ENG1501
Assignment 3
DUE 11 August 2025
,ENG1501
Assignment 3
DUE 11 August 2025
Short Story: Man Lands on the Moon
by M. Tlali
Novel: Small Thingsby Nthikeng Mohlele
Man Lands on the Moon
Question 1: Contribution of First-Person Narration to the Story’s Meaning
Narrative Voice as Epistemic Lens
The use of first-person narration in Man Lands on the Moon profoundly shapes the
story’s thematic trajectory by centring the narrator’s interior consciousness and
privileging perception over objectivity. This narrative choice, as Booth (1983) contends,
facilitates an intimate rhetorical situation that invites readers to experience events not as
factual occurrences, but as emotionally and culturally situated phenomena.
The narrator’s recollection—“I remember the day man landed on the moon like it was
yesterday” (Tlali, 2004)—shifts the moon landing from a historical milestone to a
subjective temporal marker. The narration thus reclaims a globally mediated event as
personally meaningful. The emotive confession—“I felt a strange mix of awe and
loneliness as I watched the grainy footage” (Tlali, 2004)—further reveals an internal
dissonance: reverence for human achievement coexisting with a sense of existential
marginality. The juxtaposition of public spectacle and private emotion invites a broader
philosophical inquiry: can global progress genuinely integrate or elevate individual lived
experience?
, Philosophical Tensions and Narrative Limits
This subjective mediation implicitly assumes the narrator’s interpretive authority. Yet,
the reliance on a single viewpoint raises epistemological tensions. Lyotard’s (1984)
critique of grand narratives applies here: the story questions the legitimacy of universal
progress by filtering it through a conflicted, localised perspective. The potential for
solipsism—where the individual voice eclipses communal or divergent responses—
remains latent. Consequently, the narration does not present a conclusive truth but
enacts a critique of dominant epistemologies through personal narrative.
Conclusion
First-person narration functions not merely as a stylistic device, but as an
epistemological strategy that interrogates the relationship between monumental history
and individual consciousness. It deepens the narrative’s exploration of belonging,
alienation, and cultural hybridity by framing the moon landing through an intimate,
conflicted lens.
Question 2: Central Conflict and Its Resolution
Cultural Tensions as Narrative Engine
The central conflict in the story is predicated on a generational and ideological rift
between Makhulu’s spiritual traditionalism and her daughter’s alignment with modern
scientific rationalism. This conflict is emblematic of what Bhabha (1994) terms the “Third
Space” of cultural hybridity, wherein contradictory epistemologies must negotiate co-
existence.
Makhulu’s reverent claim—“The moon is sacred; it’s not for man to tread on” (Tlali,
2004)—asserts an ontological view grounded in spiritual cosmology, thereby positioning
the moon as a sacred domain beyond scientific intervention. Her daughter, in contrast,
articulates an Enlightenment-inspired teleology: “It’s progress, Makhulu. We’re reaching
for the stars” (Tlali, 2004). The force of modernity is rendered rhetorically as destiny.
Her further assertion—“You can’t hold onto the past forever” (Tlali, 2004)—dismisses
Assignment 3
DUE 11 August 2025
,ENG1501
Assignment 3
DUE 11 August 2025
Short Story: Man Lands on the Moon
by M. Tlali
Novel: Small Thingsby Nthikeng Mohlele
Man Lands on the Moon
Question 1: Contribution of First-Person Narration to the Story’s Meaning
Narrative Voice as Epistemic Lens
The use of first-person narration in Man Lands on the Moon profoundly shapes the
story’s thematic trajectory by centring the narrator’s interior consciousness and
privileging perception over objectivity. This narrative choice, as Booth (1983) contends,
facilitates an intimate rhetorical situation that invites readers to experience events not as
factual occurrences, but as emotionally and culturally situated phenomena.
The narrator’s recollection—“I remember the day man landed on the moon like it was
yesterday” (Tlali, 2004)—shifts the moon landing from a historical milestone to a
subjective temporal marker. The narration thus reclaims a globally mediated event as
personally meaningful. The emotive confession—“I felt a strange mix of awe and
loneliness as I watched the grainy footage” (Tlali, 2004)—further reveals an internal
dissonance: reverence for human achievement coexisting with a sense of existential
marginality. The juxtaposition of public spectacle and private emotion invites a broader
philosophical inquiry: can global progress genuinely integrate or elevate individual lived
experience?
, Philosophical Tensions and Narrative Limits
This subjective mediation implicitly assumes the narrator’s interpretive authority. Yet,
the reliance on a single viewpoint raises epistemological tensions. Lyotard’s (1984)
critique of grand narratives applies here: the story questions the legitimacy of universal
progress by filtering it through a conflicted, localised perspective. The potential for
solipsism—where the individual voice eclipses communal or divergent responses—
remains latent. Consequently, the narration does not present a conclusive truth but
enacts a critique of dominant epistemologies through personal narrative.
Conclusion
First-person narration functions not merely as a stylistic device, but as an
epistemological strategy that interrogates the relationship between monumental history
and individual consciousness. It deepens the narrative’s exploration of belonging,
alienation, and cultural hybridity by framing the moon landing through an intimate,
conflicted lens.
Question 2: Central Conflict and Its Resolution
Cultural Tensions as Narrative Engine
The central conflict in the story is predicated on a generational and ideological rift
between Makhulu’s spiritual traditionalism and her daughter’s alignment with modern
scientific rationalism. This conflict is emblematic of what Bhabha (1994) terms the “Third
Space” of cultural hybridity, wherein contradictory epistemologies must negotiate co-
existence.
Makhulu’s reverent claim—“The moon is sacred; it’s not for man to tread on” (Tlali,
2004)—asserts an ontological view grounded in spiritual cosmology, thereby positioning
the moon as a sacred domain beyond scientific intervention. Her daughter, in contrast,
articulates an Enlightenment-inspired teleology: “It’s progress, Makhulu. We’re reaching
for the stars” (Tlali, 2004). The force of modernity is rendered rhetorically as destiny.
Her further assertion—“You can’t hold onto the past forever” (Tlali, 2004)—dismisses
