In this week’s ‘Ask the Expert Tutor’, we have Hannah, our senior English & Humanities tutor, discussing Nadine Gordimer and short stories.

Nadine Gordimer (1923 - 2014) was a South African writer and political activist, working against the backdrop of the brutal apartheid regime. Her long career allowed her to chronicle the development of South Africa over a turbulent series of decades. During the 1960s and 1970s Gordimer wrote during the emergence of resistance movements against apartheid, dissecting the hypocritical regime. Subsequently, the liberated South Africa provides the context for her later works, written in the 1990s, where she again turns a critical eye to social and political hypocrisies. Ultimately, her works are about individuals, and the ways they fit in and challenge their societies. She won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991, when her writing was described by the committee as being of a “very great benefit to humanity”.

Consider this IB English past paper question and a sample response:

“Although humans claim to desire freedom above all else, many prefer security.” In the light of this statement discuss two works you have studied, showing the ways in which they have presented attitudes to freedom and/or security.

Both short story writers use metaphor and symbolism to convey the fundamental hypocrisy of seeking security in an unjust world. While a state of security is always desirable, it cannot be denied that governments often make this contingent upon economic and social status, which ultimately leads to a codification of inequality. This is particularly true of segregated societies, such as the apartheid South Africa depicted in Gordimer’s ‘Once upon a time’. The short story uses the theme of safety to satirise South African racial inequality, and how it ultimately leads to a false sense of security that is actually damaging. Gordimer does this through the motif of the security apparatus installed by the family, which goes from a “YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED” sign, to burglar bars and alarms, and finally to razor wire. This shows a gradual escalation of measures throughout the story as they become more aggressive in keeping intruders out. Gordimer describes the warning sign featuring a man in a mask, and ironically notes that because a viewer cannot tell if the burglar depicted is white or black, it “proved the property owner was not racist”. The obviously absurd statement implies that security and race are inextricably linked in this context. …

This response is strong in some aspects, but undeniably weaker in others. The IB student has clearly understood the message of Gordimer’s story, and incorporates that well into their response. They have a clear topic sentence, and understanding of how Gordimer connects security and race in her short story through the use of motifs. Having said that, there are clear flaws in the writing. The student does not elaborate on their analysis in enough depth, leaving the link between security and race ‘claimed’, rather than ‘proven’. This would impact their score on Criterion B in an English IB exam scenario. 

IB English Paper 2 questions typically involve thematic and character analysis. Paying close attention to recurrent symbols and motifs is something that pays off when revising for English exams, and it’s what students need to do. It’s also vital to place authors into a proper context, meaning each new text should be begun by delving deep into the political and social context of the author. Gordimer is no exception to that. It’s imperative that students understand how South African apartheid influenced her writing, and how its presence is felt both explicitly and implicitly throughout her work. By giving students a thorough grounding in an author’s context, it allows them to feel more confident making connections to real world issues in their IB analysis, a key skill for any student aiming high in English. 

For individualised support on Gordimer, or IB English in general, contact BartyED today.

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