City Johannesburg Reflections And Interrogation

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City Johannesburg: Reflections and Interrogations
In this essay I will be discussing how Johannesburg has shaped me; in relation to the theme of danger and opportunity. Johannesburg has made me alert, because I do not feel safe when I walk around Johannesburg. I also feel like I am vulnerable to crime. It has also made me not to trust people because Johannesburg is a place where people seek opportunities and success. They come to the city with the mentality that they will do anything to get to the top or succeed. This has made me perceive Johannesburg as a pitiless and fearful space. I will be proving this by comparing my experiences to the following texts, Welcome to our Hillbrow, City Johannesburg and Yesterday. I have chosen to use these texts because they portray the danger and the opportunities in Johannesburg.
City Johannesburg is about a man who goes to Johannesburg and leaves behind his loved ones during the apartheid era. He shares his experiences while in Johannesburg and how black people were treated. In the poem City Johannesburg “My hand pulses...” (Serote line2), the word pulses in this context shows that Serote is nervous and he feels vulnerable to something. Here Johannesburg is seen as an unsafe space. Furthermore, he also uses words like “falling darkness” (Serote line27) to express violence and danger.
In the first line Serote salutes Johannesburg which shows that he has respect for the city but it later shapes him in a negative way, this is shown in line 41 “ Jo’burg city, you are dry like death..”(Serote line 41). He sees Johannesburg as a space that has opportunities but yet unsympathetic and lifeless. It is shown in line 21 that there are opportunities in Johannesburg; because he wakes up in the morning and...

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...o Johannesburg for opportunities, they tell themselves that they are willing to do anything to succeed. They end up robbing, mugging and stealing committing all kinds of crime. This is also shown in Welcome to our Hillbrow, City Johannesburg and Yesterday. The theme danger and opportunity best describes my experience of Johannesburg and the way I have been shaped by the city.
If you are willing to fight for your dreams, crime should not be your claim to fame, you should be able to sell shoe strings and still be able to make it in life .You must be ambitious enough to go the extra mile. If you have desire, will and faith there is no such thing as impossible, a situation is how you perceive it. We shouldn’t let the negative aspects of Johannesburg shape us. We must use the experiences to grow and better ourselves. No obstacle is greater than ambition.

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