- What is the genre? Is this really a short story?
- Why has the author chosen this particular setting for her story?
- Describe the characters in the story?
- Describe the composition of the story.
- Discuss the point of view, who is the narrator? And what does the author wish to achieve with this? (remember narrator and author are not the same)
- Why is it called Labour Pains?
Tuesday, 24 September 2013
Labour Pains
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1. It´s an article. Normanvenda Mathiane was a black woman. Worked as an journalist for Johannesburg daily.
ReplyDelete6. Because article tells a story about a woman who bear a child to the world and tells the story where South Africa was born.And apartheid goes away.
No, I would not say that it is an article entirely, but it seems like it, and there are definitely elements of it. Anyone who would like to elaborate..?
DeleteYou must be more specific to why the birth of a child and the end of apartheid are correlated.
ok,
DeleteLabor pains
ReplyDelete1: The text starts out as a short story, but when you’re through reading, it seems more like a political/philosophical comment on the situation in Africa in the 1980s and 90s. A comparison of childbirth and the birth of a society, how every birth is unique, and how circumstances are different every time.
2: She has chosen this setting because, just like the Africans that are thrown head on into a new society, the woman is a month away from her due date, but her child is being born now though it isn’t ready. But it has to be. It happens fast and in an environment the mother didn’t expect. The people in the taxi are somehow united by this unexpected event and that is a very strong symbol of the way the writer thinks the African people will be.
3: There are four women in the taxi and eight men. The pregnant woman is very brave and forgets her surrounds and concentrates on the birth. The narrator is a woman as well; she is very nice to the pregnant lady and holds her hand to help her feel relaxed. The other women in the taxi help out as much as they can. The men are concerned, but they are not helping, they sit back and lets the women handle things.
4: We start with a flashback, a description of something the writer has experienced in the past. Then she talks about the liberation of the African people and the struggle to get there. I think it’s a little atypical short story because it ends in a comment on something real and not just a part of the story.
The writer uses very obvious symbols to get her message across and it makes the reader think a little harder. It really is the same when a society is born and when a child is born. The circumstances are unique and the outcome is fragile. It can be destroyed and broken forever if we are not careful.
5: The first person narrator is a woman, but I don’t know if the writer is. The name of the writer seems like a female name, but I’m not sure. The narrator is very honest and reliable; she tells us that, given the choice, none of the people in the taxi would participate in this event. But they are, so they cope. The writer doesn’t describe the characters and how they look but let them be defined by their actions. There’s not a lot of speech in the text but when there is, it’s direct.
6: I think it’s called “labor pains” because of the double meaning of the word labor. It means hard work or birth, which really is the same. It has been painful for the people of Africa to liberate themselves from the colonization and babies do the same to escape the womb. It’s hard work, but there is no way around it. It has to be done.
- Stine
Very well answered, why do you think the writer chooses for the men to passive? Is there a symbolic reason for this?
Delete(The writer is female)
I would also like to add democracy to your analysis. It takes time to deliver a baby just like democracy, there is, as you mention, hard work ahead, but is the narrator optimistic or pessimistic?
1The genre is a mix between a short story and a philosophical reflection from the writer, delivered as an article or a note.
ReplyDelete2.I think the setting is chosen because it reflects the situation in the South African society in the time of the apartheid aftermath. The comparisons between the chaotic situation of giving birth in the fast lane and the the chaos there was in south Africa after the apartheid is somehow the same. Or you could say it symbolises the South African society at that time.
3 the Pregnant Woman, a picture of health. She sits there demurely displaying her happy and healthy state of well-being. Suddenly she dos not feels so well, she starts giving birth a month early. She is in immense pain. Her birth goes well. Taxi driver: Besides driving the car he takes action bay pooling over and helping the pregnant woman to the back seat where she can lay down. The woman telling the story is very active in the hole birth situation. She helps a lot and fells good about it, but the situation still makes her feel helpless. She uses midwives Jargon in her attempt to help. the other women are helping as well, but the men is acting more like stand byers and are not fiscal helping out.
5the composition is a bit unknown to me. It is a kind of comment or a note based on a Flashback in form of a Short story.
Very good answers and reflections and as you mention the whole situation reflects or symbolises the end of apartheid. She , the writer, is hopeful about the future.
Delete1. What is the genre? Is this really a short story?
ReplyDeleteIt could be an article, a journalist trying to tell something though the actions of the story. I really think that it is a bit of both, the story of the woman giving birth links to the political situation in Africa in that time.
3. Describe the characters in the story?
Their appearance is not described and the only thing that characterizes them is their gender and actions. This makes the people in the story more general, as it could be more you and I. It could be anybody in that taxi which is important, because the author has not done this by chance, but because it again links to the apartheid and black people’s ways of living back in the nineties. They had to put up with many unexpected things under poor circumstances at that time just like the woman giving birth in the taxi.
6. Why is it called Labour Pains?
Exactly as Stine has answered. Because Labour synonymous for two things and in this text both the meanings come out.
- Karsten Kristensen
Perhaps also consider the fact that here there are strangers gathered who make it together and that may very well be the writer´s objective. A hopeful short story that symbolises the current situation - even in the matter of crisis people stand togther, they work together- black and white.
Delete1.
ReplyDeleteAt first I thought the text was a short story, but it´s not. Labour Pains is written by a black journalist called Normavenda Mathiane and I think it is a comment on the situation in Africa in 1980s-90s. She uses a comparison of childbirth and the birth of a society to prove her point, that every birth is unique and has its own circumstances.
2.
She has chosen this setting because the childbirth a month to early is used as a symbol for what are happened in Africa. The Africans must adjust the new society which were made in a tempo that they couldn’t keep up with. In both situations are the people who are involved or witnesses to the situations are united by this episode.
3.
In this task I agree with Heidi and I have nothing important to add
4.
The story is build with several flashbacks and symbols, which makes it necessary for the reader to keep focus and think over what he/she is reading. We are going from reading about childbirth to reading about the liberation of the African people and the struggle to get there. It’s a good way to make the reader to understand that: when a society is born the circumstances are unique and the outcome is fragile exactly like when a child is born.
5.
The narrator is a woman, and so is the writer. I think the writer who is a African woman try to tell what her people went to when they got democratic and self dependents. And the childbirth in the taxi is a good picture of the situation because in both situation it will concern people who hasn’t choose to be in the situation, and in that way will it still have a effect in their lives. I think that the men’s way to handle the upcoming childbirth is a symbol of how the people we in general see as the strong and energetic often gets passive when an extreme situation comes unexpected or to early.
6.
I think the title has a symbolic meaning in the way that it has a double meaning. It´s about birth of a child and the birth of a new society and about all its demands to the people there is in these situation and what a process they are going through.
Rebecca Christensen
Good responses genreally. I think you make a very good response to question 4- the situation is indeed fragile, but moreover the birth of a child is extremely positive and joyful.Also an interesting angle to role of the men- I agree.
DeleteThe story starts with a little story about an unforgettable travel in a mini buss. A woman is in labour and the people in the buss must help a little new baby in to the world. You think it is the main subject in the story, but it is only a story Narmavenda Mathiane draws parallels to by telling another story. She compares and uses the feelings from a birth to tell her story about much bigger things in the world. The setting is not about telling the happiness by giving birth, but Mathiane describes the word struggle. How people define it and use it in different situations. How it makes a deeper meaning in some situations and little in other. She defines the word struggle by using it as a synonymous with liberation (p. 115, l. 3-4). That is why she starts the story by telling about the big experience from the taxi.
ReplyDeleteThe main characters in the first story are the “I-person” who is a woman and the woman giving birth. But at some point it is all of them. She puts a lot of meaning in the situation that they all together experience. They did not get to choose if they wanted to be a part of this birth but destiny decided them to be together at this exact time. They can all be described as choking and some of them so choked they get paralyzed and do not act. The person in focus, “I”, plays a big part and tries to support the woman in labour together with another woman. All the men are paralyzed in their actions and just sit while the women stick together. It is a woman thing to give birth to a baby and instinctive they stand together, while the men stand on the side and resign. This is also why they all are anonymous. It is not important who they are and what they do but the meaning is to know their sex, to illuminate the two big parts in the story – man and woman.
In the last part of the story we hear about big episodes in the history. We hear about Jomo Kenyatta, Jim Carter and Mr. Mosala who plays a big part of the last story. They are all politicians and great frond men to the population. They play a big part in the last piece because they have a part in forming the message of the story. They form the play between the way birth as a roll and undertone in every message. Like the part where Mr. Mosala says: “Does an expectant woman make an appointment with the baby to be born?” By this he means, it is impossible to set a date for a better time to step in at once for Africa. A woman does have something to say in the conceiving, but no say on how and when the child is to be born (p. 115, l. 37-40). They just have to wait for better times and some people who conceive of the idea, develop it and the rest watches with apparent disinterest as the society changes (p. 116, l. 8-15). “And soon, one by one, they begin to hold hands.” (p. 116, l. 14-15). And soon people will come together, all will take the changes with open arms and adapt together.
As a woman I feel for the role as a confidant and a listener in the story. Even if you have not given birth to a child you can relate to the struggle and pressure. You stand together as a group of women in the story. It is called labour pains because Normavenda Mathiane uses the struggle and the feelings from this event all the way though the story. She compares political meanings with this feeling and it makes a red thread though the story.
- laura
1. What is the genre? Is this really a short story?
ReplyDelete It begins as a short story, but then we hear about political viewpoints later in the story.
2. Why has the author chosen this particular setting for her story?
Perhaps to compare the newborn with the world order we are in now. It’s just a symbol of the situation.
3. Describe the characters in the story?
There is a pregnant woman in the taxi and beyond her there are 3 women and the rest are men who are 8 including driver. We do not hear so much about their characteristics.
4. Describe the composition of the story.
Story begins as a short story where you hear about the heavily pregnant woman and a man who, without proven in a birth situation after a few minutes’ drive. You think that it's just a short story but the story shifts genre and we hear the author's political stance and a small South African's propaganda.
5. Discuss the point of view, who is the narrator? And what does the author wish to achieve with this? (remember narrator and author are not the same)
It may be because the author would inform about what happened in that time. Because the time was Africa during major change such as civil war and separation of white and black people. Author trying to come up with a message about how it was back then.
6. Why is it called Labour Pains?
Because it was a painful time and women even today does not determine the the time for the newborn baby to be born. The hospitals were not as it is today so labor right was painful at the time
- Tuba