The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing

The novel entitled The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing is novel that describes most of the real and true happenings in the contemporary society, especially in South Africa. The events of key concern entail the sour relationship between the whites and the blacks in South Africa. In this piece of writing, Doris Lessing describes how the whites despise, disrespect and regard Africans as inferior individuals who should always be under them. On the other hand, the blacks also detest the whites and are not pleased by how the whites treat them in their own land, especially owing to the fact that the eras of colonialism are over. Several characters have been used in this piece of art to bring to understanding the theme of apartheid in South Africa (Lalbakhsh, Wan Roselezam, and Wan Yahya 35).

In the novel, Mary Turner is a young woman who initially decides to go out and search for her independence in terms employment and provision of her daily needs. She finally lands a job as a secretary and seems to be contented with her job and status in the society, till her friends rebuke her that soon she will die an old maid. This pushes her to look for a husband, one which she finds in Richard Turner, also known as Dick. Dick is a poor farmer who owns one of the farms in native South Africa. He is surrounded by white neighbors and his farm is full of black workers (Wang 47).

After her marriage to Richard Turner, Mary Turner realizes that this was not the kind of life she really wanted. She realizes that the farm is full of blacks, something she was not used to back where she had worked as a secretary. The fact that her husband was poor with a lot of debts that she knew he might never be in a position to repay, stressed Mary to a point of dep...

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... in an exhilarating love and hatred passionate affair that is Mary’s and Moses relationship. As the novel draws to a close the characters seem to reap what they sowed as evidenced by Mary’s untimely death and Moses conviction of murder. This muster piece is as thrilling as it is educational (Lalbakhsh, Wan Roselezam, and Wan Yahya 35).

Works Cited

Lalbakhsh, Pedram, Wan Roselezam, and Wan Yahya. "Engendering The Feminine Power: Identity, Prescience And Anticipation In Doris Lessing's Tlie Grass Is Singing And The Good Terrorist." Cross-Cultural Communication 7.4 (2011): 30-35.

WANG, JOY. "White Postcolonial Guilt In Doris Lessing's The Grass Is Singing." Research In African Literatures 40.3 (2009): 37-47.

Sprague, Claire. "Lessing's The Grass Is Singing, Retreat To Innocence, The Golden Notebook, And Eliot's The Waste .." Explicator 50.3 (2012): 177.