UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA
College of Human Sciences
⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄⋄
ENG1501: Foundations in
English Literary Studies
Assignment 03 — The Novel, 2026
⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄⋄
ENG1501
Module Code:
Foundations in English Literary Studies
Module Name:
Bra Todd and Gabriel Sanchez: two rela-
Essay Topic:
tionships in Small Things
03
Assignment Number:
17 July 2026
Due Date:
50
Total Marks:
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for ENG1501 — UNISA 2026
,UNISA | ENG1501 Small Things — Assignment 3
Bra Todd and Gabriel Sanchez: Two Models of Relationship in Small Things
Nthikeng Mohlele’s Small Things (2013) traces the life of an unnamed narrator whose sense
of self is formed, in large part, by the men who mentor him. Of these, Bra Todd and Gabriel
Sanchez are the two most fully drawn, and the two set extracts introduce them at very differ-
ent moments in the narrator’s life. This essay argues that although both relationships grow
from a shared root in journalism and from the narrator’s underlying need for paternal belong-
ing, they differ sharply in emotional register: Bra Todd offers an intimate, hierarchical appren-
ticeship complicated by unspoken romantic rivalry, whereas Gabriel Sanchez offers a compan-
ionship between adult equals, mediated by history rather than domestic intimacy. The essay
first examines the diction of dependency in Extract 1, then the diction of historical distance in
Extract 2, before drawing out the similarities and differences the two portraits reveal.
Extract 1
Like a stray dog. In search of not food, but meaning. I hung out with Bra Todd, a respected
newsman, with a taste for American swing. ‘Everyone is a politician,’ he growled, with his in-
fectious laughter. We listened to records, while I polished his shoes, helped with the dishes, and
learnt sophisticated ways to woo a lady. I was terrified to let my feelings be known, so although
Bra Todd looked out for me, I refrained from burdening him with my Desiree misfortunes. He
was her uncle and, as such, had full command of her attention. How I envied him! I, at fifteen,
between bouts of pleading with Desiree (silent, helpless despair), spent many late nights with
Bra Todd in newsrooms, as a willing apprentice. (Mohlele 2013:11–12)
Extract 2
Gabriel Sanchez’s tale (for that is my friend’s name) begins in Cuba. Third in the line of thir-
teen siblings, he is the only journalist in an otherwise musical family. Many maestros, he says,
countless musicians, from streetcorner nobodies to musical saints of the Buena Vista Social
Club, learnt their skills at his father’s feet. That was when Gabriel wrote articles, cutting opin-
ion pieces for the Cuban Times, illuminating the Kennedy-Kruschev stalemate, often working
through the night. A migraine prematurely ended one of his midnight liaisons with his type-
writer. (Mohlele 2013:53–54)
Page 2 of 5
,UNISA | ENG1501 Small Things — Assignment 3
Dependency and Rivalry: The Diction of Extract 1
The narrator’s account of Bra Todd opens with a simile that sets the tone for the whole pas-
sage: he describes himself as being “like a stray dog. In search of not food, but meaning” (Mohlele,
2013:11). The comparison to an abandoned animal casts the fifteen-year-old narrator as ef-
fectively parentless, hungry not for food but for direction, and it foreshadows his need for a
substitute father figure. This need is met through domestic service rather than conversation:
he polishes Bra Todd’s shoes, helps with the dishes, and learns, in his own words, "sophisti-
cated ways to woo a lady" (Mohlele, 2013:11). These verbs of manual labour place the narra-
tor firmly in the subordinate position of apprentice rather than friend, a hierarchy the extract
calls "a willing apprentice[ship]" (Mohlele, 2013:12). Yet the relationship is not without ten-
sion. The narrator confesses he "was terrified to let [his] feelings be known" and deliberately
withheld his troubles over Desiree, because Bra Todd, as her uncle, held "full command of her
attention" (Mohlele, 2013:11–12). Admiration and envy therefore coexist: Bra Todd is simulta-
neously mentor and unwitting romantic rival, and the narrator’s silence around him marks the
one subject on which the apprenticeship offers no comfort.
Chronicle and Distance: The Diction of Extract 2
Extract 2 is written in a markedly different register. Where Bra Todd is introduced through
first-hand, sensory memory, Gabriel Sanchez is introduced through inherited biography: "Gabriel
Sanchez’s tale...begins in Cuba" (Mohlele, 2013:53). The word "tale" signals distance between
narrator and subject; the narrator is retelling a history rather than reliving a shared routine.
The passage reads almost as a journalist’s profile, cataloguing genealogy and vocation rather
than shared activity: Gabriel is "third in the line of thirteen siblings," the "only journalist
in an otherwise musical family" whose father tutored the "musical saints of the Buena Vista
Social Club" (Mohlele, 2013:53). Gabriel’s own writing is folded into world history, "illuminat-
ing the Kennedy-Kruschev stalemate" (Mohlele, 2013:53–54), which situates the friendship on
an intellectual and historical plane rather than a domestic one. The single intimate image in
the passage, a migraine that ends "one of his midnight liaisons with his typewriter" (Mohlele,
2013:54), personifies Gabriel’s devotion to writing itself rather than to the narrator, reinforc-
ing the sense of a friendship built on shared vocation and admiration rather than emotional
dependency.
Page 3 of 5
, UNISA | ENG1501 Small Things — Assignment 3
Points of Convergence
Despite this contrast in register, the two relationships share important common ground. Both
men are journalists who model a professional identity for a narrator who is, as one reviewer
describes him, "a mildly accomplished journalist" in search of meaning amid personal loss
(ya Salaam, 2013). Music, too, threads through both extracts: Bra Todd’s "taste for Amer-
ican swing" and the records the pair listen to together anticipate Gabriel’s musical lineage,
traced back to Cuban maestros and the Buena Vista Social Club, so that music recurs across
the novel as a marker of intimacy and cultural belonging. Both men, moreover, substitute for
family the narrator otherwise lacks. Having been orphaned and raised, then expelled, by a
Catholic priest before Bra Todd took him in (GroundUp, 2013), the narrator repeatedly at-
taches himself to older men who combine paternal warmth with professional apprenticeship,
a pattern of substitute belonging that Wright (2019:203) situates within the novel’s broader
"melancholic attachment" to lost or replaced forms of home in post-apartheid Johannesburg.
Key Distinction
The crucial difference lies in scale and stake, not in the presence of mentorship itself.
Bra Todd’s world is local, domestic, and romantically fraught: Sophiatown newsrooms,
shoe polish, and silent longing for Desiree. Gabriel’s world is transnational and his-
torical, spanning Cuban politics and the Cold War, and free of romantic complication.
Where Extract 1 is charged with the narrator’s own desire and envy, Extract 2 is nar-
rated with the composure of an adult retelling a friend’s story rather than confessing
his own.
Conclusion
The two extracts stage two distinct models of male companionship in Small Things. Bra Todd
represents an intimate but unequal mentorship entangled with unspoken rivalry over Desiree,
rendered in diction of hunger, service, and fear. Gabriel Sanchez represents a more distanced
friendship between equals, rendered in the diction of biography and historical chronicle. Read
together, the two relationships trace the narrator’s shifting search for belonging, moving from
dependent apprentice in adolescence to admiring companion in adulthood, while both continu-
ing to answer his underlying hunger for familial and vocational meaning.
Page 4 of 5
College of Human Sciences
⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄⋄
ENG1501: Foundations in
English Literary Studies
Assignment 03 — The Novel, 2026
⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄⋄
ENG1501
Module Code:
Foundations in English Literary Studies
Module Name:
Bra Todd and Gabriel Sanchez: two rela-
Essay Topic:
tionships in Small Things
03
Assignment Number:
17 July 2026
Due Date:
50
Total Marks:
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for ENG1501 — UNISA 2026
,UNISA | ENG1501 Small Things — Assignment 3
Bra Todd and Gabriel Sanchez: Two Models of Relationship in Small Things
Nthikeng Mohlele’s Small Things (2013) traces the life of an unnamed narrator whose sense
of self is formed, in large part, by the men who mentor him. Of these, Bra Todd and Gabriel
Sanchez are the two most fully drawn, and the two set extracts introduce them at very differ-
ent moments in the narrator’s life. This essay argues that although both relationships grow
from a shared root in journalism and from the narrator’s underlying need for paternal belong-
ing, they differ sharply in emotional register: Bra Todd offers an intimate, hierarchical appren-
ticeship complicated by unspoken romantic rivalry, whereas Gabriel Sanchez offers a compan-
ionship between adult equals, mediated by history rather than domestic intimacy. The essay
first examines the diction of dependency in Extract 1, then the diction of historical distance in
Extract 2, before drawing out the similarities and differences the two portraits reveal.
Extract 1
Like a stray dog. In search of not food, but meaning. I hung out with Bra Todd, a respected
newsman, with a taste for American swing. ‘Everyone is a politician,’ he growled, with his in-
fectious laughter. We listened to records, while I polished his shoes, helped with the dishes, and
learnt sophisticated ways to woo a lady. I was terrified to let my feelings be known, so although
Bra Todd looked out for me, I refrained from burdening him with my Desiree misfortunes. He
was her uncle and, as such, had full command of her attention. How I envied him! I, at fifteen,
between bouts of pleading with Desiree (silent, helpless despair), spent many late nights with
Bra Todd in newsrooms, as a willing apprentice. (Mohlele 2013:11–12)
Extract 2
Gabriel Sanchez’s tale (for that is my friend’s name) begins in Cuba. Third in the line of thir-
teen siblings, he is the only journalist in an otherwise musical family. Many maestros, he says,
countless musicians, from streetcorner nobodies to musical saints of the Buena Vista Social
Club, learnt their skills at his father’s feet. That was when Gabriel wrote articles, cutting opin-
ion pieces for the Cuban Times, illuminating the Kennedy-Kruschev stalemate, often working
through the night. A migraine prematurely ended one of his midnight liaisons with his type-
writer. (Mohlele 2013:53–54)
Page 2 of 5
,UNISA | ENG1501 Small Things — Assignment 3
Dependency and Rivalry: The Diction of Extract 1
The narrator’s account of Bra Todd opens with a simile that sets the tone for the whole pas-
sage: he describes himself as being “like a stray dog. In search of not food, but meaning” (Mohlele,
2013:11). The comparison to an abandoned animal casts the fifteen-year-old narrator as ef-
fectively parentless, hungry not for food but for direction, and it foreshadows his need for a
substitute father figure. This need is met through domestic service rather than conversation:
he polishes Bra Todd’s shoes, helps with the dishes, and learns, in his own words, "sophisti-
cated ways to woo a lady" (Mohlele, 2013:11). These verbs of manual labour place the narra-
tor firmly in the subordinate position of apprentice rather than friend, a hierarchy the extract
calls "a willing apprentice[ship]" (Mohlele, 2013:12). Yet the relationship is not without ten-
sion. The narrator confesses he "was terrified to let [his] feelings be known" and deliberately
withheld his troubles over Desiree, because Bra Todd, as her uncle, held "full command of her
attention" (Mohlele, 2013:11–12). Admiration and envy therefore coexist: Bra Todd is simulta-
neously mentor and unwitting romantic rival, and the narrator’s silence around him marks the
one subject on which the apprenticeship offers no comfort.
Chronicle and Distance: The Diction of Extract 2
Extract 2 is written in a markedly different register. Where Bra Todd is introduced through
first-hand, sensory memory, Gabriel Sanchez is introduced through inherited biography: "Gabriel
Sanchez’s tale...begins in Cuba" (Mohlele, 2013:53). The word "tale" signals distance between
narrator and subject; the narrator is retelling a history rather than reliving a shared routine.
The passage reads almost as a journalist’s profile, cataloguing genealogy and vocation rather
than shared activity: Gabriel is "third in the line of thirteen siblings," the "only journalist
in an otherwise musical family" whose father tutored the "musical saints of the Buena Vista
Social Club" (Mohlele, 2013:53). Gabriel’s own writing is folded into world history, "illuminat-
ing the Kennedy-Kruschev stalemate" (Mohlele, 2013:53–54), which situates the friendship on
an intellectual and historical plane rather than a domestic one. The single intimate image in
the passage, a migraine that ends "one of his midnight liaisons with his typewriter" (Mohlele,
2013:54), personifies Gabriel’s devotion to writing itself rather than to the narrator, reinforc-
ing the sense of a friendship built on shared vocation and admiration rather than emotional
dependency.
Page 3 of 5
, UNISA | ENG1501 Small Things — Assignment 3
Points of Convergence
Despite this contrast in register, the two relationships share important common ground. Both
men are journalists who model a professional identity for a narrator who is, as one reviewer
describes him, "a mildly accomplished journalist" in search of meaning amid personal loss
(ya Salaam, 2013). Music, too, threads through both extracts: Bra Todd’s "taste for Amer-
ican swing" and the records the pair listen to together anticipate Gabriel’s musical lineage,
traced back to Cuban maestros and the Buena Vista Social Club, so that music recurs across
the novel as a marker of intimacy and cultural belonging. Both men, moreover, substitute for
family the narrator otherwise lacks. Having been orphaned and raised, then expelled, by a
Catholic priest before Bra Todd took him in (GroundUp, 2013), the narrator repeatedly at-
taches himself to older men who combine paternal warmth with professional apprenticeship,
a pattern of substitute belonging that Wright (2019:203) situates within the novel’s broader
"melancholic attachment" to lost or replaced forms of home in post-apartheid Johannesburg.
Key Distinction
The crucial difference lies in scale and stake, not in the presence of mentorship itself.
Bra Todd’s world is local, domestic, and romantically fraught: Sophiatown newsrooms,
shoe polish, and silent longing for Desiree. Gabriel’s world is transnational and his-
torical, spanning Cuban politics and the Cold War, and free of romantic complication.
Where Extract 1 is charged with the narrator’s own desire and envy, Extract 2 is nar-
rated with the composure of an adult retelling a friend’s story rather than confessing
his own.
Conclusion
The two extracts stage two distinct models of male companionship in Small Things. Bra Todd
represents an intimate but unequal mentorship entangled with unspoken rivalry over Desiree,
rendered in diction of hunger, service, and fear. Gabriel Sanchez represents a more distanced
friendship between equals, rendered in the diction of biography and historical chronicle. Read
together, the two relationships trace the narrator’s shifting search for belonging, moving from
dependent apprentice in adolescence to admiring companion in adulthood, while both continu-
ing to answer his underlying hunger for familial and vocational meaning.
Page 4 of 5
