COUNTRY LOVERS
Judy Stewart
Instructor Michelle
Class: Literature
04-25-2012

It is funny how a piece of Literature can bring back so many memories. It is like re-living a certain time in your life all over again. Although each and every one of us lives different experiences and lifestyles, there is always going to be a story, poem or book that you come across that will reveal a time or a moment that is brought back to life. That is the beautiful art of literature, reading something that makes you experience all your emotions. That is what the story Country Lover’s by Nadine Gordimer does for me. It is a short story about the unfairness of one’s color and a forbidden love because the color of one’s skin. What I know for sure is that love comes in every color and sizes, while we are not able to control the power of love, why should it be forbidden? It was for Thebedi in the story Country Lover’s she was a black woman who fell in love with the Master’s son Paul us.
He knew he loved her the moment they were together as it was not the same as with other girls.” This time it was so lovely, so lovely, he was surprised….and she was surprised by it, too-he could see in her dark face that was part of the shade, with her big dark eyes, shiny as soft water, watching him attentively: as she had when they used to huddle over their teams of mud oxen, as she had when he told her about detention weekends at school.” (As cited in clugston, 2010) Not only was the moment they had together lovely but it she was the one he had loved all this time only not knowing it until that moment and the look in her eyes that was so familiar to him. As it was for me although we lived in different times the racial differences still exist, especially for people obsessed with the color of their skin, as my family was. Country Lovers (1975) Is a heart touching story, it describes the weakness of a black women and the unfairness her people lived. This story evolves a black woman named Thebedi and a son of her white master, who fall in love which was forbidden in that time. To have anything to do with another race was considered a social taboo. The character of the master’s son did not see Thebedi for the color of her skin; in fact it aroused him more than the white girls who wore bikinis. The school girls he went swimming with at dams or pools on neighboring farms wore bikinis but the sight of their dazzling bellies and thighs in the sunlight had never made him feel what he felt now when the girl came up the bank and sat beside him, the drops of water beading off her dark legs the only points of light in the earth-smelling deep shade”. (As cited in clugston, 2010)
I can relate to this same forbidden love because of the color of one’s skin. I met my husband in 98 he was a Mexican and god forbid if my family found out that I was in love with a Mexican. Since I could remember my parents always had hateful remarks to say about the Hispanics, mean things like how many points I get if I run over this one, or how bad the store smelled because there would be Hispanics in it. I can see the same fear Thebedi had in not telling anyone that she had a romance with the masters’ son. Even more than I because in her times their was slavery and the outcome she was facing was more serious...
That is why I believe she did not even have the courage to tell Paulus when he came back from college that she was pregnant with his baby, and that her parents made her marry Njublo as it was her custom to marry her own kind. “It was not much after she had her child that paulus came back from veterinary college. Once back home on his farm he overheard the workers talk about who was to replace Thebedi after she has given birth to her child,” (clugston, 2010) I can imagine that he was not furious but had an overwhelming feeling of terror that his parents where to find out that he made loved to a black women, So he felt he had to take matters into his own hands at once. He struggled for a moment with a grimace of tears, anger, and self-pity; she could not put out her hand to him. He said, ‘You haven’t been near the house with it?’(Clugston, 2010). The next day the child mysteriously dies, after a visit from Pualus. Thebedi heard noises from inside but was not aware that her baby was dead until the next morning. From what Pualua said to her she probably knew his intentions and if she had the courage she could have stopped him.” Don’t take it out. Stay inside. Can’t you take it away somewhere. You must give it to someone_” (clugston, 2010) Here Pualus refers to the child as it... having no meaning as a child, his child. If Thebedi had courage, and if she and her people were not treated so differently, she could have saved her baby. The author Nadine Gordimer was born in South Africa and lived there all her life. Her strong opposition apartheid, the socioeconomic system that oppressed the majority black population in south Africa ( 1949-1994) is a dominant them in her writing, with her later works reflecting challenges accompanying the changing attitudes in the country toward racial relationships.(clugston,2010) She dedicated her life to defend the unfairness of being black and with this heart whelming story she tries to prove what is happening so sadly all over different country’s not just in South America but all over the world.

References:
A journey to Literature ( Clugston,2010) Published by Bridgepoint Education, Inc., 13500 Evening Creek Drive North, Suite 600, San Diego, CA 92128. www.bridgepointeducation.com/content.asahford.edu www.poetryfoundation.org/.../Reader-response%20theory?...