When Paulus is 18, he gets his driver’s license and the parents start to let him take care of the farm when they are gone in the weekends. Then Paulus and Thebedi can stay in the house. When Thebedi is 18 she gets married to a man called Njabulo. At the same time Paulus is going to a veterinary college and doesn’t know about the marriage.
Two months after the marriage Thebedi gets a daughter. The baby is not dark as other African babies are.
When Paulus comes home from school and finds out that Thebedi has got a baby, he gets very angry. He walks straight to the house where Thebedi lives. He sees the baby and gets very mad. He says he wants to kill himself.
Two weeks later, when Paulus’ parents are away, he walks down to the baby and takes the milk that Thebedi feeds the baby with when he’s gone Thebedi goes in and finds the baby dead. Thebedi goes to the police and says what has happened.
After one year the case comes up in court and Thebedi has another baby but it’s with Njabulo. But the court doesn’t have enough proof to say that Paulus is guilty. The result was “not guilty”. After this, Thebedi and Paulus don’t see each other any more.
I think the story is boring in parts, because of the way how it’s written, it’s not done very interesting. There is no tension build up in the story and therefore you never know what the actors are thinking. Only one part is written in direct speech. Do to this fault, the story seems unrealistic to me.
But I think the plot behind the story is very important, because it shows the problems in the world with racism.
Paulus is the perfect example of a slave of the system in which you can’t have your own opinion about having contact to people who aren’t like you. If he and Thebedi get the chance of a normal life, I think they would be happy and together. Thebedi is another kind of slave. She is one more on a physical and psychological base, because the whites have her body and her mind. She must work for the whites and can’t be together with a white boy.
The story is set in a village called kraal in South Africa. The location is on a small hill top surrounded by lots of green land and tress. The views given to us by the reader is that its set in a countryside and is near a lake.
The black girl Thebedi is one of the main characters in the story "Country Lovers" which was written by Nadine Gordimer.
She lives in South Africa under apartheid, so she hasn't as much rights as whites do and has to keep the love with the white boy Paulus Eysendyck secretly.
Before she gets a baby from him when she is eighteen, she had a friendship with him for many years and she helped him by working on his farm. Therefore she also got gifts from Paulus. But then she gets married at the same time with a black boy called Njabulo.
Thebedi has never been to a real school like a school for whites, so she is poor like the whole kraal which is the place where she lives. Never less she is a quite romantic person, so for example she likes sitting near a river and just watching a sun rise or other things.
Paulus Eysendyck is the son of a white farmer in South Africa. Paulus is a very sportive boy and quite attractive. He has a good education in contrast to black people, who have to work and don't get a good school education.
While, he visits a veterinary college, he begins a sexual relationship with the black girl Thebedi. Thebedi and Paulus were previously friends and played together when they were children.
Soon Thebedi gets pregnant, but in South Africa it isn't allowed to have sexual intercourse between black and white people. Therefore he wants to hide it and that's why he kills the infant.
He is very selfish and spoilt. He isn't interested in his own mistakes, because generally only his own opinion is right. So for example he can have sexual intercourse with a black girl, but it's not his fault if she gets pregnant but after realizing what he did after I could see why I think he is at fault for his actions.
However he thinks that he has the right, to kill a baby, because he is white.
