The Train from Rhodesia
What do you learn about the newly married girl in this story?
It seems from the text that the newly married girl is almost certainly white, and is most probably of middle/upper class. She seems at first quite confident and it seems that her new husband is quite willing to please her.
She seems to like the lion carving offered to her on the train but she says, ‘Too expensive, too much,’ thinking that it is too much to pay for the item. Her young husband then insists loudly ‘Three-and-six’ almost as a way of showing his affection towards her. She then says ‘Oh leave it,’ as if she doesn’t want it if he buys it for her. She further reinforces this when her husband asks if she wants it, and she says, ‘No, never mind.’
We find out more about the young woman and her problems in the next paragraph where she goes into the coupé where she sits down. Out of the window, on one side of the train. There is ‘nothing; sand and bush; a thorn tree.’ On the other side of the train, ‘Back through the open doorway, past the figure of her husband in the corridor, there was the station, the voices, wooden animals waving, running feet.’ This creates an impression of desolate loneliness on one side (nothing but sand and bush) and freedom (wooden animals waving, running feet and the voices) on the other side with her husband standing between her and freedom and free speech symbolised by the voices.
