In "The Lemon Orchard," La Guma uses a number of techniques to convey his concerns for prejudice and discrimination against blacks. While he does not directly tell the reader to condemn racism

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How has La Guma conveyed his anti-racism message through “The Lemon Orchard”?

In “The Lemon Orchard,” La Guma uses a number of techniques to convey his concerns for prejudice and discrimination against blacks. While he does not directly tell the reader to condemn racism, he subtly implies it by the perversion of Nature and the distortion of the physical environment. The use of ironies and building on our moral knowledge of right and wrong, he reinforces his message to us.

In the beginning, La Guma describes that the moon is “hidden behind long, high parallels of cloud”. He is personifying the moon to society in general, proposing that it does not wish to witness what will occur, since it hides itself behind clouds and shows its disapproval by refusing to cast its light on the men. Nevertheless, La Guma feels it’s not enough for society to just turn a blind-eye to the persecution of blacks and pretend that it does not exist, and implying that if they do so, they are no different from active participants who implicitly cheer on the whites. Therefore La Guma is making a passionate plea beseeching people to stop the proliferation of racism.

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However the story ends with Nature anticipating the violence that will happen. For instance the trees have “angled braches”, “tips and edges” which “gleam with the quivering shine of scattered quicksilver”. These phrases suggest and conjure up images of shiny, metallic weapons associated with death and violence. In addition, the moon comes out “from behind the bands of cloud”, and it “clung for a while to the leaves”. The word “quivering” and the moon’s emergence also suggest the Nature is waiting for the impending beating. La Guma’s depiction of Nature condoning the violence, shows that Nature has made a ...

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