Awawawawa
By: chinomarino • Essay • 922 Words • April 25, 2011 • 1,122 Views
Awawawawa
Imagine living in a society where people always have to carry a little booklet with them to leave their house. The booklets record everything they have done, where they have been through and when they did so, basically what they have done in their entire life. In addition, the authorities have the rights to search them whenever and for whatever reason. If they fail to carry the booklet around with them, these individuals would go to prison and possibly stay there for a long time. Fugard's( Fugards') "Sizwe Bansi is Dead" is a play reflects and emphasize the apartheid in South Africa. During the story, the main character Sizwe Bansi--an honset,(honest) family loving person that encounters many unexpected apartheid events related to the passbook that forces(I added the S)him to make major decisions base on different circumstances that(which) changes his life forever.
The story opens as we meet Styles, an enthusiastic and optimistic black worker who works inside a car factory. He later on opens a photoshop where he works as a full time photographer.As the story goes on, the play introduces Sizwe Bansi and his friend Bantu in Port Elizabeth. The setting of the story takes place in South Africa, during the time when Blacks who live there are require to carry a passbook that(which) restricts where they can stay, travel and where to be employed. While Sizwe wants to stay in Port Elizabeth, he is caught by the local authorities during a raid. Sizwe then receives a stamp, a stamp that writes his life, a stamp that says he is to(has to)head back to King William's Town in three days. The the play Fugard wrote(writes) what Bantu says " I had before I could get the right stamp in my book, even though I was born in this area! The trouble I had before I could get a decent job......born in this area! The trouble I had to get this two-roomed house...born in this area!"(27). From here, the quote express a desperate and depressing crie(cry)which contrast the difficult life that their passbooks are giving him. Here is the key decision of the play: Sizwe makes the decition (decision)to go ignore the order of the administration quietly and stays in port Elizabeth illegally. If he had not made this decision, he would have never become Robert Zwenlinzima. He could have followed the order of the administration to go back to KIng(King) William's Town, but in that case, he would face the fact that he would go back to his old life,a bitter, near poverty, unsatisfied and difficult life. In the story Sizwe mentions he has three boys and one girl, so how is he supposed to support his whole family with out a decent job, maybe Sizwe can't, but that doesn't mean Robert Zwenlinzima can't. And thats where the transformation begins.
Later on in the story, Bantu invites Sizwe to Sky's bar to enjoy some drinks; the last joy before Sizwe heads back to King William's Town. After several drinks, Sizwe and Bantu walk down the street drunk and Bantu goes into in ally urinate. Not too long later( after),bantu runs back to Sizwe and tells him that he found a dead body in the ally. As they arrive (While)at