Amnesty

My reader’s response is to the story Amnesty written by Nadine Gordimer. The main thesis of this story is that the men go out to engage in forwarding the movement and receive tons of credit, while little credit is given to the people that stay home to maintain the country and all the resources that it provides.
This story is told from a woman’s point of view. So it impacts us in a different way because we see how the woman is thinking while all these things are happening. Normally we would only get the man’s point of view. This story impacts me as a person belonging to womanhood, because we finally get a voice and a chance to tell our side. Tell of how hard it is to maintain a home, children, and farm the land while you are fighting for a revolutionary cause. Without food from this land, and children to continue your cause then the man is fighting for nothing. I have walked in this woman’s shoes once before. Although, I did not have to farm the land I had to maintain the house, work, and care for the child while the father was away on leave. I give a lot of credit to him and all the other gentlemen out there on the front, but a great deal of credit should be given to the woman and the families that stay behind to maintain living and support the from a distance.
With me being a woman and the story relating closely to me, except for the part about being pregnant for the second time, the text is a small part of how I view the world. The parts that I do not agree with are when the men has returned home from jail and quickly left to fight for the movement. He has spent no time getting to know his daughter. This is the same daughter that he gave the name Inkululeko, meaning freedom. Gordimer stated, The little girl hasn’t had time to get used to this man. But I know she’ll be proud of him, one day”! How can Inkululeko be proud of a man that she hardly even got to know?
My views were changed because this is one of the first readings that we got to read from a woman. How a woman writes her story is completely different than a man’s. Godimer was able to point out the gender differences throughout the story stating that, “But now and then, when one of the other comrades is speaking I see him look at me for a moment the way I look up at one of my favorite children in school to encourage the child to understand. The men don’t speak to me and I don’t speak”. This is role of woman not speaking not only takes place in Africa, but also in other countries. It was frowned upon and makes the man seem as if he could not control his wife if she was to speak when not spoken too. This speaking when not spoken to challenges me a great deal because I am very open minded and tend to say what comes to mind even in the company of a group of men.
Godimer made it a point to that the only person that got a name in the story was the child. This is significant because the change must start with the children. With no children there will be no change worth fighting for. I also learned that how well the child succeeds in school and life deals greatly with how the parents are viewed in the community by others. When the child succeeds and acquires a good living then the parents are deemed to have raised the child successfully. This must account for why my parents were so hard on me to continue to get my higher education. The better I did the better the Ghanaian community praised my parents.
Considering that I am of African descent I have heard first hand stories from my mom telling me about how to she had to farm the land and then walk to school after wards. She had no father present in her life due to him dying. Thus, she was unable to really get to know him. By that time Ghana was already an independent country. It is important to me to know my past because I have two wonderful parents and a handful of relatives that have worked very hard to get our generation to the point that we are today. Without them we (the children) would not be successful as we are today and have the privilege to grow up in the United States with good formal education.
The reading was a great read because it shows a woman’s point of view during this time of colonization in South Africa. I didn’t like the fact that Gordimer compared the country folk as being uneducated to the town people that were educated. “But the farm is so far from the town, we on the farms don’t know these things. It was as he said; our ignorance is the way we are kept down, this ignorance must go”. Farm people can be educated just as well as the town people. They are in fact more willing to learn so that they may change the current lifestyle that they are living. The reading portrayed a woman that was willing to stand by the man she loves side regardless of everything that happens. To me this seems as the perfect love story that everyone would want to have; someone that will love you unconditionally.
I enjoyed reading the text because it was a short novel written in only a couple of pages. It takes you from beginning of the story until the end when the man leaves home again to go and fight for the movement. My overall reaction to the text is that Godimer is a great writer that depicts the woman’s point of view in this story. I have read two other stories by Godimer but this is the story that I can relate to myself therefore, I enjoyed this short story the most.