In reading the novel Fielas Child, I was able to read of a story about a boy who had to experience so much as a child such as having to go through a life changing experience to only resulting in him finding his true self. The author Mathee develops the theme of the story by using two different points of view, the Van Rooyens and the Komoeties points of view, thus causing readers to see of how a boy adapted to changes and how he reacted when taken out of his first home. Taking a child of a home is hard but is way harder when being taken to a new family he has never met and has never been aware of. Mathee is able to write a well written novel by utilizing two important literary elements in order to display the the theme. In Mathees novel, fielas …show more content…
“Knysna was a fierce dog that bit him. You don’t walk past a fierce dog twice” (Mathee 212). In the beginning of the novel Benjamin Komoetie is shown in a house with a black family, as the story develops we see how he could of possibly have been Lukas Van Rooyen, a boy from a forest people family. When Benjamin was taken out of his home he was brought to the forest in Barnard island in order to live with his “real” family. Benjamin has to travel through a long trail that shows just how bad and long it is. Benjamin describes how the forest as a dense place with the description he gives. Going from one setting to the other Mathee puts in perspective how a long trail was hard and tiring to cross and even more so to a child. Living with the Van Rooyens opened up new places and new people to Benjamin, from respectful and educated to illiterate and misbehaved people. Benjamin’s encounter with the city of Knysna does not make him more acceptable to change but the complete opposite, it shows a strong feeling of dislike towards everything. “Why are you going back to the Long Kloof” (Mathee 296). Throughout the story we see that Benjamin has been with the Van Rooyens for nine years now, with this time we could imagine that he had adapted and taken the ways of the people he had called his family for sometime now. Yet, we see how although spending this long amount of time he …show more content…
“Benjamin knew his mother was not coming for him. No matter how hard he tried, he no longer believed she would come” (Mathee 189). In this part of the novel we see how Benjamin beging to lose hope in ever seeing the people he was used to. His mind began to tell him that his “mom” would not come for him because the time that had passed was way too much. Benjamin’s struggle to have faith begins to fade when his “father” Elias Van Rooyen, tells him that he needs to change and tries to change him with violent acts such as hitting him and beating him with his own hands. Fiela in fact has tried to go search for her child by going all the way from the Long Kloof to the city of Knysna in search for her to have her child back. Fiela’s attempts were also successful by letting her get to the Van Rooyen’s home, sadly not when Benjamin was there. The struggle for Benjamin was to adapt to change because he lived the majority of his life with a family that treated him good, with love and with respect. “You’re just beginning to behave like a white again, white you’ll stay” (Mathee 199). With this we see how Elias is comenting in the way that Benjamin acts, since Benjamin was raised with a black family he picked up the ways of speaking such as referring to white folk with the work “master” when talking to them, which is not common due to the fact that Benjamin himself was white. The attempt to change