The writers of ‘The Gold Cadillac’ and ‘Country Lovers’ portray several issues between them. They both try to emphasise the treatment black people received in the 1950’s. They write about many issues such as; the different worlds of Apartheid South Africa, the expectations and the lives of the black characters in the stories and how the society reacts to them in everyday life. In ‘The Gold Cadillac’ the author shows how much the Black people are separated from the White people in the society ‘WHITE ONLY, COLOURED NOT ALLOWED’ this obviously isn’t very nice to even picture but to somebody that actually is judged by the colour of their skin must feel very angry and upset towards white people.
A lot of bad things even in society these days in particular countries are blamed on the black people, as some cannot except that they have any talent or good in them at all. ‘Whose car is this boy?’ They could not even believe that the man owned this car they automatically presumed that he had stolen it, obviously the man didn’t like this at all and he decides to argue back, but again this gives the white policemen more ammunition and reason o punish him. The fact that they were stopped due to their colour shows just how much the black people were thought of as useless and unworthy of living within the same area of everybody else, we see in this story the seriousness of the conditions in Apartheid South Africa.
Things are very different in ‘Country Lovers’ we don’t see they pressures society put on black people but the shame the white people feel when they fear that others will recognise feelings between the two races. Paulus obviously likes Thebedi very much but when he realises the baby is his he changes into a murderer. This is only an act to hide the shame of him and Thebedi doing ‘what people did when they made love’. At the beginning of the story the black people also have an education but they are unable to carry it on because they just work on the farm again the author is showing the insignificance of black people in society.
In country lovers Njabulo”s attitude is positive. Even though the baby may not be his own he still cares for and supports it: ” Out of his farm labourers earnings he bought from the Indian store a cellophane… six napkins, a card of safety pins, a knitted jacket, cap and bootees, a dress, and a tin of Johnson”s baby powder for Thebedi”s baby.” He may have chosen to support the baby because he loved her and wanted to help her so put the baby first. It may also be that he knows that the baby belongs to Paulus but is powerless to do anything about it so makes the best of the situation. However, Paulus reacts in a completely different manner thinking only of himself: ” He struggled for a moment with a grimace of tears of anger and self pity”
This makes us feel that he completely inconsiderate and selfish as he and Thebedi have been friends since they were small children and now Paulus is turning his back on her and thinking of himself and how the situation will affect him. The reason Paulus wants the child kept out of sight is because many people in the village are aware of the fact that Paulus and Thebedi were very close friends. If people saw the colour of the baby it wouldn”t be long before they would realise that it didn’t really belong to Paulus but of a white father. Thebedi’s baby was killed due to Paulus’ shame on himself and the shame he would experience if anybody else knew that the baby was his.
He is very worried whether anyone will find out from the look of the baby as it has a few characteristics of Paulus himself. ‘Don’t take it out…you must give it to someone’. The reference to the baby ‘it’ shows that the baby doesn’t have a real importance to Paulus and that his main priority is to excuse himself from the situation so he has nothing to do with it. When Paulus and Thebedi are in court being questioned about the murder of the baby, the author portrays again the shame on the white people and completely ignores the black like they don’t even exist. It shows that it doesn’t matter what you do if you have dark skin because it is expected of you but is frowned upon if you associate yourself with black people.
Even in the farm all we read is black women doing ‘as they were employed to do as casual labour’ why is it black women should do it? And the writer writes it really briefly as if it is a fact of life that black women should be slaves to white folk. Again the insignificance and unimportance of black people is shown here. Right at the end when we read about the newspaper coverage it portrays the embarrassment of it all by stating ‘shielding his face’ like he doesn’t want everyone or anyone to know that this case even existed with a black person.
Then Thebedi was explained and interviewed really briefly basically because they felt they had to and they didn’t really care whether she was in it or not. ‘Interviewed by the Sunday papers, which spelled her name in a variety of ways’ it doesn’t matter how black people are treated because they are not worth the hassle. This is the main theme of this story, but thankfully people are treated a lot better in areas of the globe today, hopefully one day all people will be treated the same everywhere.
