My Son's Story, Nadine Gordimer 5w3l22

Ques: Comment upon the intermingling of the private and the political in My Son’s Story. Located in the 70’s and 80’s of the 20th Century of south Africa, My Son’s Story recounts the chequered of a small family during the most tragic phase of South Africa’s political struggle. Nadine Gordimer’s My Son’s Story published in 1990 several issues of the time -- inter-racial love, adultery and the ongoing revolution to overthrow apartheid in South Africa and brings them together in an exceptionally well told story format from the view point of the boy Will in first person, and his father Sonny in third person. Will is also the persona of Gordimer and thus his serves as the multifaceted voice, the narrative of which throws light on the other characters revolving around him in the novel. Will’s narrative is a narrative about the power of language and its mastery when the Resistance movement was it its peak. The narrator Will – the extended self of the novelist has a dual role – the novelist’s person is quite a young man and as an adolescent. The entire narrative is a sort of reen on with no markings, the daring departure from the style followed by most of the twentieth century novelist. Thus My Son’s Story is a novel about the genius of its narrator Will as a writer. Gordimer slips into a coloured youth who is also the adolescent son of the principle figure Sonny, thereby becoming a character in his over narrative.

In the novel, Gordimer continues her engagements with complexities in human relationships in a racially divided South Africa. Set against the background of nationwide agitation against the cruel and inhuman apartheid policy, the novel unfold the story of Sonny’s family and its disintegration owing to Sonny’s illicit liaison with a white woman. Sonny and Hannah’s moves forward in a politically charged atmosphere ant thus does not remained untouched by political ramifications. In fact, what we see is a conscious attempt on part of the writer to enmesh the personal and the political. The novel seems to a value judgement on Sonny’s behavior, using his relationship as a yardstick. Sonny, a committed and an honest activist, suddenly transforms to a mere manipulative liar once his relationship with Hannah begins, the story told by Will largely sketches his personal pleasures. The incident at cleansing the graves ceremony, from where both

Sonny and Hannah run away can be cited as an example where the public world impinges on the private and vice versa.

In fact, Nadine Gordimer, in the novel strangely usurps the ‘public’ with the private. The public turmoil only forms a background to the drama that unfolds in Sonny’s family. The very fact that the brewing tension in the political world is not seen as a major cause in the disintegration of the family but is only sidelined by over emphasis on Sonny’s relationship with Hannah. My Son’s Story does not portray with equal attention ‘the public and the private’, the public(political) just exists as a backdrop to the private , and the story of Sonny’s family is intertwined in these complexities. To discuss Hannah’s representation and specifically to her defining action in the plot of the novel which is her exit from Sonny’s life, we need to establish her peculiar psychological position in the text. Hannah’s love for Sonny arises out of the simple fact that he is a good man, but it becomes much more sophisticated due to the presence of a barrier. This barrier is an already established domesticity in Sonny’s life which is constituted by Aila and his children. Hannah is sub-consciously aware of this and thus the extent of her relationship with Sonny is purely physical, political and emotional. Moreover, this psychological barrier is implanted by the political (Prohibition of Mixed Mariages Act, Immorality Act). There is no space for family matters (concerning to the possible “family” of Hannah and Sonny), there is no discussion relating to a possible future for their formal communion at some stage. In other words, the relationship begins with an expiry date and an exit clause. The lucrative offer to become a wanderer as UN’s High Commission for Refugees Regional Representative provides Hannah that timely exit clause. Hannah’s exit is imperative to the structure of the novel. Not only does it facilitate Sonny’s retirement back into his previous domestic life which is essential for Will’s character, it also pushes Aila to the forefront of things. From being a ive spectator, she becomes the mover of things in this universe. Hannah has virtually exited, Sonny is no more a primetime revolutionary but Aila now is. Gordimer’s entire energy is thrust into empowering the most marginalized, the black woman, who all through the novel is shown to be a domestic person and whose sole purpose in life is to take care of her

family is later engulfed into the world of revolution. Her political activities shock Sonny and Will, along with the readers. Through a narrative that gradually flows down from one character to another, till it reaches the black woman’s empowered position, Gordimer illustrates her evolved views on feminism and her belief in the South African cause. The black woman gradually ascends to a dynamic role of activism. Hannah, who is shown to have an activist in her, is demystified from her elevated status as a white woman activist, to a mere bystander. It is Aila, in whose storeroom, the explosives are hidden. By enabling Aila with the revolutionary streak, Gordimer empowers the black woman of an action long deprived of. Furthermore, the space is transferred from the male to the female, in the case of Sonny. Sonny’s relationship to a white mistress also degrades his position from a respected teacher, to a sidelined dreamer who can only muse about a better future. On the other hand, Aila is given a wholesome part to play in the narrative having the ability to do, “meaningful interweaving of everyday with history and of political action with political thought.” (Sonza, Jorshinelle T) Sonny is far more concerned with a betterment of his social well-being, looking for better neighborhoods with bigger bedrooms and bigger backyards to move into. His mentality is that of a colonial type, where he draws a charmed circle around his children, of comic books and tree houses. Through gradual undermining by his son, he is ultimately described as a “generic diminutive”. Moreover, Gordimer’s representation of both Sonny and Hannah as a unified entity is ultimately shown to be a failure in the face of opposition from the police in a protest march. Not only this, but when both are busy reminiscing about ideal forms of politics, it is the sheer act of discussing the subject that diminishes them to just “philosophizing revolutionaries” (Sonza, Jorshinelle T) Here the feminine counterpart also represents the Eurocentric notion of politics. By defeating both the lovers Gordimer has very pointedly not only decreased the importance of the male lead, but also exhibited a refined feminist outlook. Throughout the above examples, the action is not only being spoken through different voices and represents multiple layers of ideology; it also shifts towards elevating Aila as

the backbone of the fight against apartheid. Not having the companionship of her husband any longer, forces Aila to develop an independent spirit, “…the wife had a good job…she politely made it perfectly clear…they themselves had made to manage without the father of the family.”(Gordimer, 62) Both Will and Sonny are gradually distanced, and Will takes on the mere role of the recorder of events, Sonny having already been demoted. The final nail in the coffin, so to speak is when Sonny gradually drifts back from his mistress to his wife, when he realizes that Hannah’s activism is just a silken, unrealistic facade. Thus, Gordimer’s narratorial voice gives the readers a clear picture of what is going on in a family and the African society. The domain of revolt juxtaposes with domesticity within Will’s first person bracketing narrative. So it is the authorial voice of Will that gives us clear idea of the apartheid regime and the details are well-furnished by the persona. Gordimer’s attempt to explore the vast terrain of political and personal relationships in a culturally and racially divided South Africa becomes succeful. _______________________________