The smell of apples

PROMPT #1

                              DAYLY OF AFRIKANER RACIST

After the second world war, the colons decided to stay in South Africa and live there. Those invaders are mainly divided between two ethno-cultural groups, the Afrikaners, descendants of mainly German-Dutch pioneers and French (Afrikaans) Boers and Anglo-South African English-speaking from England. The colon trades the colonization but maintained the racism that leaded to apartheid.  The Smell of apples is a story written by Mark Behr 1995.The story of an eleven years old  Marnus who is sharing  his  daily life in  South Africa 1973. He lives in Cape Town and dreams of one day being as strong as his father, the youngest general in the South African army. The latter is often visited by soldiers who come to support the apartheid regime. This time it is a Chilean general, the enigmatic M Smith. The arrival of this stranger threatens the balance of the family. Marnus is the witness of these scenes but it is only much later that he will understand the cruel reach of what he has seen and what he has you, an accomplice in spite of himself. That child shows racism from a point of view  of an Afrikaner kid.  The doctrine of racism is an heritage  of Afrikaans culture: it is legitimate for parents ,teachers and society to introduce it in children education.

The child growth is agile, and it is always influenced by the parents. All the basic of life is taught by the parents. The little Marnus Erasmus is 11 years old, and his mind has no filter. He observes his environment, in the presence of this family of the right-side Afrikaner bourgeoisie, which is at the heart of Boers nationalism. By the voice of Marnus, child in adoration in front of this father, high-ranking of the South African army. The dad has tough him a lot of racism act and mind. Marnus said “Dad says one of the problems is that the best blacks were taken by the slave traders. The blood that is poured into Africa is the blood of the most stupid blacks - which is why you can not find a well-educated black anywhere.”(Behr ,66).The father, in his professional discussions, does not hesitate to belittle them and fights the equality of the races. Thus, without realizing it, Marnus is conditioned by his father's racist ideology.Marnus says “he said  will never forget what the communists and the Blacks did to tanganyika.And Dad said we should ever forget.”(Behr,38). This show clearly that Erasmus father is a radicalistic racist.

 Leonore Erasmus explicitly give a racist education to her kids. The family treats its servants well but keeps a certain condescension towards the "Coloureds " Marnus said:”Mum says that exactly the way the Couloureds are. you can never trust them. After all the years supplying them with a job and a decent income,they simply turn around and stab you in the back. Just like the Mau Mau in east Africa. Thus viper sucks from bosom without you even knowing.”(Behr,20).That is a racist point of view that she his sharing with her kids. She also underestimates the maternity skills of Doreen because she is Black. Marnus said “But Doreen , Mum says you have probably got dates wrong of when your little people break up.Then Little-Neville will still come.”(Behr ,113). This statement confirms that because Doreen is black she does even know when her son is supposed to come back home for school break. Leonore also said;” Yes my son. But that still won’t heal Little-Neville – and it probably wasn’t right of him to steal charcoal.” (Behr,138).It is clear that she doesn’t  have a real compassion for this ten years old child who was burn because of a minor misconduct.

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