EC

Alan Paton characterizes the different genders by showing the difference between how the two are treated differently and how they are mentioned.  Paton suggests that women are less intelligent, therefore not advanced as the men, writing : "... some with blankets over the semi-nudity of their primitive dress, though these were all women. Men no longer in primitive dress" (Paton 43), Paton writes that the women are primitive, ancient people who are not yet at the level of the men, who are "no longer primitive" by using the dress to represent their statuses. Paton also writes : "Then she sat down at his table, and put her head on it, and was silent, with the patient suffering of black women, with the suffering of oxen, with the suffering of any that are mute" (Paton 40) to further reveal the status of women in this novel.  He writes that "she", who represents women, sat down and was silent with the suffering of black women, oxen, and the mute showing the reader that the women suffer just as the oxen do and just as the mute do.  Just like oxen, they work the land to provide food and life for the people; just like the mute, they are unable to speak up, unable to voice opinions and fight for power in this environment.  Paton in addition to these examples of sexism, he also writes : "Down in the valleys women scratch the soil that is left, and the maize hardly reaches the height of a man"(Paton 34). In this example, Paton uses diction to show the insignificance of the women, writing that they "scratch" the soil instead of dig up the soil, hoe or scoop. He also mentions that the maize that they farm, the product of their labor, barely reaches the height of man. By saying this, Paton shows the reader that the product coming from the labor of women cannot measure up to the men and their products.  Writing these lines in his novel, Paton is able to establish inequality between the two sexes.  This establishment further adds to the understanding of inequality throughout the novel.  The inequality coming from both sexism and racism gives the reader a perception of the ranks in the societies of South Africa; that the whites, who are the people who establish cities, civilization, communities with higher advancement in technology, have higher authority than the natives, who live tribally in rural areas with lesser development, and that the women are treated with even lower respect that the native men.  Paton uses this establishment and development of rankism to give the reader a sense of how people are mistreated, cheated, and abused in a social hierarchy.  This sense forces the reader to think about abusive behavior that has begun in ancient times and how it has come to change as humans advance in technology and as a race. Coming across people of great accomplishments such as Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr., Paton is able to have the reader drift off into the vast archives of history and the evolution of equality in the human society to have the reader connect the dots between Paton's works and the world's past.

Jarvis sat, deeply moved. Whether because this was his son, whether because this was almost the last act of his son, he could not say. Whether because there was some quality in the words, that too he could not say, for he had given little time in his life to the savouring and judging of words. Whether because there was some quality in the ideas, that too he could not say, for he had given little time to study of these particular matters. He rose and went up the stairs to his room, and was glad to find his wife not there, for here was a sequence not to be interrupted. He picked up the Abraham Lincoln and went down to the study again, and there opened the book at the Second Inaugural Address of the great president. He read it through, and felt with a sudden lifting of the spirit that here was a secret unfolding, a track picked up again. There was increasing knowledge of a stranger. He began to understand why the picture of this man was in the house of his son, and the multitude of books.

Key
Alliteration
Repetition
3rd Person Point of View
Irony
Internal Dialogue

Crying sexism

Alan Paton establishes that men are ranked higher and more dominant in his novel by treating the two sexes differently.  He treats the women with a lower respect than the others by saying that they are ones who are down in the valley scratching up the earth to grow maize that hardly reaches the height of a man : "Down in the valleys women scratch the soil that is left, and the maize hardly reaches the height of a man"(34).  This tells us that the women are treated as workers or slaves who must work for men, and also that they cannot reach the status that men have.  He also writes : "European garments, some with blankets over their strange assortment, some with blankets over the semi-nudity of their primitive dress, though these were all women.  Men travelled no longer in primitive dress"(43), saying that men have moved from primitive nature onto more modern lives, thus giving men a higher status than those who have not, the women.  Paton also writes : "walking slowly to the door of the church.  Then she sat down at his table, and put her head on it, and was silent, with the patient suffering of black women, with the suffering of oxen, with the suffering of any that are mute."(40) to show his comparison and connections that he has made between the women, the oxen, and the mute.  His connection is that the women are the workers for society, more specifically men, and that the women are mute and that they have no voice, say or power in the population.  Through this, he has erected this civilization where men are more powerful than women, and by this he shows the reader that the purpose of women is to serve men.