Themes and message

The main themes of the short story “The Middle Children” by Rayda Jacobs are racial discrimination and racial identity. These themes are explored in the context of South African society during the apartheid regime, with the purpose of criticising some of the consequences of this political regime based on racial segregation.

The message of the short story is that …

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Racial identity

The theme of racial identity is explored through the main character—Sabah, but also through the characters of Stephanie and Sabah’s father and the social context.

Sabah and Stephanie are middle children, a name given to people of mixed race in South Africa during the apartheid regime. During this regime of racial segregation, all non-whites—including mixed-raced people—were segregated from the white population. They lived i…

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Racial discrimination

The theme of racial discrimination is explored through the plot of the story, social setting, and the attitude of the police investigators.

The plot of the story is driven by the structural racial discrimination found in the social context. The action takes places during the apartheid regime in South Africa—a recent …