Sunrise On The Veld

1170 Words5 Pages

The two boys in the short stories have an ego that is inflated and have a high notion of self - importance, eventually leading their optimistic perspectives of themselves to be demolished. In “A Sunrise on the Veld” the death of the buck symbolizes the maturation of the teen boy. The event the boy just witnessed was a significant turning point in his life as it made him realize not everything in life can be modified. When the young teen boy was looking over the buck, after the ants had fed on the buck’s skull near the bush (forest) he felt a feeling which he had not felt before. Reflecting back on what just happened to the buck the young boy says, “ The knowledge of fatality, of what has to be, had gripped him and for the first time in his life; and he was left unable …show more content…

The narrator is disappointed that many of the stalls are closed and or closing and a conversation he overhears bring him to a starch reality that the bazaar is not the most stunning and intriguing place he expected, in hopes of getting Mangan’s sister. The narrator can see how insignificant he is in the greater scheme of things. In the story “A Sunrise on the Veld” the death of the buck makes him realize how irrelevant, vain, and egotistical he was. The boy's idealistic view of himself is shattered by reality as he was unable to help the buck. When the boy realizes how he has so many flaws and can not control everything such as the death of the buck he feels worthless and blameworthy cause he just stood there and watched it suffer. The boy says, “Said over and over under his breath: I can’t stop it. I can’t stop it. There is nothing I can do” (Lessing