Devil At A Dead End Analysis

By discussing and analysing the short stories ‘Devil at a Dead End' by Miriam Tlali and ‘The Hajji' by Ahmed Essop, certain social and political inequalities can be identified. Throughout both stories, the authors' utilization of the short story effectively shows these factors. Through discussion and analysis of each story, these factors are therefore found, such as gender and race inequality. Therefore due to these factors, it can be decided whether Graham Huggan's argument of short stories in their ‘concentrated form' provide a perfect way to show ‘radical social critique' (Huggan 1994: 63) is valid or invalid.

The short story ‘Devil at a Dead End' begins with a young black woman in the midst of travelling on a train to Johannesburg. The

When the man first enters and tries to ‘console' (Tlali [1989] 1998: 145) the young woman she is shocked to find herself as a ‘bewildered beholder' (Tlali [1989] 1998: 145) as she feels ‘powerless' (Tlali [1989] 1998: 145). As the man begins to touch the woman he speaks Afrikaans words such as ‘kom' (Tlali [1989] 1998: 146), however, the girl in her time of need speaks in her language ‘Ntate se nkame hobane ke silafetse' (Tlali [1989] 1998: 147). These words not only save her from the man but show that she did, in fact, hold power, although throughout the story it appeared that she was weak and held no power. Therefore the author's utilization of the short story ‘Devil at a Dead End' in showing the white guard taking advantage of the young black girl exposes racial and gender

Hassen views his wife Salima as ‘flaccid' (Essop [1978] 1998: 71) with many inadequacies' (Essop [1978] 1998: 67) and has an overly negative view of his wife; however the narrator shows that Salima is kind and caring as she helps Catherine and visits Karim (Medalie 1998: xxix). Hassen's patriarchal view of society exposes gender inequality as a social inequality, also shown in ‘Devil at a Dead End'.

Lastly, the climatic event of the ‘The Hajji' can be contrasted with that of ‘Devil at a Dead End'. When Karim dies without Hassen having visited him he feels conflicted emotions but ultimately wishes that he could have shown his brother ‘a final act of love' (Essop [1978] 1998: 81). While Hassen finds no closure in his brother's death and regrets his actions showing that he is not as powerful as he thinks he, in contrast, the girl on the train found power in a hopeless situation to overcome a horrid fate - showing that she held more power than she thought she was capable of.

Therefore through the authors' utilization of the short story in the short stories ‘Devil at a Dead End' and ‘The Hajji', racial and gender inequalities were identified. Consequently, it can then be decided that Graham Huggan's argument of short stories is valid.

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