Allusions in a Landscape (1954)- Nadine Gordimer Block 2
0 General Document comments
0 Sentence and Paragraph comments
0 Image and Video comments
A South African Childhood- Allusions in a Lifescape (1954)- Nadine Gordimer
Growing up in one part of a vast young country can be very different from growing up in another, and in South Africa this difference is not only a matter of geography. The division of people into great races --black and white-- and the subdivision of the white into Afrikaans and English speaking groups provide a diversity of cultural heritage that can make two South African children almost as strange to each other as if they had come from different countries. The fact that their parents, if they are English speaking, frequently have come from different countries complicates their backgrounds still further. My father came to South Africa from a village in Russia; my mother was born and grew up in London. I remember, when I was about 8 years old, going with my sister and mother and father to spend a long weekend with a cousin of my father’s who lived in the Orange Free State. After miles and miles of sienna-red plowed earth, after miles and miles of silk-fringed mealies standing as high as your eyes on earth side of the road and ugly farmhouses where women in bunchy cotton dresses and sunbonnets stared after the car as we passed, we reach the dorp where the cousin lived, in a small white house with sides that were dust-stained in a wavering wash, like rust, for more than a foot above the ground. There we two little girls slept on two bed of a smothering softness we had never felt before-- featherbeds bought from eastern Europe-- and drank tea drawn from a charming contraption. There--to our and our mother’s horror-- we were given smoked duck, flavored with garlic, at breakfast. The two children of the house spoke only Afrikaans like the Boer children who played in the yards of mean little houses on either side, and my sister and I, queasy from the strange food and able to speak only English, watched their games with a mixture of hostility and wistfulness.
What racial category would this make Nadine Gordimer? Based on our readings from last week, what privileges do you know she received because of this?
Because both of Noah’s parents were born on different places and everything was different because of the places they were in, and Noah needed to pretend he didn’t know his parents.
depending on what skin color the parents are they could have either lived a life of privilege or a life filled with racism and segregation
Based on how the story went for Trevor and his family were suppose to be discrete because they were from different racial category.
In this story she is also in a mixture of both cultures as well which she was expected to learn from both of her parents. So she is a mixture of russian and african.
it really depends because if the mother and father are both different skin color then it will me in the colored racial category.so we don’t know what privileges she received because of this.
I think that it really depends on what colored both the mom and dad were since they could have been white with privileges or had to deal with racism.
The racial category that Nadine would make would be is stranger because everyone had different privileges to each other.
It all mostly depends on the parents because they both have different skin colors. But also it also can depend on the type of environment she grew up in which in my opinion seems like she grew up with her mom side more often,
The privileges of trevors family were limited this was because the mother and father had a different color of skin.
The racial category that Nadine Gordimer would fit in is probably like in the poor side because it says that she and her family would walk miles to go to the house of her dad’s cousin to sleep and since her parents where from different color it would be hard for them to stay together because of what was going on.Some of the privileges that she received because of this was being able to to sleep and eat.
The racial category that Nadine Gordimer would be a mixture because of her parents.Her parents were Russian and African.
Noahs parents we not born in the sme place if not different places,and it was hard because noah couldnt be seen with his parents.
Nadine Gordimer was very different. Growing up from one place to another. Many people would be confused to know which side Nadine or anyone is on.
The racial category that Nadine Gordimer is a world of a crime and a world of strangers. Noah’s parents were both born in different places, Noah didn’t have his dad in his life he couldn’t even be around him.
How different it all was from our visit to our mother’s sister, in Natal! There, with our “English” side of the family, in the green, softly contorted hills and the gentle meadows of sweet grass in near Balgowan, we might almost have been in England itself. There our cousins Roy and Humpfrey rode like young lords about their father’s beautiful farm and spoke the high, polite, “pure” English learned in expensive Natal private schools that were staffed with masters imported from English universities. And how different were both visits from our life in one of the gold-mining towns of the Witwatersrand, near Johannesburg, in the Transvaal.
There are nine of these towns, spread over a distance of roughly 140 miles east and west of Johannesburg. The one in which we lived was on the east side--the East Rand, it is called-- and it had many distinctions, as distinctions were measured in that part of the world. First of all, it was one of the oldest towns having got itself a gold strike, a general store, a few tents, and a name before 1890. In the pioneer days, my father had set himself up in a small, one-man business as a watchmaker and jeweler, and during the 20s and 30s, when the town became the most rapidly expanding in Witwatersrand, he continued to live there with his family. In the riches gold mining area in the world, it became the richest square mile or so. All around us, the shafts went down and the gold came up; our horizon was an egytian-looking frieze of man-made hills of cyanide sand, called “dumps,” because that is what they are-- great mounds of waste matter dumped on the surface of the earth after the gold-bearing ore has been blasted below, hauled up, and pounded and washed into yielding its treasure. In the dusty month before spring-- in august, that is-- the sand from the dumps blew under the tightly shut doors of every house in the town and enveloped the heads of the dumps themselves in a swirling haze, leading them so of the dignity of cloud-capped mountains. It is
Her hometown, at one point, was the richest gold mining area in the world. Because of this, what was her town actually like to grow up in?
having got itself a gold strike, a general store, a few tents, and a name before 1890. In the pioneer days, his father had sent himself in a small, one-man business as a watchmaker and a jeweler, during the 20s and 30s the town became the most rapidly expanding in Witwatersrand, he continued to live with his family.
from the description it seems the town was made into a mess because of the amount of people coming in and out of the town
Based on the text and description provided like for example in the text in explains how people were blowing holes to get the gold from the mine it’s almost as dirty as living in a construction site which might indicate that Nadine was living in a dirty place at that time and It was a busy place because it was expanding a lot.
well sense it was the richest gold mining area then it would have been very messy because there will be people coming in even if they don’t live in that town.
What is being showed in the text it looks like the town was a mess due to all of the people blowing holes and people coming in/out of the town.
Her hometown had many distinctions that were measured in the part of the world. The town was always filled with people and due to so many people there would always be a mess everywhere.
Since her town was the richest mining area at one point,what her town looked like growing up in it would be that there used to be a gold strike since the gold mine was there,a general store,a few tents,it’s name before the 1890s.
It was one of the richest gold mining area.
Than when the people started coming in and out of her town it started getting messy.
Nadine’s town was messy growing up because since her town was the richest gold mining area at one point.
she is growing up in the richest mining area and an old town. Outsiders came morning and night.
The shaft went down and came up with gold. They dumped waste to the surface.
Her town had distinctions that were measured in that part of the world. Her town was one of the oldest town it had gold strike, general store, few tents. And also her town was different because of people coming in and out of the town they were all strangers with new people coming in
characteristic of the Witwatersrand that any feature of the landscape that strikes the eye always does so because it is a reminder of something else; considered on its own merits, the landscape is utterly without interest-- flat, dry, and barren.
In our part of the East Rand, the yellowish-white pattern of the cyanide dumps was broken here and there by a black hill rising out of the veld. These hills were man-made, too, but they did not have the geometrical, pyramidal rigidity of the cyanide dumps, and they were so old that enough real earth had blow on to them to hold a growth of sparse grass and perhaps even a sinewy peppercorn or peachtree, sprung up no doubt. These hills were also dumps, but through their scanity natural covering of blackness clearly showed-- even a little blueness, the way black hair shines-- for they were coal dumps, made of coal dust.
What happened to her town because of gold mining? Do you think it sounds like a nice place to live? Why or why not?
I think that what happened to the town was like there were more cars.
The hills were man-made, too, but they didn’t have the geometrical, pyramidal rigidity of the cyanide dumps, they were old also. I don’t think that sounds like a nice place to live in because there’s a lot of bad things happening and the things there.
the town because of the gold rushes it seems there was tons of littering of trash and chemical waste
The description on how the text says Waste was on the surface of the earth creates an image in my head on how it would look like it probably looks messy with a lot of bits of rock scattered all over the town Looks like a huge mess to me would not consider living there due to how dirty it is Imagine living in a town that has gold but is really dirty which is still like living in some bad conditions a lot of rocks and waste of mud on the floor sounds really nasty and awful. these are the reasons why I wouldn’t consider living there.
what happened was there was dumps broken and a black hill rising out of the veld. it does not sounds like a good place to live because it sounds like bad things are happening in that place.
It sounds like this town was not nice to live in due to all trash and waste that was on the ground.
Her town was really trashed which made it smell really bad and made it hard to live in.This does not sound like a good place to live in overall it’s too messy.
gold and hills falling doesn’t sound or feel safe for a place to be in.
Something that had happened to her town was that the Cyanide sand dumps were broken in that part of the town were she lived,and what would happened was that Cyanide was thrown into the grass making the grass like black basically.
Nadine was living in a really busy and messy place.
Yes it sounds like a nice place of of the gold mining and it was popular.
Because of the gold mining, the town was not well taken care of and had chemical waste all over the place.
The gold mining-affected her town in a bad way because they started throwing dumps on the surface and didn’t care. This does not sound like a good place to live because their nature was being covered by waste.
what happened to her town because of gold mining it seems it was messy, there was dust, there was tons of trash. I don’t think it sounds like a nice place to live in because there is things happening.
The coal dumps assumed, both because of their appearance and because of the stories and warnings we heard about them, something of a diabolic nature. In our sedate little colonial tribe, with its ritual tea parties and tennis parties, the coal dump could be said to be our evil mountain; I use the singular here because when I think of these dumps, I think of one in particular-- the biggest one, the one that stood 50 yards beyond the last row of houses in the town where we lived. I remember it especially well because of the other side of it, hidden by it, was the local nursing home, where, when my sister and I were young and the town was small, all the mothers went to have their babies and all the children went to have their tonsillectomies-- where, in fact, almost everyone was born, endured an illness, or died. Our mother had several long stays in the place, over a period of two or three years, and during these stays our grandmother took us on a daily visit across the veld to see her. Immediately when lunch was over, she would spend an hour dressing us, and then brushed and beribboned and curled our hair; then, we would set off. We took a path that skirted the coal dump, and there it was at our side most of the way-- a dirty scarred old mountain, collapsing into the fold of a small ravine here, supporting a twisted peachtree there, and showing bald and black through patchy grass. A fence consisting of two threads of barbed wire looped at intervals through low rusted-iron poles, which once had surrounded it completely, now remained only in places, can convey the idea of a taboo rather than providing an effective means of isolation. The whole coal dump looked dead, forsaken, and harmless enough, but my sister and I walked softly and looked at it out of the corners of our eyes, half fascinated, half afraid, because we knew it was something else inert. Not dead by any means, but inert. For we had seen. Coming back from the nursing home in the early-winter dusk, we had seen the strange glow in the bald patches the grass did not cover, and in the runnels made by the erosion of summer wind and rain we had seen the hot blue waiver of flame. The coal dump was alive. Like a beast of prey, it woke to life in the dark.
The matter of fact truth was that these coal dumps, relics of the pre-goldstrike era when collieries operated in the district, were burning. Along with the abandoned mine workings underground, they had caught fire at some time or other in their years of disuse, and had continued to burn, night and day, ever since. Neither rain nor time could put the fires out, and in some places, even on the coldest winter days, we would be surprised to feel the veld warm beneath the soles of our shoes, and, if we cut out a clod, faintly steaming. That dump on the outskirts of the town where we lived is still burning today. I have asked people who have studied such things how long it may be expected to go on burning before it consumes itself. Nobody seems to know; it shares with the idea of Hades its heat and vague eternity.
But perhaps its fierce heart is being subdued gradually. Apparently, no one can even remember, these days, the nasty incidents connected with the dump, incidents that were fresh in memory during our childhood. Perhaps there is no need for anyone to remember, for the town now has more vicarious and less dangerous excitements to offer children than the thrill of running quickly across a pile of black dust that may at any moment cave in and plunge the adventurer into a bed of incandescent coals. In our time, we knew a girl to whom this had happened, and our mother remembered a small boy who had disappeared entirely under a sudden landslide of terrible glowing heat. Not even his bones have been recovered by the girl we knew survived to become a sort of curiosity about the town. She had been playing of the dump with her friends and all at once had found herself sunk thigh-deep in living coals and hot ashes. Her friends had managed to pull her out of this fiery quicksand, but she was horribly burned. When we saw her in the street, we used to be unable to keep our eyes from the tight-puckered skin of her calves, and the still tighter skin of her hands, which draw up her fingers like claws. Despite, or because of, these awful warnings, my sister and I longed to run quickly across the lower slopes of the dump for ourselves, and several times managed to elude surveillance long enough to do so. And once, in the unbearable terror and bliss of excitement, we clutched each other on the veld below while, legs pumping wildly, our cousin Roy, who came from Natal to spend the holidays with us, rode a bicycle right to the top of the dump and down the other side, triumphant and unharmed.
Nadine is very descriptive in her writing so that the reader feels transported into her stories. What words really stand out to you in the highlighted section of paragraph 9? Why do you think Nadine decided to use these words to describe the scene?
I think she used these words to describe the scene so that the reader can imagine the scene and how things were back then.
she wanted to explain the horrors that were caused by the gold rush and the chemicals being harmful for the chidren
The words that really stood out for me were the words puckered and tighter it describes how it was to make a image in the reader’s mind which is the point of using imagery to give the story realistic Senses.
Adding on to my previous comment She also trying to make us see ,taste , smell, feel what is happening in the story. she is trying to make a connection between us and her the author of the story.
a word that stand out to me was saw because she used that word to describe what is happening to her and to let us know what she saw when she was in that position.
The words that I thought showed how she was feeling was the words¨ dangerous, excitements, because this shows how it was bad but also some good.
I think the word that stood out to me was “Knew” because it shows that Nadine is really keeping an eye out for her certain things. She also knows exactly what’s going on.
read and learn
Some of the words that stand out to me in this section were when she say’s "across a pile of black dust that may at any moment cave in and plunge the adventurer into a bed of incandescent coal.I feel like it was important for her to add that sentence because she’s talking about what have happened if people get hurt because of the dust and coal going around.
Vicarious stood out to me the most out of all.
She used these words to describe how things were where she lived.
Nadine wanted to share what she had gone though.she was trying to make us feel,taste,and see what is happening in the story.
The reason why Nadine decided to use these words to describe the scene because she wanted the people to see how it was in her town. They couldn’t do anything there was dump everywhere.
some words that stand out to me was the words " vicarious", “horribly”, " calves", " claws". the reason why she decided to use these words to describe the scene was to make it interesting and maybe make it feel real.
In the part of South Africa where we lived, we had not only fire under our feet; we had, two, a complication of tunnels as intricate as one of those delicate chunks of worm cast you’d find on the seashore. All the towns along the Witwatersrand, and the older parts of Johannesburg itself, are undermined. Living there, you think about it as little as you think about the fact that, whatever your work and whatever your life, you’re reason for performing where you do and living it where you do is the existence of the gold mines. Yet you are never allowed to forget entirely that the ground is not solid beneath you.
In her town, what were people motivated by? Why?
Because whatever you work on and whatever your life, you’re the reason you are you and where you do is the existence of the gold mines.
the reason people in her town are motivated is most likely because they are motivated by themselves and their will to survive
In the text Nadaline was living in a town were it was growing but also was in some conditions that people couldn’t do much about due to the circumstances but either way she seems to be proud and not Ashamed of her racial category and Where she came from. The people seem motivated to get far and succeed with their goals and purpose in
life.
people are motivated by the gold mine because you’re reason for performing where you do and living it where you do is the existence.
People in her town were motivated by performing well because they felt like as long as they work hard they will get to their goals.
People in her hometown were mostly motivated by there work because it just made them want to push themselves a bit more.
As said in the story it looks like people were motivated by the work that they had done because they had basically lived in a town were every thing was good at once but then went down.But to to people what mattered was that they did it for a good reason.
In her town people are motivated of how hard they have to work because it makes them want to push even harder.
In her town the people were motivated by making their town a better place and working hard.
In her town people were motivated by the fact there were gold mines and that’s the only reason they wanted to stay there. They were motivated for success to expand where they lived.
in her town, people were motivated by showing how hard they work and also showing that they could survive on by there own
General Document Comments 0
This is important because it is a memory that he said when he got thrown out the car
He remembers how hard it was to find the seahorse and the part in Africa he lived in
icons on the left to see existing comments.
0 archived comments