Welcome To Our Hillbrow Short Story

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I was attracted to Johannesburg by the many success opportunities available in the city. This is the main reason as to why I hailed from northern KwaZulu-Natal to the city, to make a success of my life through the high class education I was to get at Wits University, one of the top universities in the country. From an early age I have perceived Johannesburg as the city of riches, and where dreams come true. In the short story, Welcome To Our Hillbrow the main character Refentse came to Johannesburg soon after he matriculated to further his studies at Wits University. “By the time you left Tiragalong High School to the University of the Witwatersrand, at the dawn of 1991”(Phaswane Mpe, [42]) Refentse hailed from rural Tiragalong with the hope for an opportunity to a brighter future. The act of the main character in the story fully supports my argument when I relate Johannesburg to success opportunities and high class education.
In order for one to be successful they need to set goals and actually work hard to achieve them. Johannesburg has made me see the importance of setting goals and working hard to achieve each one of my goals. What I have noticed though is that people in this city are willing to do whatever it takes to succeed. Since many people flock to the city with the aim of making money, when things do not go as planned they get involved in crime and corruption. Crime and corruption have been presented as opportunities to make easy money and I believe that this is the prime reason why people actually flock to the city. These illegal ways of making money (such as prostitution, drug dealings and robbery) have posed as threats to many people’s lives. Crime in the city urged me to take better care of myself. I do not feel sa...

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...ace where people use each and every opportunity available to succeed, at another’s expense. This norm seen as a great opportunity to others is a great danger to other people as well, such that in Johannesburg you cannot entirely put your trust on someone. Reason being we all came to Johannesburg with only one mission, to succeed whatever it takes. I therefore believe that there are very slim chances that true relationships can be established in the city of gold. In the poem, City Johannesburg, the poet has perfectly personified the city as lifeless by using the words “iron breath that you inhale” (Wally Serote: 21). In this line the poet has implied that the city is cold and compared it and its people to a cold iron that has no feelings at all. In line 21 the poet has fully supported my argument of the city being a brutal place such that you can never trust anyone

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