Setting

Published in 1998, the time setting of the short story “Dead Man’s Shoes” by David Evans is South Africa sometime between 1994 and 1999, during the first term of Nelson Mandela, the “first Black president” of the country. The action spans over a few months, after the death of the protagonist’s husband in an accident.

Physical setting

The main physical setting is the protagonist’s property, Toekoms (l. 197) which was located in a village named Pampoenfontein (l. 7). The names of the places indicate that the area is mostly inhabited by Boers, descendants of the Dutch that settled in Africa in the colonial days.

Anne’s farm is depicted at length to illustrate something about the characters. The way the farm is depicted suggests she and her husband were rich but hardworking people, but it also suggests that her suitors are mainly interested in her wealth. Here is a passage describing the property:

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Social setting

The social setting illustrates aspects related to South African society in general, and provincial, rural society in particular, after the end of the apartheid regime (a racial segregation regime which granted more rights to white people than to native black people).

The narrator mentions the ‘new South Africa’ several times to emphasise the contrast between society before and after the apartheid. These aspects are related to racial discrimination. Before, native Africans were not considered full citizens and did not have the same rights as the white settlers. This was changed by anti-apartheid laws, but white people were still afraid of possible rebellions:

This might be the new South Africa and our first Black president might be a good man bent on reconciling former enemies, but some of his followers couldn’t be trusted. It hadn’t been so long ago that we had all been frightened out of our wits by the unrest stirred up among our labourers by communistic troublemakers. (ll. 109-114)

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