Analysis of Nadine Gordimers Burgers Daughter - Essay Example

? Burger’s Daughter Nadine Gordimer’s ‘Burgers Daughter’ represents South African society during the height of Apartheid. The novel reflects the harsh life of the common where family relationships, rites of passage and all universal procedures are subject to political considerations. ‘Burger’s Daughter ‘is the story of Rosa whose father was imprisoned for opposing the Apartheid regime in South Africa. Rosa is in search of her identity. She being represented as an extension of her father, now tries to step beyond the boundaries set by the political system. She wants to be Rosa Burger instead of Burger’s daughter. The incidents, which drag her to the realization, are well depicted by the author in this novel. Being the daughter of two communist revolutionaries, even her personal life is affected by the then politics. Rosa’s mother is a pure revolutionary, solid in the visage of personal tragedies, a perfect match for her communist father. As a girl she remembers “A mouth that has learned to give nothing away when speaking; whose smile comes from the confidence not of attraction but of conviction “(82). Her home lacks the familiar pleasures of a house where principles conquer the common opinion. Conrad once tells her” … being bought up in a house like your father’s is growing up in a devout family…it was all taken in with your breakfast cornflakes” (50). Rosa slowly builds up devotion to her father and to the communist movement. Even her ‘lover’ in jail considers her as a means of information. The unforeseen requirements which are to be carried out as part of her devotion are more than expected. When wants to deliver a message to Noel in prison, (68) she has to act as his fiance in order to fool the police. She takes more steps ahead in bringing out her task. Thus, her life ‘must fit in with the twice-monthly visits to the prison” (62) since her father is in jail. What happens here is, before becoming aware of her identity, it plunges in the flow. Where it lost is a question to her later in life. Before leaving to France she sees a drunken old “rag of a black man ‘beating a donkey attached to a cart in which his family sits. She writes ‘I had only to career down on that scene with my car and my white authority”. She become conscious s that she could alter the man and his family lives, turn them over to official control and recording , stop the brutality of the moment’ I could have stood between them and suffering –the suffering of the donkey “ But no…… I drove on because the horrible drunken was black, poor and brutalized. He is worried about the suffering in front of her eyes” I didn’t do anything. I let him beat the donkey…the man was black. So a kind of vanity counted for more than feeling….I have been free, I’m free to become one (210). Thus he justifies the reason for leaving. “I don’t know how to live in Lionel’s country” (210). Thus, Rosa comes to doubt the capacity of the people to escape the racial bound paradigms. In this current of events, she does not get time to pause to think about her own policy in life. She is dragged by such an influential flow and was taken to the depth before her knowing what happened or what is happening. The fact that she is the daughter of Burger (63) determines everything in her life. That seems to be so natural because without her identifying the real source of events they played vital role in her life. Her identity was that of her parents. She does not reveal her stand about the Apartheid, but her father’s identity was enough for her to be predestined. Rosa bears the inconvenience of being Burger’s daughter throughout her life. A rode to employment and even to travel for a personal cause is restricted to her because of her heritage. Even her love affairs are looked upon through the same suspecting eyes. Her relation with Marcus, a Swedish film maker, who has come to make a film about Lionel, is also alien. It was the nearest he would ever get to the barricades” (65). She was expected to talk on women’s meeting. Rosa wants to break this hurdle, but keep silent there because of the presence of South African Police waiting for her to do anything subversive (204). When she tries to get away from the ghost of someone, also tribulations are waiting for her. She even has to convince the government that she travels as part of her holiday, nothing more (189). Here also the identity determines where to go and whom she can meet with. Thus, everybody and everything around her attribute the quality of being the daughter of Burger, not as Rosa. Here the political and social situation in Europe and that of South is contrasted. Her home country is tyrannical and organized, keeping millions under their spell. The stunning switch from the existing dullness to a style and abundance become multihued and sumptuous for her. She is confused to think that such magnificent conditions can offer newness to her existing identity. When she makes the choice of being with French teacher, she thinks that she can surrender her background and she gets pleasure from being the mistress of the French writer, not as the daughter of a communist. Still the problem of identity remains there. The rally, which supported revolutionary change in South Africa, (312) is an environment to reminisce her past associations. Those moments are vigorous to pull out the residue in her mind, what was inevitable part of her life. The meeting with Bassies, who was a childhood friend to her more than a brother, makes the way clear to go beyond her present attire. The response of Bassies is stunning that she even finds it difficult to pronounce the new name (318). It seems that she has forgotten her past completely while Bassie more powerfully stings to his culture. ‘Zwelinzima then asks her what makes her different from the other whites who have been oppressing the blacks” (322). The question which pierces her heart, reaches at the unfathomable bottom, stirs and picks the elements of her real self ‘. She thinks, rethinks and finally admits to herself that she is a South African, daughter of Burger, a brave communist martyr. She realizes her mistakes to have acted like a white citizen of South Africa. Rose meets with the precious bend in her life. Having abandoned all the relations she returns to South Africa. What makes her preventing from entering the struggles again? It takes more time to reach the way. She witnesses one incident about the trial of a young military officer who had stolen the army documents and given them to the opposition. The untidy political hands that play the game show that the opposition has to divert the way. Thus, Rose comes to her heritage and reaches again so near to Lionel Burger. She is able to recollect what her father had said at the time of trial “I would be guilty only if I were innocent of trying to destroy racism in my country” (27). When she puts the attire of a physiotherapist, she is contributing as much to the children of Africa who are hurt by Soweto riots of 1976 (342). Rosa Luxemburg slowly changes to Rosa Burger and contributes her life to her believes. She wants to carry on the legacy of Lionel Burger. Now she is fighting for liberation not because everyone expected but she wanted to. When she is put into jail, she feels much elated for the cause she assures that it is not because of being a daughter of Burger, but because she proves her identity by acting effectively that she is now in jail. Being in prison strangely makes Rosa feel livelier than she used to (360). Thus, she succeeds to establish her identify. Through the character of Rosa, Gordimer unravels the history of white people in South Africa. She is constituted with all the characteristic of Europe and Africa, language, culture, history etc. Her life is a journey through experiments to find out similarities and dissimilarities. Her task becomes to sort it out to come to the unique amalgamation. Works cited Gordimer Nadine. 1979. Burger’s Daughter. New York: Penguin Books Read More