Chapter 16: Prose

After practising the activities in this chapter, you should be able to:

1. Discuss a variety of prose techniques.
2. Form opinions about a book in a review and other formats based on specific characters and plot points.
3. Analyse prose in order to identify themes and
structures.
4. Understand and employ literary language effects in order to describe the setting and character.

Keywords

• template review
• character
• character
• development
• point of view

INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, you are going to discuss a book you read at home, for enjoyment and prose . The extracts from the book, Far from Home, will help you to revise the literary terms you have learnt already, and to understand more about character development and points of view.

You will write a review of the book, for different types of texts, using different formats. Reviews are very useful in helping us decide whether we want to read a certain book or not.

In Chapter 4, you read about Tariro’s experiences, when the colonial authorities took away the land from her community. In this chapter, we learn more about what happened to Tariro, and what happened to the white family who lived on that land after her.

Activity 8.1 Revise key literary terms

1. Revise the Keywords in Chapter 4. Read through the notes you made in your exercise book on literary terms, such as setting, plot, themes and structure.

2. Working in a group, take turns explaining to the group members why you chose the book you read at home. Was it because it was a specific genre that you enjoy, or did it remind you of an experience you may have had? Listen to the reasons given by the other group members.

3. Tell the group a little about the plot of the book.

• Explain the structure of the book
• Where and when the book was set
• What themes were covered in the book

4. In your exercise book, write a short summary of the book you chose. Use the information you have shared with the group, to help you write a full description of the setting, plot, themes and structure

Activity 8.2 Create a template for a book review

One useful way of finding out whether you would like to read a certain book (or see a film, or a play) is to read a review of that book. A book review must give the reader information about the book without telling the whole story, which would spoil things for the reader.

1. Work in groups. Create a template of the format of a book review. Begin by writing down the headings you would need (setting, plot, etc.) and decide how to cover these in a number of paragraphs. This template will help you to write reviews of any book you may read.

2. Use your template to write a review of the book you chose to read.

Hints

• The first paragraph could give the name of the book, and the author. It could also describe what genre the book is, and what age group it is suitable for.
• You need to give your opinion about the book, as well as facts. Remember that different people have different opinions.

Activity 8.3 Read and discuss an extract

1. Read the extract on your own. In Chapter 4, you read and discussed some extracts from Part 1 of a book called, Far from Home. In this chapter, you are going to read extracts from Part 2 and Part 3 of the same book.

PART 2 Zimbabwe, 2000
Katie
Chapter 1 A farmer’s girl
1.I was a farmer’s girl through and through. I grew up on a farm just outside Masvingo, amid the dust, the heat, the ebb and flow of the seasons, the sounds of the night: our dogs barking, mosquitoes whining, the throb of cricket song.

2. Before I turned fourteen, my world was small, relatively untouched by outside forces. I never watched the news or read the newspaper, As far as I was concerned, political parties, and elections, Economic
Structural Adjustments, AIDS, and the war in the Congo had nothing to do with me.

I could understand why Patience, the maid, listened to Radio Two while she worked. She needed to know all those things.
Those were her people – blacks – in the news. As for me, my people white Zimbabweans – were hardly ever on local radio or TV.

3. Our world was different from theirs. Our world revolved around our farms, our thousands of hectares where we grew cotton, tobacco, oranges, tea, to bring in foreign currency and to fund overseas holidays.

4. Most of us had houses in the low-density suburbs, complete with a pool, tennis court and braai, serviced by quiet, obedient blacks; we had sports clubs where we played and watched cricket, rugby and
hockey, and where the old folks played bowls;

we went to schools where the best traditions of the English public schools were kept alive with blazers, boaters and three-stripes-if-you’re-late; where our own history was celebrated through House names like Rhodes, Selous, Livingstone and Moffat, and school songs that praised the pioneering spirit of our predecessors; our parents drank in bars where UDI memorabilia decked the walls and where you could still laugh at a kaffir boetie – a white person who loved blacks – without fear of reprisals.

5. As a white farmer’s girl, I lived a charmed life that revolved around my family and school. My concerns were personal and private – my relationship with my father, my feelings towards my mother, the
twins. There were no climatic events, no major catastrophes, no insufferable losses- just the muted angst of a white middle-class family, a family of farmers dealing with the business of living.

6. That all changed in the year I turned fourteen. braai – cooking food over burning coals kaffir boetie – a white person who loved black people

4. Mom swore and slammed her drink down on the table. “I’ve had enough of this!” she screamed as she barged past me to the front door.

5. “Mom!” I cried, panic rising in my chest. “What are you doing? Come back here!” I ran after her, my bare feet slapping on the cold floor.

6. But she was already at the front door, wrenching it open, panting with the effort of sliding back the enormous bolt.

7. Then the door was open and the porch light lit up a group of about ten men and women, squatters, led by Comrade Zvinobaya. Beside him, his face still painfully swollen, his body tense and angry, was the garden boy.

8. “What the bloody hell do you want?” bellowed mom, in a raw, 20 hoarse voice, a voice so unlike her own it made me want to cover my ears and run to my room. But I stayed put.

9. Comrade Zvinobaya answered her coolly. “Where is the old man?” 

10. “None of your bloody business,” hissed mom through gritted teeth.

11. Comrade Zvinobaya’s brow furrowed above his glasses. “This is very serious,” he said gravely. “We are here to talk to him about his treatment of one of his workers.” He nodded towards the garden boy, who looked right at Mom, his eyes flashing.

2. In pairs, discuss the questions, and then answer them in book.
a) Refer to paragraph 1. What do we learn about the setting of the novel from this paragraph?
b) Explain why the speaker, Katie, never watched the news or read the newspapers.
c) Which two phrases from paragraph 3 tell the reader that Katie’s family was quite prosperous? Write the two phrases in your exercise book. 

d) Do you think blazers and boaters are suitable uniforms for a school in Africa? Why do you think they are seen as part of the best traditions? 

e) What impression does paragraph 4 give the reader about the attitudes of Katie’s community towards black Zimbabweans?
f) What themes might be dealt with in this book, based on paragraph 4? 

g) In terms of structure, this extract is part of the introduction. How does the author introduce the idea of the conflict that will follow? Look at paragraphs 5 and 6 to help you find the answer.

Activity 8.4 Read another extract and answer questions

1. Read the extract.
When she was 14, Katie went away to an expensive boarding school. This was a big change for her but she adapted well. She was surprised to find that there were many black pupils at the school, and she became friendly with one of them – Rudo.

When she comes home for the holidays, she discovers that many ‘white’ farms are being returned to indigenous Zimbabweans as part of the government’s ‘land reform’ program. Her family is given 90 days to leave the farm. One night, her father is out and the family is visited by ‘war veterans’ – men and women who fought in the liberation struggle.

Chapter 27 Damage control

1. The ‘war vets’ had not come for a few days and we expected a night of peace. Until we heard the familiar sound of their songs floating across the garden. The dogs started growling, baring their teeth. As the sound grew closer, they started barking and got up to
   patrol the front door.
2. “Dad!” I screamed in my head, “Where are you?”
3. Then there was a loud knocking at the door,
4. Mom swore and slammed her drink down on the table. “I’ve had enough of this!” she screamed as she barged past me to the front door.
5. “Mom!” I cried, panic rising in my chest. “What are you doing? Come back here!” I ran after her, my bare feet slapping on the cold floor.
6. But she was already at the front door, wrenching it open, panting with the effort of sliding back the enormous bolt.
7. Then the door was open and the porch light lit up a group of about ten men and women, squatters, led by Comrade Zvinobaya. Beside him, his face still painfully swollen, his body tense and angry, was the garden boy.
8. “What the bloody hell do you want?” bellowed mom, in a raw, 20 hoarse voice, a voice so unlike her own it made me want to cover my ears and run to my room. But I stayed put.
9. Comrade Zvinobaya answered her coolly. “Where is the old man?”
10. “None of your bloody business,” hissed mom through gritted teeth.
11. Comrade Zvinobaya’s brow furrowed above his glasses. “This is very serious,” he said gravely. “We are here to talk to him about his treatment of one of his workers.” He nodded towards the garden boy, who looked right at mom, his eyes flashing.

2. Work in pairs to discuss the questions, and then write your answers in your exercise book.

a) Explain Katie’s mom’s words and actions in paragraph 4.
b) Why does Katie react as she does in paragraph 5?
c) Describe how Katie’s mom greets the visitors. Why do you think her voice is so different from the way she normally speaks?
d) What do you think has happened to the garden boy?
adult man.

e) Discuss why Katie refers to him as a boy when he seems to be an

3. What can be learnt about the character of Katie, and Katie’s mom, based
on this extract?

4. Does the extract give us any clues as to the character of Comrade Zvinobaya? Find a sentence in the extract that supports your answer.

Activity 8.5 Read an extract and answer questions
1. Read the extract.
PART 3
Zimbabwe, 2001
Tariro and Katie
Katie and her family have to leave the farm and the land is returned to its previous owners – Tariro and her family. After fighting in the liberation war, Tariro returned to the part of her family that was still alive, and married her childhood sweetheart Nhamo. Nhamo is still blind but has taught himself to read braille, which has allowed him to educate himself and earn a living.

Chapter 13 Homecoming
1. I found Nhamo’s arm. He held my hand tenderly and whispered, “It smells different here. Is it like when we were young? Is it like I remember?”
2. I bit my lip to stop the tears that threatened to fall. “No, Nhamo, I whispered back. “It is different. Totally different.”
3. He nodded silently and I patted his hand, my heart aching for him, for what he had missed all these years.

4. Hondo frowned as he looked over at the outbuildings, the maids’ quarters, the workers’ compound, the stables where they must have kept horses, everything abandoned and shabby-looking. “I will build you a new house one day, Amai,” he said. “It will be the most beautiful house you have ever seen.”
5. I smiled at him. “I don’t need a beautiful house, mwanangu,” I said. “As long as I have my family around me, I can live in a tin shack. It won’t make any difference. Now I want to walk, to see our land.”15

6. “But Amai, it’s been raining!” Rufaro, one of Nhamo’s nieces, cried.
7. I chuckled. These city kids!

2. Work in pairs to discuss the questions, and write your answers in your exercise book.
   a) Why do you think Tariro is tearful at the beginning of the extract? b) Why does Hondo frown as he looks at the buildings?
   c) Discuss the difference in the attitudes of Rufaro and Tariro, in lines 15 and 16.
3. What does this extract tell you about the characters of Tariro and Nhamo? Do you think they have changed, or developed since you read about them in Chapter 4?
4. In Chapter 4, the narrator was the young woman Tariro, but in this chapter the writer uses both Tariro and the young girl Katie. What is the purpose of
   using these two narrators, each with their own point of view?

Activity 8.6 Read an extract and answer questions 

1. Read the extract.

After leaving the farm, Katie and her family move to England. It is cold, rainy and strange to them – not like home at all. The family does not do well – Katie’s mom leaves her dad and he begins drinking heavily, eventually getting into a fight and being arrested. Alone with her siblings, Katie has no-one to turn to – until she remembers her Uncle James, who married a black Zimbabwean woman and is living in England. She phones him to ask for his help, and he takes care of her and the twins.

Then, however, Katie’s mother and father (together again) come to find their children. They disapprove of James’ marriage to a black woman and soon there is an ugly quarrel in which Katie’s mom uses racially abusive language.

Chapter 34 Speaking honestly

1. I gasped. I hadn’t heard those words for so long. They shocked me with their bluntness – and only then did I realize how much I had changed.
2. “Yes, James, that is it!” mom cried, her voice shrill. “And you – you choosing to marry a black woman – and have children with her – it’s like a slap in the face to your parents, to your own people! It’s just not right, it never has been and it never will be. It’s a disgrace – and I’m sorry if I’m the only one here still brave and honest enough to say it!”
3. Something inside me shifted then. Honest? Brave? Was that what we were for judging Uncle James, for condemning him because he was married to a black woman, because his children spoke Shona? What else had he ever done to earn our scorn?
4. My mind raced, going back, remembering all the black people who had served and protected me all my life, who had left their own families to take care of mine, who had befriended me, whom I had taken for granted, and, ultimately, betrayed. I, like my family, had called them munts, darkies, kaffirs. But they had names, all of them: Patience, Grace, Rudo, Rutendo, even Lovemore, the tireless garden boy.
5. I had never been honest. 
6. I had never been brave.
7. If I had, I would have spoken up long before that day.
8. “Stop it, Mom!”
9. They all looked at me, shocked.
10. I took a deep breath and said, “That’s our aunt, Mom, not some ‘girl’ you can order around. Her name’s Rutendo. She’s Uncle James’ wife: a great mom, a fantastic cook- a part of our family …” 
11. Both Mom and Dad stared at me as if they no longer knew who I was.

2. Work in pairs. Discuss the questions, and write the answers in your exercise book.

• a) Do you think it was easy for Katie to speak out as she does in this extract? Explain your answer.
• b) Can you think of any reasons why Katie felt she had to speak out in this way?
• c) How do you think Katie’s character has developed and matured since the first extract in this chapter? Explain your answer.

Activity 8.7 Read an extract and answer questions

Work on your own.

Read the extract and answer the questions

It turns out that Tariro had been at agricultural college with James’ wife Rutendo, and is invited to England for Rutendo’s graduation. Katie and Taririo recognise each other from the night when the war veterans visited the farm (Activity 8.3) and Katie is very upset and angry. Tariro tries to explain her side of the story.

Chapter 35 History

1. The girl, Katie, shook her head and looked at me accusingly. “I remember you. You were there that night, weren’t you? You told my mom to pack our things and go. You and your comrades said you were taking back the land, that it was your land, not ours. But you were standing on the stoep of the house that my mom designed, the house that my dad built. That was my home – the only one I’ve ever had. What gave you the right to take it away from us?” She glared at me through her tears.
2. I was silent, trying to gather my thoughts. How could I speak to this young girl so that she would hear me, and understand my story, and, perhaps, understand her own story differently? 3
3. Then I remembered what her father had named their ranch- Baobab Ranch – and I remembered my birthplace.
4. Common ground.
5. “Do you remember the baobab tree on your farm?” I asked her. “The one that looks like it has its roots up in the air?”
6. She stared at me for a few moments, then nodded. “Ja, I remember it… I remember it well,” she said softly, her voice choked with emotion. “I used to play there as a little girl.”
7. “I was born at the foot of that baobab tree.” I said. Her eyes widened. “My mother gave birth to me there, right there, all on her own. It’s an amazing tree, isn’t it?”
8. She nodded.
9. I felt a wave of tiredness wash over me and I remembered the seven-hour journey I had just made. I needed to sit down, to rest my feet and to gather my energy. “Please,” I said to her. “Please, sit with me.”
10. She sat down across the table from me. Then we could look each other in the eye.

2. Explain your feelings for Katie.
3. Why do you think Tariro tries to help Katie understand her point of view?