Table of Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
1.The love for Desiree........................................................................................................................2
2.Sophia Town...................................................................................................................................2
3.The idea of home and identity........................................................................................................3
4.Political Inequality..........................................................................................................................3
5.The post revolution dispensation...................................................................................................4
6.The narrators refusal of political favours .......................................................................................4
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................4
References.............................................................................................................................................6
1
, Introduction
In the novel titled small things, written by Nthikeng mohlele , a young South African
novelist, born in1977.grew up in Limpopo and Tembisa TownshipPublished a novel
titled small things in 2013, which is divided into three section titled life, nausea and
echoes.in the first section of the novel, the city is depicted as is still in the apartheid
era. Then the middle and final parts of the novel the city is portrayed in the period
after the country first democratic election . In the given extract, we see the
narrator’s inability to move on from the trauma of Sophia town’s demolitions, an
unrequited love and eighteen years of being an apartheid political prisoner, and how
this affects his dreams and aspirations as a poet and musician. This essay will
discuss the themes of class and inequality which is presented in Nthikeng Mohlele’s
Small Things as a means to explore the development of the narrator’s own internal
conflict.
1.The love for Desiree
The novel narrates about the life challenges of an unnamed protagonist and he is in
a chronological order .The essay is going to discuss how the narrator internal
conflicts developed and linked to the specific themes .Firstly the internal conflict rises
from the beginning of the novel in chapter one, the Mohlele (2018) speaks of being
in love . He battles with his internal feeling of loving the postmaster daughter Desiree
as he has never exchanged any words with her. Mohlele says that he never
exchanged much ,Desiree and I yet he felt hopeless in love with her from the day he
laid his eyes on her. He also says that he caught her roving eyes on one morning
during mas , hearing nothing of the sermon ,I saw only this eye ,a beaming light bulb
that warmed me from the third row, a good twenty meters from where I knelt
praying .my knees molten with love and from ever since the narrator was in love with
Desiree regardless yet Desiree hasn’t given him a promising answer . Even if after
he had confessed his love to Desiree, she does not assure the narrator love but
promise him external love only when the time is right. According to Wright (2019) the
theme class is further explored in chapter one as we see the narrator is being
devastated by the fact that school terms are closing for two weeks, meaning he
would not have time to adore his Desiree since their worlds are apart . He shows this
when he says it have never made sense to him why they e had to endures two
weeks breaks between school terms-during which almost turned red with longing his
Desiree would .
2.Sophia Town
In Nthikeng Mohlele’s Small Things , the author offers us a hopeless romantic poet
and musician, whose aspirations are quelled by the trauma of the forced removals
Sophia town’s demolition (1955-1960), a life-long unrequited love and eighteen years
as an apartheid political prisoner. These three life events form and structure the
experiences of Nthikeng’s starving artist and unnamed protagonist in the city setting
of Johannesburg. Sophia town and it’s history becomes the way in which we
2
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
1.The love for Desiree........................................................................................................................2
2.Sophia Town...................................................................................................................................2
3.The idea of home and identity........................................................................................................3
4.Political Inequality..........................................................................................................................3
5.The post revolution dispensation...................................................................................................4
6.The narrators refusal of political favours .......................................................................................4
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................4
References.............................................................................................................................................6
1
, Introduction
In the novel titled small things, written by Nthikeng mohlele , a young South African
novelist, born in1977.grew up in Limpopo and Tembisa TownshipPublished a novel
titled small things in 2013, which is divided into three section titled life, nausea and
echoes.in the first section of the novel, the city is depicted as is still in the apartheid
era. Then the middle and final parts of the novel the city is portrayed in the period
after the country first democratic election . In the given extract, we see the
narrator’s inability to move on from the trauma of Sophia town’s demolitions, an
unrequited love and eighteen years of being an apartheid political prisoner, and how
this affects his dreams and aspirations as a poet and musician. This essay will
discuss the themes of class and inequality which is presented in Nthikeng Mohlele’s
Small Things as a means to explore the development of the narrator’s own internal
conflict.
1.The love for Desiree
The novel narrates about the life challenges of an unnamed protagonist and he is in
a chronological order .The essay is going to discuss how the narrator internal
conflicts developed and linked to the specific themes .Firstly the internal conflict rises
from the beginning of the novel in chapter one, the Mohlele (2018) speaks of being
in love . He battles with his internal feeling of loving the postmaster daughter Desiree
as he has never exchanged any words with her. Mohlele says that he never
exchanged much ,Desiree and I yet he felt hopeless in love with her from the day he
laid his eyes on her. He also says that he caught her roving eyes on one morning
during mas , hearing nothing of the sermon ,I saw only this eye ,a beaming light bulb
that warmed me from the third row, a good twenty meters from where I knelt
praying .my knees molten with love and from ever since the narrator was in love with
Desiree regardless yet Desiree hasn’t given him a promising answer . Even if after
he had confessed his love to Desiree, she does not assure the narrator love but
promise him external love only when the time is right. According to Wright (2019) the
theme class is further explored in chapter one as we see the narrator is being
devastated by the fact that school terms are closing for two weeks, meaning he
would not have time to adore his Desiree since their worlds are apart . He shows this
when he says it have never made sense to him why they e had to endures two
weeks breaks between school terms-during which almost turned red with longing his
Desiree would .
2.Sophia Town
In Nthikeng Mohlele’s Small Things , the author offers us a hopeless romantic poet
and musician, whose aspirations are quelled by the trauma of the forced removals
Sophia town’s demolition (1955-1960), a life-long unrequited love and eighteen years
as an apartheid political prisoner. These three life events form and structure the
experiences of Nthikeng’s starving artist and unnamed protagonist in the city setting
of Johannesburg. Sophia town and it’s history becomes the way in which we
2
