Structure and composition

The short story “The Journey to the Brothers’ Farm” by Pippa Gough has a rather complex structure. The story begins with the main character’s flashbacks from the past. Then, the story returns to the main narrative, which is mixed with a statement given by the main character to the police and with several other flashbacks from the past. Because the story is not rendered chronologically, it is quite hard to pinpoint the plot elements. However, if we separate the past events from the present events, we can identify two main storylines in the story's composition:

In the first storyline, the exposition introduces us to young Annelie and her friendship with Thabo. The rising action presents Annelie’s friendship with Hendriks Kruger, while the climax is represented by the moment when Annelie is raped by Hendriks.

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Title

The title of the short story refers to the journey that adult Annelie makes to the Kruger brothers’ farm. Since she was raped by Hendriks Kruger 20 years ago, Annelie has never set foot there. However, she is forced to fight her memories from the past and return to the farm, as she is sure that something bad has happened there. During her journey to the farm, Annelie is overwhelmed by memories that reveal the time when she was raped:

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Beginning

The story begins with a flashback from Annelie’s past. Here, we are introduced to a scene that reveals a lot about what we are going to find next in the story – the differences between people of different colours:

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Middle

The middle of the story mixes Annelie’s statement to the police with information about Annelie’s present and past. Now, Annelie owns a shop and is a widow. In her statement, she talks about her past friendship with Hendriks Kruger and her current distaste for him, as well as her efforts to avoid his presence.

The middle of the story also introduces a very important character, Thabo, a black African boy whom Annelie befriended in her childhood:

Thabo. We were inseparable back then, when it didn’t matter. Then, quite suddenly, childhood had melted away. “Mix with your own type now, Annelie,” my father had said one day. “Play with kids from your school. Leave the workers now, hey?” So I took to spending time at Veldplatt with Hendriks and his brothers. Thabo hadn’t wanted to work for the Krugers but we couldn’t afford to take him on. (ll. 54-58)

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Ending

The ending of the story reveals that Hendriks is not dead. When he sees Annelie, he asks her for help, yet she only helps him to commit suicide:

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