Friday, February 4, 2011

In the conclusion of July's People, where does Maureen run to and why?

The novel July's People ends with unanswered questions. One of these questions is "Where and what is Maureen running to?" The helicopter that flies over the village is unmarked and therefore unidentifiable. It may belong to white South African factions or it may belong to revolutionary native African South African forces. Maureen knows that to run after the helicopter could be running for a savior or running to a slayer. But still she runs.


What prompts Maureen to run? In her time in July's village, she has understood that the counterfeit dignity that she bestowed on July (Mwawate) according to her definition of dignity humiliated him because his dignity came from his identity as a African village man. He did what was best for his family and village. The fact that she made allowances for him when he would steal small articles from Maureen's home over the fifteen years that he worked for her was demeaning to him: Their ideas of human dignity didn't match. Maureen ran because she began to see life in a different way and it was a way that frightened her and made her run toward any fate other than more revelation.

No comments:

Post a Comment

In Act III, scene 2, why may the establishment of Claudius's guilt be considered the crisis of the revenge plot?

The crisis of a drama usually proceeds and leads to the climax.  In Shakespeare's Hamlet , the proof that Claudius is guilty...