ipl-logo

What Are The Obstacles In Kaffir Boy

472 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Segregation in todays society

In Mark Mathabane’s autobiography, Kaffir Boy, Mathabane demonstrates traces his journey as a child as well as the difficulties he faces along the way. The obstacles and constraints he faces throughout his youth, molds him into a person able to rise above the restraints forced upon him both through his society and culturally. Although he is able to overcome the ordinary way of life in South Africa, Mark faced many obstacles along the way. In Kaffir Boy, Mathabane’s primary obstructions to achieving his goals were the system of apartheid in South Africa, his father's existence, and his father's intent to hold him to tribal beliefs.
Apartheid
During the novel, Mathabane, as well as the other blacks who lives in the ghettos of South Africa’s …show more content…

Mark’s father being raised in a tribal setting causes him to not agree with the more modern systems of South Africa's society. Despite Christianity, and education, being constantly on Mark’s mind, his father continues to discipline him for what he wants Mark to do. His father’s struggles with apartheid leaving a negative effect on Mark. His father uses the government as a justification for the way that he is, as well as why Mark should not go against his beliefs. As his father struggles to find a stable job to provide for the household, or avoid being arrested, his support for the family is minimal, resulting his relationship with Mark becoming distant. Without his father’s support Mark suffers physically and psychologically. Mark’s sufferings during youth ages are affected primarily by lack of income within the home.
Conclusion
Overall, Mark’s obstructions and obstacles were due to dehumanization in apartheid South Africa. As he and his father drew apart physically and emotionally, his connection to manhood changes all together. The society in which Mark is raised challenges him to grow into a better person. Despite the difficulties Mark encounters daily, he uses his restraints as motivation to move forward and overcome generalized

Show More
Related

True Notebook Rhetorical Analysis

324 Words | 2 Pages

First it seems to me that Mark starts to understand how he could get each of hit students to write, but the staff at juvenile hall doubted mark thinking he made the inmates feel special and wont be able to get them to write. I believe mark gained confidence from being doubted and underestimated from the staff. Mark knows what was better for the students

Read More

All Over But The Shoutin By Rick Bragg

724 Words | 3 Pages

Mark grew up to be a lot like their father. Since the family grew up poor and with their father walking in and out of their life there was a struggle to know right from wrong with the brothers. Him and his brother Sam always fought, but would only stop when they saw their mother got upset. In the book, Bragg says “Life is too short to dance with an ugly woman, and my ugly woman was my own envy” (131). Mark falls very true to that statement.

Read More

Rhetorical Analysis On James Mcbride

1138 Words | 5 Pages

Not being able to know one’s identity during adolescence can lead to do drugs, commit theft, fail school, and be blind on what to do with their life. This is what James McBride had to go through during his adolescence. Growing up in a black community with a white mother can be very confusing and stressful. He employs rhetorical devices throughout his text in order to develop his epiphany regarding his mother’s life and by, extension, his own. Through the use of appeals and tone James McBride reveals the importance of education and religion, but above all else McBride mostly focuses on finding his identity, trying to understand race as he was growing up, and shows how his mother played an important role in his life

Read More

Examples Of Individualism In Harrison Bergeron

707 Words | 3 Pages

Harrison Bergeron is a novel where the author is expressing what he thinks society is leading to and what the problems are. Harrison Bergeron is the main character and his points of view and thinking matters are interesting to investigate. This author made everyone the same. Societies are pressuring people to become the same and making people think that if they don 't look or act some sort of way, they don 't matter or serve to our world, causing many people to go to certain limits and even causing suicide as a solution. In the story, everyone thinks the same, everyone walks the same, hears the same.

Read More

Character Analysis Of Rufus Weylin In Octavia Butler's Kindred '

960 Words | 4 Pages

(25-26) ” It’s clear that Rufus’s parents’ two opposite approaches to raising him are conflicting and damaging, resulting in Rufus getting the wrong message as to how he is allowed to behave. While Rufus’s mother gives him all he wants regardless of his poor behavior, his father on the other hand neglects him and resorts to violence to discipline him. The use of violence and sense of entitlement build up in him and worsen as he ages.

Read More

In Jonathan Safran Foer's Here We Aren T, So Quickly

1062 Words | 5 Pages

His son marries, and the narrator and his wife age further, and the transition into old age is complete with the death of the narrator’s father-in-law. Between these events we can see large shifts in attitudes and ideas, as well as health and well-being. These factors provide clear character evolution within the

Read More

Story Of A Young Black Man By Mark Mathabane

413 Words | 2 Pages

Response to Question 2: Education In the story of a young black man, Mark Mathabane conveys the significance of an education in Alexandra. He grows up under his father 's disbelief in going to school by reason that no black man would need to learn how to read and write to take care of his wife and children. Here is a quote from the book that provides evidence of Mark 's realization of the value of education. “‘He shunned school and, instead, grew up to live by the knife.

Read More

Metaphors In Kaffir Boy

671 Words | 3 Pages

Their initial antipathy towards Christianity illustrates the complex relationship many black South Africans have with the religion, seeing it as the white man’s religion that over centuries, has, and continues to be used to justify racial segregation and violence, as well as to silence black voices. With the system of apartheid being regarded as stemming from the mission of the church, the metaphors used by Mark to depict his fear during this time, ties the message of the story together, to show how the christian mission, tying in with apartheid, was for many years successful through the use of deception. During one instance of the police invading his house at a young age, he uses a metaphor to describe his complete

Read More

Bronfenbrenner's Childhood In The Other Wes Moore

1196 Words | 5 Pages

How is it that two men that come from identical backgrounds end up being completely opposites? Wes Moore takes us back to his childhood growing up, and also introduces us to a character sharing the same name as him, and similarly, the same lifestyle. Both of the young men shared the absence of a father figure, living in poor neighborhoods, bad influences, and lack of education. While reading, we question “how?” and “why?”

Read More

The Running Man Character Analysis

905 Words | 4 Pages

By creating characters in the novel who are excluded and labelled the author demonstrates how cruel society can be to people. The purpose of this essay is to show how the author reveals the experiences of marginalised characters in society. Joseph Davidson is an introverted, fourteen year old boy who feels that he is trapped within his own world of chaos, and he too is a marginalised character in the book. It is suggested by the author that other characters believe that Joseph’s mother smothers him too much and his father has

Read More

Michael's Alteration In Baby Teeth

1059 Words | 5 Pages

In turn, it alters the way everyone treats him and drives Michael to want others to recognize him as the man he is. To them, it is as though he is a little boy who is incapable of having intellectual ideas and taking part in adult-like activities. For instance, at work, Michael’s colleagues take

Read More

The Man Who Was Almost A Man Analysis

716 Words | 3 Pages

Dave, seventeen years old, feels that it is time for him to be treated with respect, he is “Almost a man.” Richard Wright, in “The Man Who Was Almost a Man,” tells of a young boy’s yearning to be respected like an adult male. His “almos a man” motif plays a function in creating plot, revealing characters, and developing theme in his story. First, the “almos a man” motif creates the building blocks and foundation for the plot of this story.

Read More

Voice In Cry The Beloved Country

952 Words | 4 Pages

Thus the reader is once again let down, and left wondering whether there is anyone in Africa who can fit the mold of the leader required. Midway throughout Stephen Kumalo’s journey, the reader is told about a young man named Arthur Jarvis, a staunch opponent of South Africa’s racial injustices who was shot and killed. Much to the reader’s dismay, the more they learn about Arthur Jarvis, the more they mourn his death as Arthur Jarvis embodies all the qualities needed for a

Read More

Cry The Beloved Country Setting Analysis

982 Words | 4 Pages

The ambience in Johannesburg is chaotic as people tend to be more violent. The society is broken, there are countless of borders between different races, placing some of them below the other. Contextual background along with outdated technology shows how Ndotsheni is falling apart. The location of Ndotsheni can be difficult to modernize, as the land around it depends on the villagers. There are not many shortcuts or easier ways the villagers can take to farm or educate children.

Read More

Igbo Society In Chinua Achebe's Things Falling Apart

1072 Words | 5 Pages

This often lead to people in power be the leading decision-makers as there was no coherent reasoning behind anything. Once this society lost its ability to know what’s right and what’s wrong, the ability to prepare for any consequences was automatically non-existent; causing conflict where the author showed the constant and inevitable difference of mentality in society. Although this novel was written in the 20th century, its reflection of society is relevant even in today’s times. As readers, when we watch the character’s life unfold, we gain a sense of perspective about African society and how colonization changed everything.

Read More

More about What Are The Obstacles In Kaffir Boy

Related Topics

Open Document