Eng1501 Assignment 1

Question 1: The Child who was shot dead by soldiers at Nyanga - Ingrid Jonker 1. The poem was relevant to former President Nelson Mandela’s introduction after the first democratic election as it is an important text in South African literature. Ingrid Jonker highlights the African heritage and the early struggle against Apartheid (Fischer, 2018). A closer look at the content of the poem, suggest that it is a protest against Apartheid. It symbolizes all the innocent people and children who were killed by soldiers under Apartheid in South Africa. The contrast in line 11: “The child is not dead” and line 15: “where he lies with a bullet through his brain” tells us that the child is medically declared dead but not spiritually (Moffet, 2013:216). It can be concluded that the child’s legacy will live forward as a reminder of the injustice. The child’s death has inspired others and given them energy to fight the struggle against Apartheid. The final line “without a pass” symbolizes hope for South Africa. The child is free. Therefore, it is a very relevant piece to open the parliament after the first democratic and non-racial election. It symbolizes the struggle and the long road walked to the day where South Africa became democratic, yet the legacy of those who were harmed will live on. 2. The tone of the fourth stanza becomes more hopeful. Jonker speaks about the child’s future and his freedom. The focus is more on the child. A rhetorical device, anaphora, is used to appeal to the emotions of the reader (Literary devices, 2019) by emphasizing and repeating “the child” at the beginning of each line. Connotations refers to a word’s secondary meaning, the meanings that are associated with the word (Byrne, Kane & Scheepers, 2018: 54). The word choice in the fourth stanza connotes future, power and freedom. The child who was a victim has now become strong and free. He is able to roam the country “without a pass”. He is no longer limited to the Townships referred to in the third stanza. The stanza symbolizes hope and freedom. 3. An Allusion is something that is said or written that mentions another person or subject, mostly in an indirect way (Byrne, Kane & Scheepers, 2018: 142). All the names mention in the third stanza; Langa, Nyanga, Orlando, Sharpeville and Philippi are townships, yet they are not being called that. It emphasizes how restrictive Apartheid was and that most of the violence occurred in the Township. An allusion can be drawn here to the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960 (same year as the poem).