- What themes does the story deal with?
- Where does the story take place? What is the importance of the settings?
- Characterise Lilian Thurgood.
- Pick a quote from the text, which you describe and interpret in your comment.
Wednesday 10 November 2010
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Lilian Thurgood is an elderly woman, who is living alone because her husband has passed away. Times have changed, the apartheid days are over, and she lives her life in fear for the blacks, and she feels the common guilt of all the white South Africans. She hides behind a big fence and two big dogs. She is however having a pent-up anger inside her because she in a way feels like a prisoner in her own home. As a result she all of a sudden finds herself reacting in a very tough and for her a much unexpected way when she sets the dogs on William, and threatens him with a gun. The short story is dealing with the very complex problems of South Africa. The Blacks and the Whites are both prejudiced against each other, and they do not trust one another. Furthermore the Whites have a guilt complex, and the Blacks have a hate towards the Whites because of the apartheid in the past. There is especially one line in the text, which very clearly describes Lilian’s state of mind when she has decided to defend herself:”In that moment she understood that it took very little to pull a trigger, and that the distance between rational thought and insanity was no distance at all.” She is kind of thinking totally clear in the moment, and on the same time she is painfully aware of her own capability of killing another human being. The circumstances have pushed her into this desperate situation.
ReplyDeleteMartin
1. What themes does the story deal with?
ReplyDeleteDonations, benefactors, opportunities, racism, making good on the guilt, conscience, having to beg, emotions, work, skelms, criminals, trust, insanity, thoughts , hope
2. Where does the story take place? What is the importance of the settings?
The story takes place at Lillian Thurgoods house. I think that it is important to know because it is the place where she feels save, and then suddenly it all burst and she feels nothing but fear. In her own home where you should always feel good.
3. Characterise Lilian Thurgood.
Lillian Thurgood is an elderly woman, who is living alone in her house because her husband has passed away some time ago. She has to dogs and likes the morning time and picks guava in her garden.
4. Pick a quote from the text, which you describe and interpret in your comment.
Was is racist if you were afraid and didn’t want to open your door to strangers? I think that all people are afraid of something. I can understand the old woman. I don’t like to open up my door to people I don’t know. It has nothing to do with being a racist, because the man or the woman outside my door could be a bad person, no matter what color or beliefs they have.
The main themes are change, exploitation and role reversal as well as some of the views Martin and Maria stated. The whites exploited the blacks during apartheid but now the blacks are exploiting the whites, playing on their feelings of guilt.
ReplyDeleteThe story takes place in Lilian's home, a place where one should feel secure and safe, protected from the outside world.
Lilian is a proud widow in her 60's. She used to have her husband around but is now alone. She takes pride in the way her property looks from the outside, e.g. having geraniums planted in her garden and it being overcrowded with flowers.
"She was a pensioner. What money did she have? If her husband had been alive, he would've ordered the man off the grounds". This describes her situation, alone and perceived as a pushover, due to her age. Unsure of how she should deal with the new situation and how her husband would have dealt with it, without guilt or hesitation. She is racked with guilt and hesitates when trying to make a decision. She wants to not be afraid and show outwardly that she isn't but deep down she is, as she is alone. She does however have the dogs for protection but they cannot make decisions for her.
1. What themes does the story deal with?
ReplyDelete- Loneliness, racism, hope, poor-rich, to fell safety, miss, to lose one you love, help, work, trust, crime.
- The Guilt might seem to be a story of an old woman’s crisis and its solution. But i think that Rayda Jacobs has tried to reveal the eternal promises and responsibilities of a holy relationship like marriage through the principal character of the story Lillian and her late husband and thus in doing so, Jacobs succeeded in sketching the influence of Lillian’s late husband as an protective, but invisible character in Lillian’s life and also in the story.
2. Where does the story take place? What is the importance of the settings
3. Characterize Lilian Thurgood
- Rayda Jacobs “The Guilt” is a story of confrontation between an old woman and a
young black guy in her house. The main-character is a widow, named Lilian
Thurgood, who lives alone with her two dogs Tembi and Tor, in South Africa.
Her husband passed away some time age.
4. Pick a quote from the text, which you describe and interpret in your comment.
- “She remembers the African women who’d knocked at her door one night at nine, Lilan didn’t want to go out. It was raining; a long walk to the gate, but there was the women, with a child on her back and on at her side. Did the madam have garbage bags, she called. An unusual request, especially at the time of night. And Lilian couldn’t see well in the dark. What if there was a second person waiting behind the dark. What at that was a second person waiting behind the wall with a knife or a gun? The papers were full of stories of people getting killed in their own gardens and houses, and she`d heard of husband- and- wife crime waves. She went to gate. There was no one but the woman and her children, but it irked her that she should be afraid in her own home, that they thought it all right to knock on your door any time of the day or night. Was it racist if you were afraid and didn’t want to open your door to strangers?”
Very good points. But why is is called "The Guilt"? is Lillian Thurgood a character, whom we sympathise with? What could be Rayda Jacobs´ ulterior motives?
ReplyDeleteSure
Delete1)The story deals with Guilt, hope, Apartheid,
ReplyDeleteblack people have to beg, bad conscience, trust, being a widow in south Africa.
2)The story takes at Lilians house in South Africa. The setting is important because in South Africa at that time there was apartheid. Rich white people and poor surppressed black people.
3) Lilian Thurgood is an old lady approximately 80 years old. She is limping and has to use a cane. She is a widower, har husband died years ago. Her guilt makes her conseienceous and generous but also naiv. Althoug she is old and alone , she finds strenght to overcome Williams attemt to get her money. But she also realizes that without the dogs and the gun, she would properly had been killed.
4) " The voices were reassuring."
She needs to hear the voices because they are reassuring to her. There is life outside her walls and that means to her " I am not alone" and she feels alone and scared since her husband Jack died.
To Chanett. I sympathise with her but I shall consider your comment and come back to you on it :-)
I think the story is called "The Guilt", because of some of the themes. The elderly generation in South Africa has lived with Apartheid most of their lives, and for them it is difficult to stop being prejudice towards black people.
ReplyDeleteLilian Thurgood is feeling guilty because she still feels predujice towards black people.
She feels guilty because she opened to gate to this black man, who then took advantage of the situation, just like she had expected. So she brought the situation on herself by letting him in.
Does anyone agree with this?
1) The themes are:
Racism, prejudice, Apartheid, growing old, being a widow, taking matters into your own hands.
2) The story takes place in Lilian Thurgoods house and garden.
The house and garden represents South Africa back in the day when Apartheid ruled the country. The white man owns the land, which originally belonged to the black man. The black man wants his share (in the story money). William is trespassing into Lillians land.
3) Lilian Thurgood is an old woman. She lives alone with her two dogs in a house, which she and her husband have lived in. Lillans husband died a few years back. She minds her own business and takes care of her house by herself.
4) "She took a deep breath, then went inside, forgetting all about the guavas sitting under the tree". This sort of symbolises that there are bigger problems in her life than guavas. But she is able to handle the bigger problems, so her life is not over yet. She feels more alive than she has for years.
I think it is called the Guilt, because Lillian is deling with guilt all the time. In one way she would like to help all the people that she can, but in the same time she is afraid to do it, because she dosen't feel save.
ReplyDeleteShe is living in South Africa, and the white people had a lot more money than the black people did, so she is afraid that they will steel from her or maybe do something bad to her.
@ Maria
ReplyDeleteI think you are right about the money thing. But she feels guilty because of the way black people were treated. In South Africa white people are rich and black people poor, and the Apartheid made this problem worse.
She is maybe afraid that some people tries to get even, by steeling from her, and therefore she is afraid, and feels guilty for being predujice.
I agree with some of the comments made regarding Lilian's guilt. She feels guilty about how the blacks were treated at this point in time but did she feel guilty when there was Apartheid? Or did she feel justified?
ReplyDeleteI think she feelt some kind of power and a rush dealing with William because she feelt no pain in her leg anymore and she did not tell her brigde friends about the episode with William.
ReplyDeleteGood points you have made, and obviously she is prejudiced, however, trying really hard not to be - it is too deeply rooted in her.
ReplyDeleteJulie says, "she feels more alive than she has for years", could you develop this thought? Has she, as Martin is claiming, been pushed to the edge? And maybe discuss whether she, as Dave is mentioning, feels guilty or perhaps righteous? Could the title be contradicting in any way?
Yes I think that the title is contradicting because I do not see her guilt that much. She has not been pushed over the egde. She was aware of the danger because she had the gun in mind and she knew that the dogs would protect her.If she was scared of William, she wouls have locked her door when she went inside for the money. If she was guilty she wouldent have lat William work for his money but given them to him without any disscussions.
ReplyDeleteBut isn´t a bit like going home alone late at night in a really bad neighbourhood? Just because you want things to be different, does not mean that they are different?
ReplyDelete