdiction of law and government
"The moonlight clung for a while to the leaves and the angled branches, so that along their tips and edges the moisture gleamed with the quivering shine of scattered quicksilver." Nature was crying for the coloured man as the white men were torturing him. Makes story open-ended.
The story delves into discriminating against skin color, for it involves a colored man being punished by his white captors.
click to edit