Nadine Gordimer presents her stories from a first person narrator that she doesn't give a name. Now I don't know if that goes for all of her stories, but in "Good Climate, Friendly Inhabitants", "Amnesty", and "Six Feet of the Country" this is the case. I found this unbelievably frustrating because no first person narrator is a reliable narrator, which means that the story isn't completely what it seems and is only showing the events from the "bad" guy's point of view in "Good Climate" and "Six Feet" or from an alternative, uncommon point of view like in "Amnesty".
"Amnesty", in particular, was the story that I really was able to connect to this week. The female narrator gave the African women the credit they truly deserve as this contribution is usually looked over in history. For instance, it is not only women at home that are mostly overlooked in history. I'm sure that most Americans don't know that women acted as spies and not only as nurses during the Civil War and most definitely can't name them, while most of them can name a few generals – Lee, Grant, and a few others. For me it is unreal to think that people, mostly men, some women, believe that women should be confined to their houses and babies because that is all they have to contribute to society.
In "Amnesty", when the male character practically calls her stupid and insignificant, it really made me want to somehow enter the story and slap him across the face. First, because here she is raising children that are not only hers, but HIS, without any support from him at all and that alone should earn her his respect, and second, the fact that she understands that his is something that the father of her children has to do and doesn't complain. Yet he still has the audacity to tell her that she isn't doing enough? Having had some experience with ungrateful men myself really made this hit home. As a child I had good grades, I behaved well, I did what I was told, and I was even writing a book by the time I was eight while also playing soccer. My father – who I haven't seen in four years – pointed out, instead of being proud of me for what I was already accomplishing, that I was too pale, that I needed to be a cheerleader, that my grammar wasn't perfect, and that I just wasn't a good enough daughter. When I saw this sort of treatment of the narrator it made me think: I don't care who you are or if you are bring peace on earth, there is no excuse to treat any one, especially the mother of your children, in this fashion. End of story.
The aspects about apartheid found in the other two stories are interesting because she's also showing its influence on the oppressors and not the oppressed. These two other stories really portray the way that a system like this warps your mind in not only how you treat other people and the way you believe that you should be treated, but how you think of yourself relative to others. This is especially a problem when you look at "Good Climate" and how the female narrator is almost a good person, and could have been if it weren't for her ideas about black Africans that were given to her by her society. It really shows the sheer amount of influence that society has on us as human beings, and that doing what society says isn't always the best choice.
This is your strongest piece so far: good job. You take the story, bring your analysis to the heart of the story, and explain how your personal experience influences your reading of the story. Then, in the end, you bring out to a wider social perspective to show the larger significance of the story.
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