Setting

Physical setting

In the short story “Comrades” written by Nadine Gordimer, the events take place in a city in South Africa. This is indicated by the mention of Harrismith, which is a large town in South Africa, which is said to be at “about two hundred kilometres distance” (p. 99, l. 4) from the city where the events take place. Through the mention of the Umkhonto we Sizwe, as well as the events described, the reader can guess that the events take place during apartheid.

An important part of the physical setting is the university campus, where the conference on black people’s education took place. According to Hattie, the university is a “non-racial enclave of learning, a place where tended flowerbeds and trees bearing botanical identification plates civilized the wild reminder of campus guards and dogs” (p. 98, ll. 4-6). The university campus is also symbolic of the activists’ efforts to fight against segregation imposed by the apartheid system.

Another important part of the physical setting is Hattie’s house, where she invites the boys for something to eat. The entrances of the house have symbolic significance. Hattie takes the boys through the kitchen entrance, because that is how she enters the house herself. However, her thoughts reveal that she leads her adult black friends through the front entrance, because she does not want them to think she is trying to insult them by leading them through what is historically the entrance for black servants.

The house is representative of Hattie’s wealth and financial advantage, as well as for her superficiality. The dining-room in which she invites the boys is luxurious and attentively decorated (pp. 99-100, ll. 42-44, ll. 1-2). Also, Hattie ...