A Dry White Season Analysis

In order to change an unjust system, there must be changes politically and socially. In the case of injustices such as racism in South Africa, both the people and the government must recognize the unjust in racism. The struggle for such a change became the inspiration for André Brink’s book, A Dry White Season. In A Dry White Season by André Brink, the protagonist, Ben, attempts to find justice for the wrongful death of two Africans, Jordan and Gordon Ngubene. In his venture, he finds corruption in South Africa in law enforcement, judicial systems, and the worst of all - in people. His pursuit ultimately led to being othered by his fellow Afrikaner, losing his job as a prestigious teacher, and was harassed and blackmailed by the police. Ben’s attempt to clear Gordon’s name is ultimately unsuccessful because despite his many attempts to bring justice to this issue, justice cannot be served with a corrupt judicial and law enforcement system. At the end, he is not even recognized by other African for his work; he is simply seen as an outsider after everything that he has done. His failure illustrated the difficulty of social change. Had his obstacle been only the South African

This will not be easy, since censorship is prevalent in South Africa when Apartheid was in effect. Many voices resisting Apartheid, even the voices of the African National Congress, are silenced by the government in the manner illustrated in A Dry White Season. Indeed, even the author of A Dry White Season, André Brink, had “two of his novels [...] [including] A Dry White Season, [banned] in South Africa”(About the Author). Applying Brink’s experiences to the narrator, it is quite possible that his work will also be banned. If so, then his work will not have the social impact that is required to successfully clear Gordon’s