July's People Essay | Critical Essay #3

July's People Critical Essay #3

In this article, Bailey argues that the subject of July's People is actually "Maureen Smales' discovery that she has no substance and no self."

July's People moves to a world of the future where the fears of the whites in all Gordimer's books have become reality-the revolution has occurred, the whites are dispossessed and have no means of escape from the riots and the burning of their cities. They have no place to go-except back in time to the timelessness of the kraal, to the black primitive community of their servant July's village people. The novel's title reflects the two previously unconnected worlds which are brought together when July brings his city people, the white Smales family of Maureen and Bam and their three children, to his bush people, Martha his wife, his elderly mother and his extended family. Neither side is prepared for the other and both...
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