Please submit your "SCASI" essay on "The Lemon Orchard" here.Paragraph 1: Introduction
Paragraph 2: Setting
Paragraph 3: Characters
Paragraph 4: Action
Paragraph 5: Style
Paragraph 6: Ideas
Paragraph 7: Conclusion
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
"The Lemon Orchard"
Please submit your "SCASI" essay on "The Lemon Orchard" here.Paragraph 1: Introduction
Paragraph 2: Setting
Paragraph 3: Characters
Paragraph 4: Action
Paragraph 5: Style
Paragraph 6: Ideas
Paragraph 7: Conclusion
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“Lemon Orchard” is a short story written by Alex La Guma, a South-African author, in the year 1962.
ReplyDeleteThe setting of this short story is in South Africa along two long, regular rows of trees, in a season of late winter, meaning it’s still a bit chilly in the air. It is late at night and there’s a big moon in the sky, it’s also a bit cloudy. It is probably set in the year that this story was written, while the big segregation in South Africa was still going on.
The characters in “Lemon Orchard” is of a group of men, four of them mentioned in this story and their captive ‘colored’ man. There is the man with the small cycle lantern, a man who is the leader of the group carrying a loaded shotgun. All of the men in the party are warmly dressed, while there captive is the only one not wearing any thick clothes. This man is wearing trousers and a raincoat pulled over his pyjamas as if it was put on in a hurry.
The action in this story is of these men walking through the night with their captive who they took because ‘colored’, probably referring to a man with a nationality of maybe Asian, South American etc. It is a racist way of calling a man, concerning his skin color. It doesn’t say exactly what happens to this man, but it kind of hints out that these men are here to beat this guy up, probably to his death, just because he has a different skin color. Also because he is an educated man who is a teacher. This is because in that time the people believed that men with darker skin colors shouldn’t have had an education or be treated just the same as ‘white’ people.
The language style in “lemon orchard” is very interesting. Throughout the story these men speak English, but throw in every now and then some Afrikaans/Dutch words or phrases e.g. hotnot, kaffir, wag’n oomblikkie, oom etc. The rest of the language is pretty descriptive, and in the end there is a beautiful description of the moon, and the nature/surroundings of the lemon orchard that they were walking by.
The ideas/themes in this story are South African history and racist segregation. Since at that time the region had completely split up/segregated ‘white’ colored people and ‘dark’ colored people, giving the ‘white’/European colored people a larger advantage/respect than the ‘dark’ colored. The world was pretty racist at that time treating these native people with unfairness, nicknames and at times violence as an example in the story of these men, suspectedly, beating up this innocent man to his death.
As a conclusion of “Lemon Orchard” I saw it both as a very, VERY sad story, which to make it even more depressing, that this actually happened in real life. I also saw it as intellectual, with the different words they used and how languages from all over the world like to throw in words from other languages in their normal conversations. But truly, La Guma has really showed the readers of this world how the Afrikaans were so horribly treated at the time. You can’t really actually believe that this segregation had been going on for so long in South Africa and only ended in the 1990’s.
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ReplyDeleteThe Lemon Orchard
ReplyDelete“The Lemon Orchard” is a story written by Alex la Guma. Alex la Guma is also from South-Africa. The Lemon Orchard was also written in 1962. The story is placed in South Africa in a Lemon Orchard. The theme of the story is aggression and differences in appearances.
The Lemon Orchard is placed in South Africa in the 1960s. The story is probably set in winter as for the weather is cold outside, “are you cold, hotnot?” and “and he shivered now with chill,” The story is also set as night because the captain of the group was wearing pyjamas and they were walking in the dark. The setting of the story is also in a long regular row of trees (the lemon orchard).
The characters in “Lemon Orchard” is of a group of men, who were waling in the lemon orchard. A few of these men are mentioned in the story, but only one of their names mentioned. The four men also captured a coloured man. He is an intelligent teacher who has a good life as a university teacher. He gets a good pay and is well off. Also the member of the group is wearing pyjamas with a raincoat on top. Also he is carrying a loaded shotgun, and he is standing at the back of the group walking through the lemon orchard. There was also a man carrying a lantern.
The main plot of the story is that these men are walking through a lemon orchard with a man that they captured. It is night and it is very cold. The man was maybe Asian or even South American, they also call him coloured. It is very racist that they say this but it looks like they have bad intentions and want to kill or badly injure this man. It does not say exactly what happened to the man after they went to the spot they were looking for but we can imagine that by the way they acted they wanted to hurt him. They probably want to beat him to death because he has a different skin colour and is a well educated man and they think they shouldn’t be educated. They think that coloured people are less important than white people and they deserve to be treated really badly.
The language of the lemon orchard is very interesting and different. In the whole of the story the men speak English (and thanks to Mr. MacLachlan) we learnt that these men do not speak Dutch because the leader is not Dutch and does not know how to speak it. Also the men say all these abbreviated and different words like oom (which again thanks to Mr. MacLachlan) we learnt meant uncle or ‘dude’. The rest of the story is also like that but mostly it is very descriptive.
The ideas/themes are saying that South Africa at the time had a lot of racism going round and dark and white people were not being treated the same. By the time the region of the story shows us that the white people expected to be treated better and receive education that the coloured people do not deserve. This shows racists are in South Africa at the time and really treat the people unfairly, by calling them hotnots and other names. This was probably the last day for the man as they seemed like they wanted to beat him up, to death.
To conclude with the Lemon Orchard I can say that it was a very short story that showed the difference between the two colours of skin and ways of living possibly. It is also a story that I would believe as a real story as for this has happened in the past and in certain countries, if I’m not mistaken,
(PEOPLE CORRECT ME IF I AM)
is still happening. So for the end of this conclusion I can say that the story that La Gume has written is a very realistic picture of what life could have been for coloured.
The Lemon Orchard
ReplyDeleteThe story The Lemon Orchard was written by Alex La Guma in 1962, and is set in South Africa at the same time it was written, when South Africa was having political issues.
The setting of the story is South Africa, in the 1960s, and it is set in a lemon orchard at night, and it is very cold apparently. The period South Africa is going through is called the Apartheid, which is a racist system that relied on the splitting up of coloured people, and white people.
There are 5 characters in total (assumed); 1 of these is a ‘coloured’ captive, who has been taken from his home, still in his pyjamas, and he is being ‘escorted’ by 4 local people, who are treating him badly, and appear to be about to beat him, or even kill him. He is a well-educated school teacher, and is probably Asian, and has come to work in South Africa. He has been taken from his house for supposedly insulting a white Minister, and he has been punished before for bad behavior. The other 4 men are all local men, presumably, and are not known by name. One, the leader, is carrying a shotgun, one, the lamp holder, is at the front of the party, and the other two are mocking the coloured man.
The main story of the Lemon Orchard takes place in a lemon orchard in South Africa, and starts off with a description of the setting, and about how the party is complaining about how dark it is, and how cold it is. They are taking a captive, a coloured man, into this lemon orchard, and are going to presumably punish him. They proceed on further into the lemon orchard, and they mock this ‘coloured’ man, and physically abuse him. They are taking him into the lemon orchard for a punishment, as a course of his actions, which he was said to have insulted a white minister, and when the
Apartheid government was around, this was seen as disgraceful. He had already been beaten up before, and now it seems that they may even kill him. We do not know what happens to him though, and at the end, the 4 men accompanying him are talking about a dog, that is barking.
The styles of this story are quite racist based, and the whole story (although only about 3 pages long) relies on this ‘coloured’ man being physically and verbally abused by these local men, who are out to beat him, or even kill him. Also, these men, local to the area, speak English in the story, but they also throw Africaans words into their dialect, such as Kaffir, or Oom. But these men speak mostly English throughout the story. The language is also quite descriptive, a a huge part of this story is descriptions of the night, the scenery, the temperature, the actions towards the ‘coloured’ man etc.
The themes of this story are also racist, and are taken from the daily life in the 1960s from South Africa. They associate the era with that of the Apartheid government, and how it divided the community between the privileged white-skinned locals, and the ‘coloured’ people, who were often beaten, and attacked. This also shows what the white locals thought of themselves, as they obviously liked to beat these ‘coloured’ men, and make themselves feel more important than these foreigners.
As a conclusion to the Lemon Orchard, i feel that is was an eye-opening story, and shows the actions that were going on only 20 years ago in South Africa, and how some people were being treated in comparison to others. This story seems to be a real-life story, and is very believable, probably because this is what it was like back then as a ‘coloured’ person living in South Africa. I feel that the story, although very short, was very well written, and planned out, especially with the descriptions and the Afrikaans words.
The Lemon Orchard
ReplyDeleteThe Lemon Orcard is a short story written by Alex la Guma. It was written in 1962
The Lemon Orchard is set in South Africa in the 1960s. The story is set in south Africa and it is winter. It is set in a long regular row of trees (the lemon orchard).
The characters in “Lemon Orchard” are of a group of men, who were walking in the lemon orchard. The four men capture a coloured man on their way and take him captive. He is an intelligent man who has a good life as a university teacher. He gets a good pay and is well off. There was the captive in PJS, a man with a gun, one with a lantern.
The story is about these men that are walking in a lemon orchard with a captive. It is at night and it must be cold. They are very racist and mean to their captive teasing him and calling him names throughout. It seems to me like they want to torture or kill him because of his color when they take him to a special place where no one will see.
The language in this story is difficult to understand without some help as their are a lot of words which are very unfamiliar to me like ‘oom’ and ‘hotspot’, it is interesting but i personally found it hard in the beginning to realize what the story was about.
the message in this story is simply the fact that there are cruel and horrible people who would torture or kill a man because of his color to me this shows how insecure and insane people are. The idea is simply to show these people that its wrong to be racist and not fair and needs to stop.
I like this story. I strongly do NOT agree with racism so stories about racism just make me sad and makes me realize where we are living. But still it was a good story .
Essay of ‘The Lemon Orchard’
ReplyDelete‘The Lemon Orchard’ is a short story which was written by a South-African writer known as Alex La Guma, who was born on the 20th of February in 1925 and died on the 11th of October, in 1985. This means he was about 37 years old when he wrote this short story. ‘The Lemon’ Orchard was written in 1962.
The setting is in South Africa along the line of the 1960s. It is probably set in winter at night, as they do mention pyjamas and the chill of the air. The place it was set was in a lemon orchard.
There are 3 characters in the story. One of them is being held hostage by the other 2, who is probably going to be beaten / killed by the other 2 out of their racism. It was a cold winter at the time, and he was very poorly dressed as they stripped him from most of his cloths. The other character is the leader of the group, who is in warm pyjamas carrying a shotgun with him to execute his captive. The third character is someone who simply keeps watch and travels with the leader. He is dressed practically the same as the leader, warmly except he carries a lantern, and not any type of weapon (he is actually the one who leads the way, even though he isn’t the leader).
The plot is about 3 men walking in the night of a cold winter in a lemon orchard. Their captive is considered to be ‘colored’ which could consider that the story has some racism involved against those people whose skin color isn’t the same. This probably means he is black if he is from a region in Africa. The man also seems to be an educated one, and so these people think that black people don’t deserve to have such a good education.
The style of the story is basically a scenery type. It is also quite realistic when it comes to nationalities, as the 2 racists talk while mixing their languages up. Example: “It’s too cold, Oom.” In my opinion, ‘oom’ is probably another way of saying something such as ‘dude’ in Dutch. This use of words makes the story more interesting, and challenging on knowing what they would be saying.
The ideas of this story are of racism, and probably some history along the line of South Africa. Racism because of the way they treated the captive of being black and therefore don’t deserve the education he had. They think that white people were not being treated as well as they should be treated with matters of education.
This story was a very well-written and entertaining short story, both in trying to understand it on what was really going on in a lot of detail, and the story line itself. The way it described things and the use of text of what the 3 people were saying made the story longer. Although it was only 3 pages, it was still hard to understand in some parts, which is why it made it longer. I like the plot also because it sends a very common message when it comes to racism in other countries. The ending was also great, as it had seemed like a bit of a dramatic scene, the way it described the moon shining, and the lemon orchard. We don’t know for sure, but it also makes the ending dramatic and more interesting because he was probably executed on the spot after the arrival at the orchard, even though it doesn’t tell us that he was in the story.
SCASI on "The Lemon Orchard"
ReplyDeleteI will write about story “The Lemon Orchard” which we read in class. This short story was written in 1962 by Alex la Guma South-African novelist. This story mainly about relation between “Black”, “White” and “Coloured” people in Africa at that time.
The setting of this short story is in South Africa. All story characters were walking down under the moon between two long, regular rows of trees passing a lemon orchard they could feel a bitter-sweet citrus smell in the night air. Outside was cold because they all were wearing the thick clothes and also they could feel chill in the air. It was really late and dark because they couldn’t see anything even the footprints on the ground.
Characters in the story. There was group of men which capture a “coloured” man who was the only one not warmly dressed. Coloured man was educated university teacher. It hard to figure out how many people there was at all. However we know that there was a leader which was with the shotgun who was walking behind. The man with the light who was in front of everyone. We know about two others characters the one who had complained of the
Cold and Andries the one who had spoken of “coloured” mans fear. We know that there was a really good watchdog and we heard the name of his owner it’s Meneer Marais.
Coloured man is being capture by the group of men which are very rude to him especially the leader “I will shoot whatever hotnot or kaffir I desire”. He is being delivered to the “Baas” (boss). He was whipped for being uncivilized towards a minister of their church. However he is going to have more trouble later. They took him out at the middle of the night and it happened very fast because he wore trousers and pyjamas and the raincoat which they had allowed him to pull on over. He had not been given time to tie his shoes. He could die because he wore very light cloth for that season and I think it was mean from people who capture him. The group of men doesn’t really care about him so much because they nearly killed him with the shotgun when he didn’t reply on the question they asked. People in the group are being very racism by saying “kaffir” and other words towards the men they capture. These people had something against “coloured” “black” “educated hotnots” “black Englishmen” and they didn’t tell any nice things about them in the story. These three pages describe few minutes in the real life. It’s like a small part from big story and we don’t know the ending of it. It finished on nothing on the line which describing the weather “The moonlight clung for a while to the leaves and the angled branches, so that along their tips and edges the moisture gleamed with the quivering shine of scattered quicksilver”. By this line we don't know what will happen with him next. Maybe he will be terribly whipped or how was said in the story “He will pack his things and go and live in the city where they're not so particular about the dignity of the volk”
People were talking English most of the time but it was a bit confusing because they put some African words in to the text like “hotnot”, “Oom”, “Oomblikkie”, “kaffir” and other. All people know African except of their leader so everyone was speaking on English. Alex la Guma describes very well the nature around them “the moon was hidden behind
Long, high parallels of cloud which hung like suspended sffeamers of dirty cotton wool in
the sky.” Or “when the moon came from behind the banks of cloud and its white light touched the leaves with wet silver, and the perfume of lemons seemed to grow stronger, as if the juice was being crushed from them.” It was terrible situation but they still were chatting about good dog and nice spot where they will stay like they weren’t taking it serious.
Polina PART 1
This story about racism, rate and justice. Many people were divided on “Black” “White” and “Colored”. Whole this story about racism and how people were divided into groups by the colour of their skin. I think it is not right and “The Lemon Orchard” trying to tell us that we need to be nicer to each other and don’t be rude to person just because of his skin colour.
ReplyDeleteThis story is interesting and at the same time complicated to read. In this three pages Alex la Guma wrote part of the story of “coloured” man which lived in Africa and how hard his life was at that time. It makes you to think about different types of people and how mean and harsh they can be. “The Lemon Orchard” was like a puzzle to me because first I had to find out how many people were there at all. Then figure out why that “coloured” men was capture and at last what will happen with him. However the story doesn’t tell us anything about it which makes it more interesting.
Polina PART 2
Lemon Orchard SCASI
ReplyDeleteIn class this week we have been studying The Lemon Orchard written by Alex la Guma in 1962. It tells the story of racism in South Africa and really world wide.
The Lemon Orchard is set in South Africa back when there was still racial classing, 1960's. It was set during the time that English people were setting into South Africa setting up plantations .
The Characters are the Lantern Man , The man with the shotgun , the man with the horsewhip and the man in the Pyjamas . There was also another man referred only as ‘another man from the party’. There is also a dog called Jagter , he is Meneer Marias watch dog.
The story starts with a group of men walking through a Lemon Orchard . The Leader is at the back with a shot gun . He has three other acompliceses , one with a horse whip, one with a Lantern and ‘another man’ . They have with them a Black man who is a school teacher who said something rude to the local priest. After he was beaten he took the priest before a judge and demanded the matter to be righted. This group of men then pulled the teacher from his house in the middle of the night in his pyjamas and brought him to a Lemon orchard to beat him until he knows his place.
The story is written in the first person . It is written by first describing the surroundings and then going on to the story , it then ends by describing the surroundings under the moon light. It seems to be written in a simple short story style.
The main theme of this story is racism . Then there seems to be a hint of human rights and unjustness and supiority within classes.
This was a very different but intriguing story . I enjoyed reading it and finding the meanings behind it. It was also interesting to see what the writer felt and why he wrote the story . I liked the story : )
The Lemon Orchard is a short story written by Alex La Guma, a south african author in the year 1962.
ReplyDeleteThe story is set in south africa, in a lemon orchard at night time with a full moon up in the sky. It is described to be quite chilly so we think the season is Winter, it probably is set in the year it was written as well.
The main charecters in this story are a group of men. 4 of them are mentioned in this story as well as this coloured man who seems to be their captive as they seem to treat him like one throughout the story. The leader of this group is the only one carying a shot gun, and all the people in the group are dressed appropriatly for the weather, were as the captive is only wearing a raincoat pulled over his pj’s this show’s us he was rushed or hurried in some way.
The only action in this story is when these group of men are dragging their captive through a lemon orchard. The concept of this story is very racist as these men are white, and the captive is probably south american and we can guess that they are going to beat him to his death just because he is coloured and has a good education, but the white men in the group seem to believe that coloured people shouldnt be treated the same as white people.
The language of the ‘Lemon Orchard’ is quite differnet, as they speak english throughout the whole thing but throw in some dutch or african words like kaffir and wag’n oomblikkie. The language is very descriptive espically towards the surroundings and nature of the story like the moon, lemon orchard and so on.
The main themes and ideas are about racism and probably the south african history. This story is showing us that even back then racism was still a big issue, especially between the black’s and white’s. This story is telling us how selfish and ignorant people can be, just because someone isnt the same as them they treat them like animals as if they havnt got any right at all. The story also shows us that racism will continue to be one of the world’s biggest problem, that no one can ever solve.
This story really did make me feel bad and disgusted by certain people. Just accept people for who they are, and dont judge them by their skin colour or nationality. Its ridiculous. Dont expect to be something youre not, just be who you are and everyone else should just deal with it. This story just goes to show how ignorant and horrible some people can really be just because people arnt the same as them.
The Lemon Orchard
ReplyDelete“The Lemon Orchard” was written in 1962 by Alex La Guma who was a South African writer. The story is about a ‘Colored’ man who is taken to be beaten for talking back to someone. The story is obviously real, and this would have happened as there was still massive segregation in South Africa in 1962. The story is very shrouded in mystery. It tells you about lots of details to get a good feel of the atmosphere and such but doesn’t actually tell you much about what’s going on.
The story is set in South Africa sometime during the night. We know it is cold so it may be winter months. The story is mostly the men walking down the lemon orchard with their prisoner and talking a bit. We know lots about how the location looks like, the writer added lots of details in his writing.
There are a few characters. There are 5 men in the party. One is the very ill-tempered Oom, as he is called in the story and he is carrying a loaded shotgun, pressing it to the back of their captive. There are also 3 other men who seem to be at a lesser rank, all answering to this man. Then there is the captive. He is a very strange man, when he is threatened to be killed when he doesn’t speak, he just says nothing. He seems to have his pride, he tries not to shiver or clatter his teeth as he thinks it will show he is scared. We also know he was taken by these men quickly and was very cold as he only had his pyjamas and a coat on top, which were put on in a hurry as we are told.
We aren’t told much about what is going on in this story and it is also very short. Basically this man is taken from his home for speaking back to a minister. He is threatened and such by these men. He seemed very quiet so the leader of these men told him to speak, but he didn’t. The leader then put a shotgun to the captive’s back and threatened him with death. Another man says that they do not want to have a murder on their hands so they do not kill him. Eventually they get to where they wanted to be and we learn that they have ‘Sjambocks’ a wooden African type whip. We don’t know what they do in the end, but it obviously seems to be leaning towards them beating him for what he did.
The style of writing that Alex La Guma uses is very interesting. He tells us lots of details about the setting and about the people, but we learn nothing about what is going on and we don’t even learn anything at the very end. He also mixes Dutch or Afrikaans words in with the speaking of the men, to make it seem very realistic.
The main idea of this story is to show what was going on in South Africa in this time. The idea of the apartheid is always present, the segregation that gets him (we think) beaten. It seems as if Alex La Guma was trying to reach out and show the massive racism that was happening here.
I really enjoyed this story, even though it was short. It showed exactly what was going on in South Africa at the time. If I didn’t know that this man lived in South Africa at this time, I wouldn’t believe what is going on in this story. It also made me find it amazing that the massive segregation was still there until the 1990s.
Lemon Orchard
ReplyDeleteThis short story was written by Alex La Guma and is called “Lemon Orchard” which was published in 1962 and is set in South Africa. The Story has some Racist views as that what was going on in the time that it was written.
The Story is set in South Africa as I’ve said before, and it’s set in the early 1960’s. It seems that it is winter as they do mention a chill in the air when they are walking through the Lemon Orchard, the Captive is also wearing pyjamas and an overcoat to keep warm. South Africa at the time was going through a difficult time where they thought that it was necessary to divide the coloured people into the whites and the ‘coloured’.
There is a group of 5 in the story, and one of them is the Captive ‘Coloured’ Man who has been taken from his cabin in the dead of night and is being taken through the Lemon Orchard to be beaten up, the captive man is still wearing his pyjamas and is wearing an overcoat to keep warm because of the cold air. The other 4 people are Afrikaaners who although speak English in this story throw in some Afrikaans words like Kaffir and Oom, one of them is the leader with a shotgun, one has the lantern and the other 2 are most probably just friends of the leader who have decided to accompany him.
The story begins with the description of the Lemon Orchard and how cold it is when the group of people are walking through, we first get an insight of how many party members there are and what they are doing in the Orchard. The party of 5 includes 1 captive ‘coloured’ man and 4 Afrikaaners who do speak English and occasionally throw in some Afrikaans words, the coloured man is still in his pyjamas and is struggling to keep up with the group and they all stop to question the “Verdomte Hotnot” because he does not answer back, but then after much persuasion the leader aims his shotgun at his back and the Coloured man finally answers him. We find out that this Hotnot talked back to the white minister and this was not allowed and the coloured man was beaten and battered but these 4 men didn’t think he got what he deserved and are taking him out to punish him more, the story ends with them talking about a barking dog and a good description of where they finally end up.
The styles in this story are; Racist as the whole story is about verbally and physically abusing this ‘coloured’ man by the local people, as I said before the Afrikaaners speak English throughout the story and occasionally throw in an Afrikaans word like “Oom, Verdomte, and Hotnot” The story also has a lot of description as it describes the scenery, temperature, the surroundings and the actions to the coloured man that the locals are giving.
The theme of the story is also racist based as at the time that this was written, South Africa was going through a racist time and this divided the people up into the white-locals and the coloured people. The white people obviously thought that they were better and found any reason to get rid of the ‘coloured’ people by beating them for something they had done wrong.
ReplyDeleteI Liked this story very much as it opened my eyes to the horrors of the people in the past and realize that some of it, although not as brutal, is still going on. It was well written and gave us an insight of the words used by the Afrikaaners and also what type of people they were. The story was a good one and changed my views of some people in this world.
The Lemon Orchard
ReplyDeleteThe short story “The Lemon Orchard” was written by Alex la Guma in 1962. It is about the way white people treated, or probably still treat, black or mixed people.
It is set somewhere in South Africa. In the story the men are in a Lemon Orchard and it is night. Probably it’s winter because it is very cold outside.
The characters in this story are five men. Four of them are white and the fifth is coloured which means that he is not white. The men are walking in a line, in the front is walking one man with a lantern and in the back is the leader of them with a shotgun. We don’t know their names apart from one who’s called Andries and he is one of the white people. The coloured man has only his pyjamas and a raincoat, so he was really cold. The white people all have sjambocks with them. The coloured person is a schoolteacher and he was taken from his house by these four other men.
The story starts with the five men walking in the Lemon Orchard. They first walk in silence but then one of them says it’s dark and cold. Then they make fun of the coloured person because he was shivering with cold. They called him hotnot. He didn’t answer them when they asked him something and so the ‘boss’ once was about to shoot him, but he didn’t. The men often used Afrikaan words while they were speaking English. Then they give us more information by telling us that they are taking the coloured man into this lemon orchard and are going to punish him as a course of his actions, which he was said to have insulted a white minister. But then the men stop giving us more details. They change the subject and start talking about a dog. We don’t know what will happen to the coloured man.
The story is written in a very descriptive style. The scenery is being described very well. When you read it, you feel as if you were in that orchard, too. Then it is not so much about what actually was written, but about what hasn’t been written. There is a lot open in that story. It starts suddenly and it ends suddenly. We just have a cutout of the occurrence. The story makes us think a lot about what happens there, though the story is only so short.
The theme of this story is racism. The men are treating the coloured one unfairly and probably this was nothing unusual in Africa that time. It shows us very well, how much better the white people though they were. And that they didn’t mind, or even liked, to beat up the coloured people. Probably the author wants to show us how cruel these people are and he wants to say that this has to stop.
This story was different to the other stories. It was not much about reading it, it was about thinking about it. This was a story that just was there to remind you, what terrible things happened. It was very interesting to read this story and think about it.
Lemon Orchard
ReplyDeleteLemon Orchard is a story written by Alex La Guma, who is a South- African writer. The story was written in 1962.
The story is sent in South-Africa. It is probably set during the winter as the characters constantly say they are feeling chilly. The story is called Lemon Orchard and true to its title the story is set in a valley between two rows of lemon trees.
In the story there are two men who are mentioned and a watch dog who constantly barks. The men are coloured men, who speak the colloquial language. The man who is walking ahead of the other men is grasping a lantern. The leader of the group is hold a loaded shotgun. The men are all well dressed for the elements with the exception of their captive who had not been given enough time to get dressed properly, so he is wearing a pair of pyjamas and a thin rain coat. The captive is not from the same race as the other men, he is very likely pale skinned.
The plot of the story is the men walking through the lemon orchard with their captive. The captive is very likely going to be killed or hurt of either doing something to offend the men or because he is different then the other men (in terms of skin).
The language between the coloured men is very colloquial, they use words like “hotnot”, which could be from African/ Dutch descent. The language is very descriptive when it comes to the surrounding of the men like the “citrus scent”.
The story deals with themes of racism, respect and South African history with racism. Even though we do not find out what happens to the men we can certainly guess that it has something to do with him being different to the other men. This aspect is very true to South- African history with racism still today there is a major divide between coloured and pale people in the country. The story deals with respect when the captive would not talk to the other men, as he was either scared or felt superior to them. The men felt that it was out of disrespect.
The story was very confusing to me. It was hard to understand what was going to happened to the captive. There was a lot of inferred information, it leaves the reader guessing. I liked the colloquial speech, I felt that, that put you more into the story. I wished to find out what happened to the captive, however if I can guess the ending it does not look like it would be very pretty. On the whole it was a very captivating story.
By Valentina Spiteri
Lemon Orchard
ReplyDeleteThe ‘Lemon Orchard’ was written in 1962 by Alex La Guma. The story shows racism for coloured people.
The story takes place in the night in South Africa. The story seems as if I took place in tem minutes while walking through a lemon orchard. It is cold.
There are about five people and a prisoner. The five people are whit and they are there to teach the prisoner a lesson that he will not forget. The prisoner is a coloured man which maybe from India He is a teacher.
This man was taking out of his house in the middle of the night by five men and led through a lemon orchard. They said they will teach him a lesson for being cheeky to the boss and after they are through with him he will leave the place. Apparently he said something wrong to the principle of the school and took him to court. So the men are walking through the orchard and one of them ask him if he is cold but he does not reply so they all get into an argument one man points a gun to him and tells him that he should answer when someone talks to him. The story ends by them stopping in a clearing.
The style of the story is very interesting because it is very detailed but at the same time some major bits of the story are left out and this makes the reader think about what is going on. For example how the story ends it finishes that they stop at a clearing but it does not say what happens with the captive. We are also not told the names of any of the people and the way it is written is like the actions is being played out in front of you and I think the writer managed to capture how the people would have spoken at that time.
The main idea of the story is racism I think because the men mocked the captive and when he didn’t answer back they got angry an practically told him when a higher up talks to you, you answer. They really make it clear who is superior to who and the fact that they could do this kind of thing to him and he couldn’t do anything to them. Is really unfair and this can led on to how racism should be stopped and is not a good thing because it is not right.
The story was interesting even though I got confused at the beginning. It was an interesting read.
Evita Otigbah
The Lemon Orchard
ReplyDeleteAlex la Guma
The Lemon Orchard is a short story written by Alex la guma in 1962 and it’s about a few men who are walking through a lemon garden among a man they have kidnapped.
The whole story is set in South Africa, only in one lemon orchard, full of lemon trees. It is a dark night and the weather is really cold.
In the story we have four characters. Three of them are dressed in long and warm clothes, they have guns and jambocs. Two of them can speak African, but they speaking to each other in English,probably because someone doesn’t understand African. The fourth man is the only one who’s not dressed properly, they call him “hotnot” which probably means that he’s Iindian, because “ hotnot used to be a rude word to refer to an Indian person. The other men have kidnapped him for some reason. They are calling him names, and beating him up with the jambocs.The men have taken the hotnot out of his house and they haven’t given him enough time even to tie his shoes. He is shivering but he’s being carefull not to chat with his teeth, ‘cause he doesn’t want to show fear. He is afraid to answer the men’s questions and he’s afraid they are going to shoot him(and he is right). It looks like the men are treating the hotnot like that, because he is educatied and rich,which we know from dialog between the other men.
The narration in the story is from third person. The author uses many dialogs between the different characters to show how they feel and what they think about the Indian man. For example on page 196 one of them says:” Do you hear me hotnot, answer me or I will shoot a holw through your spine “. The sentyence shows how angry characters are at the kidnapped man. The author uses the cold weather and the dark night to express how the Indian man feels. For Examle on page 197 he says: “ The blackness of the night crouched over the orchard and the leaves rustled with a harsh whisperring that was inconsistent the pleasant scent of lemons”. With sentences like this he gives us this cold an dark feeling that the hotnot could feel so we can really get into the story. The man is frightened and he’s really cold, but he is afraid to show the others his fear.
The story covers the topics of racism and hatrid. The characters hate the Indian man and in the end probably kill him only because of the colour of his skin.Another theme that we comeacross in the story is jealousy.He is also a teacher, he is rich and educatied,which we know from their conversation, which is another reason why they are being so mean to him him because they might be jealous.
What’s hapenning in “The Lemon Orchard” is that a bunch of men speaking African language kidnap an indian guy, they are beating him up and asking him questions, he is afraid to answer.They are walking through one lemon garden during the cold and dark night, untill in the end, they stop at one random place in the orchard. The narrator doesn’t tell us what happens after that,but I suppose that they shoot him whichwould be the end of the story.
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ReplyDeleteThe Lemon Orchard is set in South Africa. It was based around 1962, during the Apartheid era. The location is around a field on a cold night.
ReplyDeleteWe assume that there are 5 men. 4 men are white men. 1 is a coloured man; we assume therefore that he is from areas around India. The other men occasionally talk to each other giving us information about their names we find out that one man is Andreas. They refer to the coloured man as ‘hotnot’. The ‘hotnot’ is a school teacher. We believe that these men want to kill him is that he had a disagreement with a white minister. The white men speak English to each other as their leader doesn’t speak Afrikaans.
The story starts with these 4 white men dragging this coloured man down a field of lemon trees, hence the lemon orchard. One holds a small lantern as they walk. These men mock the coloured man asking if he is cold. They assault him physically afterwards. He was in trouble as her insulted a white minister. We do not know what happens at the end of the story though.
The story is written in 1st person. It is based a lot on racism and apartheid. The white men speak English to each other as their leader doesn’t speak Afrikaans. They do throw some Afrikaans words in occasionally.
The main themes are racism. There are signs of injustice and human rights throughout the story. This is because the coloured man is treated completely differently to a white man.
Overall, I found the story very interesting. Even thought parts were confusing as you have to interpret what is happening. But the South African perspective brought some great detail.
The Lemon Orchard
ReplyDeleteThe Lemon Orchard is a short story written in 1962 by Alex la Guma.
The Lemon Orchard is set in the winter of South Africa in the 1960s. It is set in a long line of trees.
The characters are of a group of men, who were walking in the lemon orchard. The group of men captured a coloured man and take him captive. He is a bright man who has a good life as a university teacher. He gets a good pay and is wealthy.
This story is about four men that are walking in a lemon orchard with a black guy they captured. It is at night. They are racist and horrible to their captive teasing him and calling him names. They want to torture or kill him because of his color when they take him to a special place where no one will see.
The language in this story is confusing and without some help as there are a lot of words which are very unfamiliar to me like ‘oom’ and ‘hotspot’, it is interesting but I personally found it hard in the beginning to realize what the story was about.
The message in this story is the fact that there are horrible people who would torture or kill a man because of his race to me this shows how insecure and insane some people are. The idea is to show these people that it’s wrong to be racist and not fair and needs to stop.
It was an alright story in my opinion.. but I do not agree with racism and found it quite silly at times but it was a well written story.
bye mike cini :)
SCASI Essay for ‘The Lemon Orchard’
ReplyDeleteThe title of this story is ‘The Lemon Orchard’ and the author is Alex la Guma. This story was written in the year 1963 and it is about how people are racist against people with different coloured skin and the way different coloured people are treated by other people.
The story is set in Africa in a lemon orchard as it says in the title, and throughout the story, the characters are moving from one part of the lemon orchard to a big hole in the ground in a part of the lemon orchard. The time of day is at night, and it is chilly outside. The story is probably occurring around March or April because in the second sentence of the story, it says ‘The winter had not passed completely and there was a chill in the air’. We know it is at night immediately after it says ‘And the moon was hidden behind long, high parallels of cloud’.
One of the characters in this story is the man at the back with the shotgun, who was a big man who wore khaki trousers and laced-up riding boots and an old shooting jacket with leather patches on the right breast and the elbows. He was the leader of the group. Another character is the man they called coloured and a ‘verdomte hotnot’. He is very cold because he wore trousers and a raincoat over his pyjamas. He is the one they are taking to the hole in the lemon orchard to punish for being a different colour than them. There is also the man with the light who is at the front of the group.
The story begins by explaining the setting, which is at night and it is very cold since winter’s effects have not passed just yet. There is a group of people who are taking another person to somewhere in the lemon orchard that they are walking through but we do not know where yet. When they start talking, they use some words that are not English, which they probably use as words they are used to and combine it with English. One of the people in the group complains that it is cold and the leader tells him that the one who should be cold it the one that is not wearing clothes that will keep him warm; this is the coloured man they took from when he was sleeping, and they let him wear only a raincoat so he is shivering from the cold. For most of the story, they try to get this coloured man to speak but he refuses. We learn that this is a coloured man that is educated and has a job in the area as a teacher, and he said bad things to a minister of a church, and they are going to punish him by beating him up very badly and making him leave the area and go to the city, where they think the people will not mind if there is someone that is coloured. They continue walking and they eventually get an answer from the coloured man. All he says is ‘yes baas’. They eventually arrive at an amphitheatre in the lemon orchard that is surrounded by fragrant growth. There is description about the setting and the water and moonlight on the leaves in great depth, and the story just stops there. We do not know what they did to the man after that. They probably beat him up really badly or maybe even killed him if he continued being stubborn and got them very angry.
This story is written in 3rd person, and it gives everyone’s thoughts and views on the situation. The style is probably racism, and maybe it is even trying to teach the readers a lesson; that it is really bad to be racist, and what white people can do to someone only because they are coloured (calling him names, hitting him, not even giving him warm clothes for the freezing night).
The themes and ideas of this story are racism and showing how extreme it can get among people.
I thought this story was very interesting and I really like how the writer put a lot of feeling and emotion to the story, and how he really showed how harsh things can get. I really like the descriptions using really interesting metaphors, and throughout the story I did not get bored and want to stop reading. I would like to read other stories from this author just to see his points of view further.
The Lemon Orchard was written by Alex La Guma in 1962, and is set in South Africa in 1962 when South Africa was having racial and political issues.
ReplyDeleteIt is set in a lemon orchard at night, and it is very cold, South Africa was going through a racist system that relied on the splitting up of coloured people, and white people.
There are 5 characters or more 1 of these is a black captive, who has been taken from his home and now is being escorted by 4 local people, who are miss treating him and bullying him. They seem to be beating him, or even attempting to kill him. He is a South African teacher, but not from Africa. He was escorted from his house for by force for insulting a white Minister (note the word "white.") The other 4 men are all local men and can talk the local language unlike the black man. The leader of the 4 men is carrying a shotgun, one man is carrying the lamp and the other two are bullying the coloured man mentally and physically.
The story starts with a description of the area and about how the people are complaining about how dark & cold it is. They are escorting a coloured man through a lemon orchard, and are going to punish/ kill him. The further they got into the lemon orchard, the more they started being mean to the coloured man and physically abusing him.
He had already been beaten up before, and now it seems that they may even kill him. We do not know what happens to him though, and at the end, the 4 men accompanying him are talking about a dog, that is barking.
The styles of this story were mainly based on racism and the whole story is about the ' coloured man being abused by the 4 local men. Also, these men are locals but they speak English in the story, but they also add a few African words into their speech. But these men speak mostly English throughout the story, witch I see as a sign of respect to the colour man. The language is also quite descriptive especially when it talks about the weather.
The theme of this story is also about racisms, and was based on the daily life in the 1960s in South Africa. The government of that time divided the people by white-skinned people and the coloured people. The coloured people were often beaten and attacked for no apparent reason. The white people thought they where overpowering over the colour people and they where in love with themselves.
I think this story was rather frightening that only 40 years ago all this racisms and beating would happen, over skin colour of somebody. It’s scary that these colour people withstander this and just accepted it rather than migrating away from the area.
This story was a hard to read story, but it still passed a very good and strong message across.
"The Lemon Orchard" is a story written by Alex la Guma in 1962. It is set in 1962 South Africa, bang in the middle of the apartheid. The whole story takes place on a path in a Lemon Orchard, with parallel rows of Lemon trees that are on either side of the 5 men as they walk. The story is set at night most likely to hide the activity that was going to occur.
ReplyDeleteThere are five characters in the story, only one of whom is named throughout the story. There is one man, whom henceforth shall be referred to as ‘shotgun man’, who is the leader of the four men and carries a shotgun. However he walks at the back of the pack and carries a shot gun, which he pokes into the back of one of the other characters at one point. Then there are the two men who flank a coloured man, we can assume that one of these men is called ‘Andries’. Then there is the coloured man (referred to as a ‘hotnot’ in the story) who is a school teacher. The reason he is walking, or being made to walk at least, with the men is because he was ‘rude’ to a local minister. However rude in this case is truly relative to how the accuser perceives it, and it might not have been as bad as the men think it is. He is being walked along in his pyjamas and shoes. Finally there is the man with the lantern who is at the head of the pack, but is not the leader.
The five men are walking along in the Lemon Orchard, presumably to find a place to beat the coloured man for his ‘crimes; right up until the end of the story the men are just walking through the orchard until they reach a suitable place. At first nothing really happens, just the men calling to each other every now and again. Until the men ask the coloured man a question about if he is feeling cold, when he doesn't answer they start to provoke him and jeer at him until he responds. Then He is threatened by the man with the shotgun until he responds. After walking father on through the orchard and talking about a watchdog barking in the distance, they arrive at a place that they decide will do for their plans. What those plans are however, are left to our imagination…
The story is very descriptive, as there isn’t a big climax to focus the user’s attention, it provides very in depth descriptions of the people and the surroundings. It provides imagery for the reader. It is also quite short; both physically and in the length of time that the story takes place during. I think the writer tries to compensate for the lack of a climax by giving a lot of detail and description.
The main idea that the story presents is Apartheid, the treatment of people who weren’t white like the South Africans. It shows an example of their biased laws, inflated punishments for small ‘crimes’, and how the reader was left at the end of the story, dreading what would happen to the coloured man especially after what the white men said. Of course, with Apartheid, racism walks hand in hand.
I liked the description in the story, but I felt it lacked the climax; something more needed to happen to please me fully as a reader. However I think Alex La Guma addressed the issue of Apartheid and Racism well, and the detail put ionto the surroundings was excellent.
The Lemon Orchard is a very short, 3 page story about racism. It is written by Alex la Guma, and since it is ritten in 1962, I guess it is written about past, because it is talking about Englishmen, and it is probably in the time of England being a big empire, and even though it might have finished after 1962, the racism stopped mostly in 1930's, but it might be because it still exists today.
ReplyDeleteThe setting of the story is in the lemon orchard, probably in South Africa, and during night, because it mentions he moon, and naturally the moon appears during night. In South Africa, the climate might be like a desert one, hot sunny days and cold and dark chilly nights, therefore it might be really cold.
Since the story is very short, it was very hard to get to know who was who. As much as I got, there were four white men, one slave who was coloured man, one guy with a gun wearing pijama, and one guy holding light. The four people did not respect the coloured man, and at one point even wanted to kill him, and the coloured guy appeared to be educated, not a well working and strong slave.
What happens in the story is that the white people are taking a black slave somewhere. At one point they want to kill him, it comes out that th black guy is an educated teacher, and they pretend to be planning to let him go, because hey don't need educated black guys. They are taking him somewhere, and even though we are not told, im predicting that they will kill the black guy. The story is about racism, and that it is really happening, and it makes you feel at least the tiny bit of pain coloured people face.
I don't really understand the style of the sotry. If I would to concentrate on the language, i would consider it as strange, because sometimes in dialogue they use words such as "oom", and the english language itself is very hard.
The main idea of the story is racism, and slavery. It makes the story a very unhappy one, and leaves us with unfinished ending. Racism is the most importannt theme n this story, and I think that it is very wrong and unfair.
I found it a very interesting sotry, even though it was short, it was very effective, because it was about racism. It really showed what happened in reality, and it is very important important, it is interesting that the story got published and ent into the school sotries list, because some people might want to hide the real truth. And I am sure that this is a story based on real events.
Woof
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