Ah woe is me, Nadine Gordimer

L. 1 to 67
General comprehension: L. 1 to 22
Who?
Sarah: servant, probably of mixed race yellow-brown , bad legs, very fat, good cook
Sarah's husband (hardly mentioned)
Felicia: Sarah's eldest daughter
Janet: Sarah's youngest daughter
Robert: Sarah's son
Caroline: a servant
The narrator: Sarah's boss

Where?
300 miles from Natal (Province in the East of South Africa)
The Location: a segregated area for black residents
The narrator's house

When? During the Apartheid (1948-1989)

What?
Sarah's expectations for her children / hope for their children's future whose upbringing was her constant
preoccupation (l.11)

Detailed comprehension: L.22 to 67
What are Sarah's expectations for her children?
She just wants them to be well-brought-up and to do well at school. She would like her son to have a decent job and
her daughters to remain virgins until they find a husband that they will marry in church.
>>Are those expectations very high? No, very simple, accessible.
Explain Mission school (l.25)
Mission school refers to the time of colonization. Missionary travels were organized by the church to evangelize the
African population. In addition to preaching the christian faith they also provided humanitarian work to improve
economic development, literary education, health care
Do you think it was a good thing?
(pb: instead of letting the Africans take their development into their own hands the colonizers made them dependent on
their knowledge, power, skills )
Explain l.25-36: What kind of education was it? The basics, not really an emancipating education had not made her
dangerous enough or brave enough ) An education that taught them what their place in society was / where they
belonged >> social reproduction / reproduction of inequalities she was also conservative enough to ask why it was so
difficult (l.33)

What does Sarah do to make sure that her children have a good education? Was it a success
She sends them to the location so that they can go to school. However Robert spent most of his time as a caddy on the
golf course instead of going to school (pb: serving the white man) and Felicia started hanging out in the streets at night.
What does she do then?
To prevent her children from skipping school and leading a degenerate / depraved / corrupted life, Sarah sends them to
boarding school 300 miles away from her.

L.68-119
Sarah is very strict with her children they were not allowed out of the yard, unless accompanied by their mother ...
(l.89), Sarah was sadly stern with the children (l.102). (What happened to Robert once?) Once Robert was beaten for
leaving the house without permission she gave him a long, hard hiding (l.95-96). She lectures them / gives them a
talking-to and probably makes them feel guilty about everything they do with her sad tone
What result does it yield?
As a result of this strict education the children became very well-behaved they were remarkably good children (l.77)
but also somewhat lifeless muted , unobstrusive (discret/effac), subdued (contenu).
There's a sadness about these children their smiles were solemn and beautiful, but ritual, not joyous (l.84), he cried
and cried as if in depression rather than from hurt (l.96)
Sarah's education deprives them of their innocence, of the cheerfulness of children (l.103-106)
>> They are very well-behaved but it is as if life had been drained out of them.

L.120-166

Why did Sarah leave the narrator's house?
Sarah had to leave the narrator's home because her legs became so bad that she couldn't work anymore. She moved to
the Location and took the children out of boarding school because she couldn't afford the tuition fees anymore;
Describe the evolution of Sarah's situation
Sarah's health is deteriorating and so is her social situation. Her husband has lost her job.
What about the children?
The children look poorer and poorer l.145-150
shabby = miteux
slack = nglig (lche / dtendu)
raggy = tattered = out-at-elbows = loqueteux
sloppy / scruffy = nglig
167-256
Describe Janet's appearance:
She looks like a woman.
Feelings: sad, embarassed, ashamed.
Sad because her situation is miserable: they are poorer and poorer, her father has lost his job, her brother has to work in
the dairy, her mother is crippled so she had to give up school to look after her. her sister's marriage doesn't seem to
make her happy. Maybe she got pregnant and had to get married. >> a series of misfortunes. It's going from bad to
worse.
She's embarrassed 'cos she is ashamed of the way she looks, of being so poor / destitute, of accepting the narrator's
charity.

Cl: moral
inescapability of their fate. They can't rise in society, can't escape poverty. That's their place in society and noone is
going to help them.
Bad luck + Reproduction of inequalities. As soon as you encounter hardships you're doomed, you can't make it out of
those hardships.
Reaction: resignation / acceptance
they are resigned / uncomplaining because that's what they have been taught to be.