Tsotsi
a novel by Athol Fugard.
I’ve read the book “Tsotsi” by the author Athol Fugard. This book is about a young, black gang leader called Tsotsi. Tsotsi was considered a style for the thugs that horrified the city of Johannesburg at the beginning of the 1940. He got his name because he didn’t know anything about him, not his name, age, whom his parents were, nothing, so he and his friends just called him Tsotsi because of his style.The book follows primarily Tsotsi through his life where he kills and robs people to make his life easier, this is the only thing he can do, and the only thing he knows about. One day he follows a woman with a shoebox in her hands. He scares her, revealing himself out of the shadows and she troughs the shoebox at him. He is expecting that it is money in the box but when he opens it he sees that it’s a small new-born baby inside it and then his life gets a turning point and he is starting to remember old stuff about him.
The thing that caught my attention about this book is a character named Morris Tshabalala. He got injured in a mineshaft-collapse and was now a crippled man that dragged himself his way through town using his arms like oars. Morris called himself “half a man” because he couldn’t use his legs and he troubled himself with his slowness, saying that even the slowest person is faster than him. Morris got remorseful about his life and you can feel it in the text that he doesn’t want to live, he just goes with the flow as the days and nights passes. He is not scared at all he thinks and he is struggling to get a job because the worst thing he knows is when other people throwing money at him out of pity. The thing that captured me is that this man struggles day in and day out to get a job so he can support himself and not be dependent on anyone. He’s a strong feature in the book and you can feel his pain throughout the text. He’s got a bit of a problem mentally, coursing and talking to himself but at least he tries everything to make his life better than what it is and on the other side he doesn’t care if he dies. Throughout the text involving him, a man is following his pattern. This man is Tsotsi. Morris is in a way dragging himself away from this man that he doesn’t recognise until he comes to a restaurant where he feels save. He always visits this restaurant night time before sleep so he can buy his supper. After his meal Morris buys a coffee and looks at his reflection in the drink and a thought says to him. “You were frightened”, Morris nods his head in agreement.“ You thought you had no fear. But tonight it was there, like a worm in your bowels. A small fear of death.” Page.93
This character captured me, even though he isn’t a main character of the book (at least not in the first 100 pages). The strength he is showing, with his hands bleeding and soaring and he still struggles on. No one helps him with nothing, he doesn’t have anyone and still he goes on. Struggling with his mind, to take his own life or to live on and try everything he can. Until this evening when his life was near to be taken by Tsotsi, this was when he discovered what he wanted to do and that was to keep struggling on, dragging himself through the streets, to keep on living.
