The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer - Essay Example

? “The futile quest of being Human” enter the Number or College 17th February Introduction The novel provides us a chance to understand that no one in this world is bad or evil. Everyone is good and tries to do the things which he thinks are right. The perspective of people is what matters to them. Mehring being so racist still does not feel guilty. He thinks he has everything as he is an influential man but in reality he has nothing. He does not possess any relations in his life. He has no idea of what it feels like to have a good family life, to love and to get loved. He is someone who has everything still stands empty handed and, moreover, he is contented with all this. 2. The futile quest of being Human Human beings have a complex nature. They think and react to different situations. There should not be segregation or isolation on the basis of race, color and languages. Every religion teaches us this fact and every organization of human rights raises slogan against discrimination. In The Conservationist, Gordimer addresses the issues of how humans respond to situations and feeling of others and what are the things which make him do so. Mehring is a contented character and accepts apartheid which is a legal policy of isolation the blacks. He dedicates his life to development and economic enrichment as he wants to keep himself wealthy and economically stable. Mehring made a choice of separation; isolation and seclusion which made him suffer in a number of ways. He is a wealthy man who has everything which one can ever wish for and has many people working for him. Being so wealthy and affluent he is alone and has no one to accompany him. This can be observed by the fact that his wife was not with him rather she moved to America. A wealthy man is not the one who can count his riches but the one who is contented and has someone to share his success, happiness and tears with but poor Mehring was deprived of all this. Because of his privileged circumstances he had his son with him whom he raised but still throughout the novel we observe that there is a distance between the father and son. He was unable to get emotionally attached with his beloved son. His son had long hair and different mindset which made him disturbed and they could not get into a comfortable relationship with one another. Moreover, his son had inclination towards the same gender which made Mehring even more furious. Another choice made by Mehring which made him suffer was the incapability to acclimatize. Due to this reason even his mistress was not having good relationships with him. He found escape as an easy way to end up things which he did not like or could not accept. But it added into his suffering and was of no use. In the depiction of Mehring, Gordimer made us to think about self-knowledge, social responsibility, political convictions, as well as personal desire. There are many examples to it but I will quote the fact that Mehring thought that being discriminative was just when it came to the whites and the blacks. According to him, he was born with an advantage and the blacks are born with the fate which they have to live with. For example, he tries to become a good boss by giving his employees piece of meat and clothes at Christmas. Gordimer makes us ponder over self knowledge in this way that Mehring could have realized that he has everything and is affluent too. Giving his employees a piece of meat is not something out of the world and he should have done so otherwise as well. There are times in our lives too, when we act as if we are doing things by going out of our way but we do not realize what real “motives” are there which made us do so. Are we becoming selfish or doing something for humanity? The self realization is a very important thing when you call yourself human. Being humans, we all tend to improve our quality of living. For getting a good standard of life we need to have good jobs or establish good business. Money is the most important thing to get a good lifestyle in this world. But while getting these things we should not forget our ethical and moral values. We should not do anything or any act that may prove to be harmful for people living around us. Every business has a set of values that ensures the implementation of social responsibility properly in the global economy. Mehring should have realized his social responsibility and increased the wages of his employees or made them have meat; often although he had realization of the fact that they seldom get access to it but still he did not. It was his duty to ensure that his employees are working in good health conditions and that they get good wages but he never considered these things. The amount of disgust he bears for the teeth of his workers is also astonishing. He never gave the fact that they do not get access to dentist and that he should do something about it rather he just felt repugnance from them which again is sorrowful. He was contented with the political sincerity, as well as he did not give the tradition thinking a second thought and wanted to protect his political status as much as he wanted to protect his farm and old thinking. He did not think for a moment that his personal desires were driven with discriminative feelings and drives but he should think over what he actually is doing so that he could try to become human. The thing which Mehring gains in place of his relations and all valued entities is his wealth and his farm. There was a dead body found at his farm that was of a black. Police was also least bothered by that body and, hence, they bury the body at Mehring’s farm and this thing disturbs him. Mehring remains blind as he is unable to live like a human. He is unable to think about what is right and what is wrong. He is unable to keep all his relationships intact. Moreover, he cannot respond to emotions, be it of her mistress, her wife, son or poor workers. He is unable to keep up with the little happiness of life or lovemaking. He remains wealthy but unable to evolve into a good human being. 3. Conclusion Mehring has what he wanted- the wealth. He was not a bad character but he just could not cope up with life and adapt himself to the changing situations and circumstances of life. Like Gordimer (1974) writes and I state, "The fly looks as if its ought to be buzzing but cannot be heard…” (16). I conclude that Mehring reacts to the things most important in nature like he responds to the bee. He does not hear it and does not respond to the change. If he could cope up with life better he could have had his son and wife with him and could have had good relations with his workers. I would conclude his quest as futile in nature. He tried to become human by earning well and living well, as well as by sticking to the old customs. In his perspective, he won but actually he lost. In my opinion, the real quest of life is to become human by maintaining relationships and not losing everything just for wealth. 4. References Gordimer, Nadine. The Conservationist. New York: Penguin, 1974. Print. Read More