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Home Middelbare School EN Uittreksels Uittreksel Doris Lessing - The Grass is Singing

Uittreksel Doris Lessing - The Grass is Singing

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Extracts English Literature
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Doris Lessing - The Grass is Singing

Crowell, New York (1950)

Title:

The title is taken from a poem called The Waste Land written by T.S. Eliot (1922). When the grass is singing it means that it is hot and then the cicadas (krekels) make a lot of noise. Mary hates hot weather and hates the noise. It indicates the way she thinks about her life.

Author:

Doris Lessing was born in Persia in 1919. When she was five years old she moved to Zimbabwe with her parents, where they lived on a farm. When she reached the age of thirty she visited her parents' birthplace, England, for the first time. After her divorce in 1949 she decided to move to England, where she wrote her first novel When the Grass is singing. This book was an instant success. Her other important books are: the series Children of violence (five novels, 1952-1969) and The Golden Notebook (1962).

The literary period:

Twentieth century-second part.

The genre:

When the story begins, this novel seems to be a detective story, but it is actually more complex than that. It is a political and psychological story to be exact. The role of politics is demonstrated in the fact that the South-African Apartheid is a very important issue in this book. It is a psychological story because of Mary, the main character in this novel. Her mind developes in a very strange way. She becomes obsessed with things she doesn't even like, and she is very persuasive.

Summary:

This book is about a woman called Mary, who was raised in the country on a farm. Her family wasn't very wealthy. Mary wants to see more of the world so she moves to the big city, where she finds a job as a secretary, has a lot of friends and seems to be happy. She lives in a house for single women, and Mary doesn't want to get married. By coincidence she overhears her friends saying that they think it's time she got married. She thinks about it, and decides that she doesn't want to be alone her whole life. To get married seems to be a good idea, even though she hates sex. First she meets a fifty-five year old man with children. He kisses her, and she doesn't like it at all. Than Mary meets Dick, a farmer, in the local cinema. Once in a while he comes to the city to buy things he needs for his farm. Mary decides to marry him. Dick tells her he is poor, but when she arrives at the farm she can't believe what she is seeing. It's even worse than the house where she was brought up. Everything is dirty and looks very cheap, quite different from her luxurious life in the city. Mary stays inside the house all day while Dick looks after his land. The servant, Samson and Mary don't get along very well. He and Dick used to be really good friends but now Mary gets in their way, and Samson decides to leave his job. Several servants come and go.

Mary grows more unhappy every day. She goes back to the city to apply for her old job, but they don't need her anymore. She looks worn out, she is just not the woman she used to be. Dick comes to take her back to the farm, but after a while he falls ill. He has malaria. Mary has to run the farm now, and soon she discovers why Dick doesn't make any money. He always starts a project but never finishes it. Mary tries to give her husband advice, but it's already too late. She starts to dislike Dick more and more. Mary seems to live in her own world, totally isolated. A new servant arrives whose name is Moses. Mary becomes obsessed with him. He has a broad built body and Mary allows him to dress and even undress her. She likes him as a man but not as a native.

Charlie Slatter, the neighbour suggests that it would be better for Dick to sell his farm to him, as he has enormous debts. But Dick is too attached to his farm and doesn't want to sell. Dick and Mary decide to take a holiday for a couple of months, and later they will decide what to do with the farm. Tony Marston, from England, has to look after the farm while they are on their holiday. The relationship between Dick and Mary grows worse every day. Mary is confused, she even sleeps with Moses. But the next day she totally rejects him. She knows Moses will have his revenge and that he will kill her. When she walks to the store, (a project of Dick's that went wrong too) Moses is waiting for her. He kills her with a knife, to save either her life of isolation and dissatisfaction or to revenge her after she whipped him.

Time:

The story begins with an article on the murdered Mary Turner. This is the introduction to the rest of the story. The exact time cannot be derived from the text.

Setting:

The story is situated on a farm in South-Africa.

Characters and relationships:

Mary Turner:

This woman leads an isolated life, even though she has many friends. They all visit her to tell her their problems but Mary never tells anyone anything about herself. She dislikes sex and hates the body of her husband. When she moves to the country with him she becomes more isolated every day. She hates black people and eventually has to work on the land herself with eighty servants because Dick, her husband, gets malaria.

Dick Turner:

He is a farmer who works very hard. The only problem he has is that he doesn't have any idea how to run a farm. But he loves his job and the country so much that he just isn't able to sell his farm, even though he has enormous debts.

Moses:

He is Mary and Dick's latest servant. He works hard and looks after Mary, who doesn't treat him like a slave. But when Mary rejects him he wants revenge and kills her.

Credibility:

….

Theme:

This story has two important themes.

The first one is Apartheid, its effect on the relationship between a black servant and a white female. Mary hates black people even though she has a relationship with Moses, a black servant.

The other theme is loneliness. Mary can't handle being alone in the country. In the city she had a lot of friends, but on the farm she has only Dick and a couple of black servants whom she hates.. She doesn't talk to them often, only when she needs to.

Motto:

In this decayed hole among the mountains

In the faint moonlight, the grass is singing

Over the tumbled graves, about the chapel

There is the empty chapel, only the wind's home.

It has no windows, and the door swings,

Dry bones can harm no one.

Only a cock stood on the rooftree

Co co rico, co co rico

In a flash of lightning. Then a damp gust

Bringing rain

Ganga was sunken, and the limp leaves

Waited for rain, while the black clouds

Gathered far distant, over Himavant.

The jungle crouched, humped in silence.

Then spoke the thunder

From The Waste Land by t.s. elliot

with grateful acknowledgements to the

author and to Messrs Faber & Faber

'It is by the failures and misfits of a civilization

that one can best judge its weakness.'

author unknown

Linguistic usage:

The style is quite formal. Sometimes the author uses old-English words such as 'Thou shalt not…'.

Dedication:

To Mrs Gladys Maasdorp

of Southern Rhodesia

for whom I feel the greatest

affection and admiration

Perspective:

The story is told by an all-knowing narrator. The narrator can see through the eyes and thoughts of all characters in this story. The characters are described shallowly, their innermost thoughts are not mentioned in this novel.

Construction:

This story has two sections.

The first part:

Mary leads a happy life in the city, she marries Dick and her life becomes miserable. She is isolated.

The second part:

Mary hates the black servants and treats them like animals. When she meets Moses her attitude changes, she treats him like a human being. Then Mary rejects him and for this Moses kills her.

The book consists of 11 untitled chapters and 218 pages.

Own opinion:on the book:

Your opinion!

 

Only those who dare to fail greatly, can ever achieve greatly.

Alleen zij die groots durven te falen, kunnen ooit groots bereiken.

Robert F. Kennedy