The Bench (1960)

Summary: The Bench, by Richard Rive is a short story about a man called Karlie who is at some sort of demonstration against apartheid. The short story takes place in Johannesburg on a hot November day where Karlie is at a demonstration against apartheid. Karlie thinks that the words the speaker is speaking are great words, and he is listening very carefully to them. The speaker says that we must challenge the right of any people who see fit to segregate human beings solely on grounds of pigmentation Karlie thinks that the fact that he should be a good as any other white man requires much thinking and he wonders about what a man from his home town called Ou Klaas would say to this, because he says that God made the white man and the black man separately. Later on in the story a white woman asks the crowd to challenge any discriminatory laws on their way. When the demonstration is over, Karlie goes to the station where mixed races are walking around. Karlie thinks that people mistrusts each other with an unnatural fear, and that people are suspicious to each other Karlie remembers what the speaker had said about challenging these things, and when he sees a bench with Europeans only written on it he decides that this is going to be his challenge. Karlie sits down on the bench but nobody seems to notice. Suddenly, when Karlie is wrapped up in thinking of his home town, a man tells Karlie to get off the bench. Karlie does not get of the bench and even though the man keeps on shouting at him, he does not say anything. Karlie thinks that he is gaining some sort of supremacy towards the white man because the white man is afraid of taking action himself and the white man calls a police man. The policeman is also telling Karlie to get up but he does not get up. He just maintains his silence. After a little while people start pulling him and hitting him but he continues fighting but in the end he is arrested but he thinks that he has won the challenge and smiles. Point of view: The narrator is a third person narrator and it makes the effect that the story could be told be anyone, not just a single person. Time and place: The short story takes place in Johannesburg. In the beginning of the story it takes place on the Grand Parade but later on it takes place on the station. I think that the story spans over one day because Karlie does not get home to sleep or anything during the story. I think that the text is a contemporary text because it is obvious that it takes place in a time where there is apartheid. (the bench p. 33 bottom) which means that it probably takes place around 1960. Character sketch of Karlie: The main character is a brown man called Karlie, who is living in a town called Bietjiesvlei. The text does not say how old he is but I reckon that he is between 25-50 because he has children in school (p. 32 top). When Karlie hears that the jspeaker says that Karlie is as good as a white man, he thinks that it needs much thinking. I think that this shows that Karlie has a split mind. On one hand he thinks that the speakers words are true and great but on the other hand he thinks that the idea him having the right to go to any bioscope, or eat in any restaurant or that his children could go to a white school is dangerous ideas.

I reckon that his home town is the reason why his mind is split. Karlie is very influenced by Ou Klaas, who thinks that God made whites and black separately, and that makes him wonder if the speaker is right. I also think that it shows that Karlie is caught between two different societies. Karlie is very surprised that black and white speakers are behaving as if there were no differences of colour among them, and it is far from what he knows from home and I think that is why he is little sceptical in the beginning. Now, I would like to read a little passage, which shows that Karlie is caught between two societies. (p.34, l. 12). I think that this passage really shows how Karlie is caught between, on the one hand the old traditional society and on the other hand the new society where people do not submit to apartheid. Karlie has inherited the servile position his father and fathers father had. They have never challenged any discriminatory laws but they have lived like black all their lives, which mean that have submitted to the apartheid system all their lives. But the speeches have made Karlie see that there might be another way. He will dare what his father and fathers father did not and that is what he is doing when he is sitting on the bench. The change: I think that Karlie is going through a change during the story. In the beginning of the story he is a bit sceptical of challenging discriminatory laws, even when he is sitting on the bench he isnt sure that it is the right thing to do. But after the episode where the white man tells him of, he is determined to stay on the bench no matter what. READ (p. 36, bottom) I think that this line really shows what change Karlie is going trough. He has turned into a person who does not submit to being oppressed by other people and a person who rises in rebellion against oppressors. Themes: The main theme in this text is clearly apartheid and how it is possible to challenge some of the discriminatory laws there where at that time because that is exactly what Karlie is doing. Another theme is the contrast between the big city and the small traditional societies. The people in the big city are much more aware of the unfairness the apartheid system creates and they are ready to fight for their rights whereas the people in the smaller traditional societies are living as they always have done, without fighting for their rights. Humanity is also a theme. In spite of the fact that it is the white people who have everything they need, some white people fight for the black peoples rights. There is no other reason to help the black people other than humanity. Karlie has never experienced such humanity and that is why he does not understand why the woman in the blue dress encourages them to challenge discriminatory laws. Message: I think that the authors intention with this text was to show the people of South Africa that it is possible to fight for ones rights and that it has an effect on peoples way of thinking. When Karlie is sitting on the bench, there are various attitudes towards what he is doing, and I think that the authors intention is to show that when someone challenges one of the discriminatory laws it will provoke a reaction and maybe start a debate that could lead to better conditions for the black people. Perspective: I think that Karlies situation looks a lot like the situation Nelson Mandela was in when he was 16. On the day of Nelson Mandelas circumcision there was a speaker who spoke about the future for the young men who had just been circumcised. He said that these young men werent free or independent because of the white man. It made Nelson Mandela angry at that time because at that

time he saw the white man as a benefactor contrary to an oppressor and he thought that the speaker was ungrateful. But the speaker had sown a seed in Mandela and it eventually grew and made him to the person he became. I think that Mandelas situation is a bit like Karlies. I dont think that Karlie is seeing the white man as a benefactor but I dont think that it would ever had crossed his mind to sit down on the bench if he had not heard the speeches. So both Mandela and Karlie is standing up for their rights on account of speeches.