In Country Lover’s, Nadine Gordimer focuses on the theme of racial prejudice, concentration on the issue of deceit. Due to the system of apartheid, Thebedi and Paulus cruelly murdered an innocent child. This not only destroys their reputation, but it also destroys Thebedi’s husband. He not only loved his wife, but he cared for the baby deeply, even though in his mind he had a feeling it was not his.
The narrator of the Gold Cadillac is a young girl, perhaps the age of seven. We see the racial prejudice in the story as a young girl would see it, confused and baffled. This allows the story to me more truthful and innocent. Throughout, the little girl does not understand what is happening, and why is it is happening, especially because life in the South is different from the North. The action’s represented by the young girl, reflects how Mildred Taylor was when she was young. “In my early years the trip was a marvellous adventure… but I grew up to realise… that the jugs of water and lemonade were because we could not drink from the fountains marked ‘white only’”
However, unlike Mildred Taylor, Nadine Godimer’s life does not mirror any of the characters presented in Country Lovers. The energetic tone of Gold Cadillac is achieved through dialogue. The reader is immediately engaged with the details of the family life. This reflects family ties and relationships, which produces a warm impression to the reader. We learn from the tone and the dialogue that the Gold Cadillac is a symbol of security and luxury, ‘it was all good inside. Good leather seats. Gold carpeting. Gold dashboard… it looked like a car for rich folks’.
The tone at the beginning of Country Lovers starts off being neutral, allowing the reader to know each character without prejudging them. It then later becomes more personal as Nadine Gordimer focuses on detail of their daily lives, ‘when we were fifteen, six foot tall and…’
The type of racism presented in Gold Cadillac is seen to be born out of fear and ignorance. America is known for being a land of freedom; there are many cultures and different ethnic background found there. However, white people still treat black people unfairly. Many laws were passed, for example the Civil Rights Movement Act, but this did not banish racism.
The police, could not and did not want to accept that the Gold Cadillac was owned by a black man, “whose car is this boy?” The police does this because of fear, they does not want to challenged, they and many other white people are scared, that is why there are many signs saying, “WHITE ONLY, COLOURED NOT ALLOWED”. White people in the South saw black people almost as a disease.
Nadine Gordimer did not believe in apartheid. She felt strongly about equality and this is seen in many of her stories like Country lovers. Paulus Eyzebdick, who is a rich white boy, and Thebedi, a poor black girl, are lovers from their childhood. Because interracial relationship was forbidding in South Africa, they would plan to meet each other in “secret”; “they met just before the light went”.
At first it was a teenage crush, Paulus would secretly give gifts to her, “he brought home for her a painted box he made in the wood work class”. Paulus would not realise that Thebedi was a poor farm child, who wore “his sisters’ old clothes”. Paulus could have any rich white girl in his neighbouring sister school, but he chose Thebedi.
Their love for each other became stronger as they grew older, he still brought her the usual gifts, but this time they had an urge for each other, which they had never felt before.
Njabulo is a black man who wanted to marry Thbedi, he loved Thebedi dearly, he “asked her father for her”. “Two months after her marriage to Njabulo, she gave birth to a daughter”. This would have seen to be normal amongst her people; however the baby was not Njabulo, but Paulus Eyzendick’s. One day Paulus came to visit his child, when he saw her “he struggled for a moment with a grimace of tears anger and self-pity” he did not want this child, he would rather hate it then love her. His hate was so strong that he “felt like killing himself”.
Paulus returned again, it was then in this paragraph that we find out that the baby suffers from diagraph, “small grunts” were heard from the huts, where Paulus was. When Najabulo found the dead baby, he “buried the little baby where farm workers were buried”. Thebedi, who had once loved Paulus, showed no compassion when she was in the witness box “She cried hysterically, saying yes, yes, she saw the accused pouring liquid into the baby’s mouth. She said he threatened to shoot her if she told anyone”. However, this did not happen, because “she did not follow but rather Thebedi stayed outside” while Paulus was in the hut.
Thebedi later told the truth, “She had not seen what the white man did in the house”. Paulus Eyzendick said he had “visited the hut but had not poisoned the child”. The story is ended in suspense; because we do not know what happened in that hut.
The reader is left with the impression not on the trial itself, but at the baby, and how it suffered because of racial prejudice. The author has created this feeling because she wants the readers to reflect on the inhumane situation of apartheid.
Apartheid seems to present ignorance and selfishness. South Africa has been used as the slave trade; many black people live in the worst areas of South Africa. The pioneering Europeans settles in South Africa to find wealth, this mainly came from diamond and gold. However due to their ignorance these treasures have abused. The gold mirrors the baby, the gift of the child is selflessly used to protect and provide for ones self, because of this it dies.
Mildred Taylor, Gold Cadillac, allows the reader’s to feel and think how she feels and thinks. We see how family is important to Mildred Taylor, because, the father gave up the Gold Cadillac to protect his family. The Gold Cadillac is represented as America, it may seem to be a country of freedom, but it really is a country of racism and prejudice.
The author of Gold Cadillac allows the readers to engage with the author. Because the narrator is a young girl, the story becomes more truthful, this helps the reader to create a more vivid image of the Gold Cadillac.
Finally, both stories have a strong theme of racial prejudice. They explore deal with and present these tensions in a strikingly different way, both stories allows the reader’s to engage with the author. We learn how both Mildred Taylor and Nadine Gordimer’s historical background help contribute to the stories, bringing the text to life.
