Thebedi

Outer characterization

Thebedi is one of the main characters of “Country Lovers” by Nadine Gordimer. Her outer characterization reveals that she is a black girl who lives with her family in a kraal (village of huts) on the Eysendyck farm. She has “big dark eyes, shiny as soft water” (l. 73). She is described after her baby is born:

Njabulo was the matt opaque coffee-grounds colour that has always been called black; the colour of Thebedi's legs on which beaded water looked oyster-shell blue, the same colour as Thebedi's face, where the black eyes, with their interested gaze and clear whites, were so dominant. (ll. 130-134)

Just like all the other black children who grow up in the kraal, Thebedi is not educated and does not go to school. 

Inner characterization 

Thebedi’s inner characterization reveals that she feels genuine friendship for Paulus when they are children. The two of them also exchang...