Summary:
The Train from Rhodesia, a short story written by Nadine Gordimer, takes place during a brief stop in an impoverished African village. The story concerns a young married couple, in which the young woman is interested in a carved lion an old native has to sell but claims the price is too high. Her husband later bargains with this old native and obtains the lion for an unfairly low price, which causes his wife to feel isolated and confused towards this complex society regarding racism. At first the story did not seem to deal with racial problems, but with the use of symbolism and imagery Gordimer was able to illustrate the racial discrimination and the social divide between middle and upper class citizens and the poor African natives in South Africa.
"The Train from Rhodesia"
The Train from Rhodesia, a short story written by Nadine Gordimer, takes place during a brief stop in an impoverished African village. The story concerns a young married couple, in which the young woman is interested in a carved lion an old native has to sell but claims the price is too high. Her husband later bargains with this old native and obtains the lion for an unfairly low price, which causes his wife to feel isolated and confused towards this complex society regarding racism. At first the story did not seem to deal with racial problems, but with the use of symbolism and imagery Gordimer was able to illustrate the racial discrimination and the social divide between middle and upper class citizens and the poor African natives in South Africa.
In the short story, The Train from Rhodesia, the title is very important in symbolizing and taking part in converting the theme of this short story. The train being the main symbol in this story takes place both in the beginning and end of the story. The title is refereeing how a train form Rhodesia, a place where the white class is in control, show that the wealthy and superiority are in the train. This leads us to realize from the beginning of the story that there is going to be a social barrier between the rich and poor, or better yet between the whites and the blacks. The title is very important and has important meanings when dealing to portray the issue of racial discrimination, which the natives constantly received from the whites, in many different aspects.
At the beginning of the story Gordimer emphasizes the social divide between the rich and poor. Nadine Gordimer symbolizes poverty in many ways throughout this story. Having the children barefooted and with nothing to sell begging for pennies depicts how impoverished the village they live in is. Gordimer adds to this illustration when she describes the stationmaster's children, "the children had just collected their mother's two loaves of bread" (Gordimer 51). This illustrates the hunger and malnutrition that the villagers and their children go through. Meanwhile, the train's passengers sit comfortably in their cabins with enough food to throw away. "A girl had collected a handful of the hard kind, that no one like, out of the chocolate box, and was throwing them to the dogs," portrays the rich and wealthy life the passengers inside the train possess (Gordimer 52). Another symbol of poverty is raise by the bargain between the old native selling a lion sculpture and a young white husband which wishes to buy this lion for his wife. The old man at first is asking for "three and six" in which later due to his severe necessities and after realizing that the young couple is not going to buy it for the prize being asked has to lower the prize to "one and six." (Gordimer 52, 53) This illustration recognizes the old man's poverty due to the fact that he had no choice but to accept whatever scraps of money they could give rather than nothing at all. Gordimer makes clear that the villager's lives are so impoverished while the train's passenger's life is the complete contrary, which adds to the understanding that the vendors at the station depend upon the passengers on the train for their living.
Nadine Gordimer also portrays racism in many ways throughout this short story. For starters the villagers or the natives are shown as being part of nature and the land, "that lapped all around from sky to sky, cast little rhythmical cups of shadow, so that the sand became the sea, and closed over the children's black feet softly and without imprint" (Gordimer 50). While in the contrary the whites or the passengers with their "caged faces, boxed in, cut off after the after the contact of outside", are portrayed to be in an elevated level, boxed out of nature and its surroundings causing them to feel superior to the natives (Gordimer52). Gordimer's statement, "A few men who had got down to stretch their legs sprang onto the train, clinging to the observation platform's or perhaps merely standing on the iron step, holding the rail; but on the train, safe from the one dusty platform, the one tin house, the empty sand" and having the passengers pick out and bargain or throw things from the corridor windows points out the whites superior attitudes on the natives (Gordimer 53). By being afraid to step on their platform, as if they were going to catch something bad demonstrates the racism towards the natives. By placing them in to separate worlds Nadine Gordimer adds to portray the racial discrimination the natives encountered from the whites.
Gordimer adds to portray the complex society of racisms and impoverished by pointing out the main character of the story, the young woman. Upon arriving at the station her eye catches a wooden carved lion with "bit of fur around the neck" which causes her to admire it, yet declines to buy it saying the old man selling it wants too much money "three and six" (Gordimer 52). After she draw backs to her seat inside the train she realizes she already has possession of several similar items, "the wooden buck, the hippos, the elephants, the baskets that already bulked out of their brown paper under the seat and on the luggage rack" and she does not know what she is going to do with them once she is back in her home (Gordimer 53). Once the young woman realizes her husband has bought the lion for only a few cents "one and six", she becomes upset, "if you wanted it, why didn't you pay for it? Why didn't you take it decently when he offered"" (Gordimer 54). Feeling hopeless and furious she threw the lion onto the seat (Gordimer 51).This sudden occurrence depicts the young woman's feeling of guilt over the humiliating and patronizing way her husband has treated the old native man. The starving old man was made to beg for a few coins in return for a valuable and very skilled sculpture of the lion (Gordimer 53).This conflict between the couple portray how the young woman was affected with the complex in society that she was stuck in.
The story The Train from Rhodesia portrays to be a very interesting short story that depicts the racial discrimination and the social divide between middle and upper class citizens and the poor African natives in South Africa. With the use of symbolism and imagery, Nadine Gordimer is able to portray the issue of racial discrimination, which the natives constantly received from the whites, in many different ways and illustrate how impoverished the African's lives were.
Work Cited
Gordimer, Nadine. Selected Stories. The Train from Rhodesia.
New York: Viking Penguin Books. 1976
This is the complete article, containing 1,148 words
(approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page).
