- What did you think the people of Ndotsheni would have thought of Kumalo once they figured that his son had killed a person?
I thought the people of Ndotsheni would have probably hated Kumalo for the rest of their lives. Since Kumalo is a priest, he would have lost his job and some people would have stopped coming to church. Those people might never believe in God and that could possibly lead them to doing horrible things like stealing, drug use etc. Because of people’s reaction, Kumalo probably could not have handled himself. This would have led him to a heart attack or something like that. This is only what I thought would have happened in the story.
- Compare the life of Johannesburg with Ndotsheni.
In the book, we see people of Johannesburg are far busier than those of Ndotsheni. People in Johannesburg are likely to end up kidnapping, stealing etc. just to feed their families, whereas people of Ndotsheni are likely to be living a healthy and honest lifestyle. Johannesburg is more of an urban life where people have office/manufacturing jobs while Ndotsheni is very rural where people do farming for their living. Although both towns have lots of differences, they do have one thing in common; in both towns black people are discriminated.
- Why do you think the author has the little boy (Jarvis’s nephew) in the story? What is his significance in the story?
I think the author has the little boy in the book to just make things better. He is the character who realises some of the problems that black people suffer in Ndotsheni and he tries to help them out as much as he can. He inspires Kumalo that things can be better in this town and his significance in the story is very important. He is like the rope that connects Jarvis and Kumalo. He tells Jarvis the situations that Kumalo faces and in the end Jarvis helps Kumalo. On the other side, the little boy tells about Jarvis to Kumalo and how things are in the white man’s house.
- How does the setting affect the storyline?
The setting in the whole book emphasises on the situation of the plot. In the beginning of the book, problems with the characters start to rise and the farms of Ndotsheni also start to dry up. Then in the middle of the book, readers are introduced to Johannesburg, which is much more modernized than Ndotsheni. In Johannesburg people want things fast and the plot seems to speed up as well when Kumalo chases his son, Absalom. In the end of the book, problems get solved and the weather of Ndotsheni starts to get better as well. In conclusion, the situation of the plot is much like the setting.
- Why did James Jarvis help a person, Kumalo, whose son killed Arthur, James’s son?
I think James is really calm about the fact that his son is killed and because of that he makes great decisions. He realises that Kumalo’s son did not mean to kill Arthur and also it wasn’t Kumalo who killed Arthur. In addition to that, by helping Kumalo, James is actually helping the whole town and not just Kumalo specifically. Because of these reasons, James decides to help a person whose son killed Arthur.
- If you had to pick a character (other than Kumalo) from this book, which character would it be?
I think I would like to be Msimangu because he is a character that I can relate to the best. He is someone who tells you things straight up and clears up everything yet is nice enough not to hurt people’s feelings. He is very formal and respects others just as well as anyone could. Msimangu shows he is trustworthy and helps out people like Kumalo who are new to Johannesburg. All in all, Msimangu is a great character who is polite, trustworthy, respectful and facilitates others.
- Pretend there was Book 4, what would you expect to read in it?
In Book 4 I would probably expect to hear about Absalom’s son and hear about how good the farms of Ndotsheni have turned out to be. I would also like to hear from Gertrude and hopefully she comes back to live with Kumalo’s family. In Book 4, I hope we get to know Mrs. Kumalo more and what her personality is like. I would absolutely love to see James and Kumalo to be great friends, but there is always going to be a gap between them because of Absalom’s actions. It would just be great to read another book where things just become better and better.