Rohan In Beverly Naidoo's Short Story 'Out Of Bounds'

Beverly Naidoo’s short story “Out of Bounds” has a main character named Rohan. Rohan volunteers to help a boy named Solani carry the heavy buckets all the way to the squatter camp. At the beginning of the story, Rohan is a very naive person because he doesn’t think before he acts, asks thoughtless questions and goes to the squatter camp without knowing the danger, however, over the course of the story, Rohan grows up. One way that Rohan shows that he is a naive person is by not thinking before he acts. One example of this is when he says “Wait! I’ll give you a hand.” Readers know that this was said before he thought about it properly because then the author, mentions “Rohan’s offer was out before he had time to think through it properly.”. Rohan volunteers to help Solani carry the heavy buckets to the squatter camp because Rohan wants to lend a helping hand to Solani. Rohan pretends like he is annoyed by how his neighbours always come and go his house to borrow some water but he doesn’t show this. Instead, Rohan gives assistance to the people in need such as his neighbours. This shows the readers that Rohan may seem like a very naive person but inside really he just wants to be helpful to his neighbours.

For example, when Rohan asks Solani, “Isn’t there a doctor with your mother?” This shows that Rohan had short thoughts because after this the author mentions “It was such a silly question that as soon it was out, Rohan wished he could take it back.” The author included this detail to show the readers that asking this question has made Rohan feel like a thoughtless person but I think that Rohan asked this question to maybe try to talk to Solani so that they can get closer and help each other next time, too. Moreover, Rohan goes to the squatter camp without knowing the danger which makes the readers look like he is a naive