How are the Female Characters Presented in the stories Country Lovers

How are the Female Characters Presented in the stories Country Lovers

and Veronica

The black girl Thebedi is one of the main characters in the story

"Country Lovers” She lives in South Africa under the apartheid which

was a system of government which involved a segregation act between

whites and blacks, so she hasn't as much rights as whites do, because

of this she is restricted and hampered by her culture.

The Educational system started with both white and black children in

primary education where they spoke local dialect and then after that

the white children went to secondary education where they learnt

Standard English and the blacks went to work and learnt the language

of authority. There was also at the time an Immorality act which was

where it was illegal for a white person to have a relationship with a

black person. This made Paulus Eysendyck and Thebedi keep the love

with each other secretly “She had to get away before the house

servants who knew her, came in at dawn” This shows they have

compassion and determination to keep the relationship going. Paulus is

in charge of the relationship for example “He told her each time,

where to meet again”.

Paulus and Thebedi have known each other since they were children.

Paulus is son of the owner of the farm where Thebedi comes to work

later in the story. Paulus is a white boy, and Thebedi is a black

girl. They used to play on the farm as children and had primary

education together. When he comes home for the holidays, he brought

her presents, and Thebedi also give him a homemade bracelet. The

bracelet is admired very much by his friends at school. Meanwhile, a

black young man, Njabulo, falls in love with Thebedi, and wishes that

he could be the ...

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...ronica the most essential issue of the story and what it

all amounts to is Tradition. The life Veronica led was steeped in

tradition. Every aspect of the story is based around tradition. It was

traditional for men to go off to work and women to stay in the home to

cook, clean and look after the children. This would explain her lack

off education and why the opportunity of going to a school as a child

was not open to her. There was not as many opportunities open to women

because it was unusual for women to go out to work or get a job. By

tradition, men have the more dominant role. Veronica was a weak female

so this would explain why she took unnecessary punishment of her

father when she was younger. This also would explain why women as a

whole where expected to stay at home. These are the reasons why I

believe Veronica did not leave for the city with Okeké.