Injustice In The Lemon Orchard

Injustice has plagued the earth for thousands of years. Moreover, history has recorded generations of people lamenting over others luck and their own misfortune, and the daily persecution they face due to their race, gender and religion. All these things are injustices, and are known to mankind as abhorrent instances of bigotry. Because unfair treatment has become such a focal point of societal disgust, literature and entertainment are brimming with characters that reflect what we are experiencing. In the short stories “The Lemon Orchard” by Alex La Guma and “Journey” by Shirley Geok-lin Lim, ordinary people are made central characters because readers can empathize with those who endure injustice. Both stories deal with the discriminations

Throughout the story, the captors of the protagonist are portrayed as foul and aggressive men, constantly using racial slurs like “hotnot”, “kaffir” and “bliksmen” and shoving a shotgun into the face of the unarmed and bound man. As the story progresses, each jab and insult reveals the captors’ own cowardice and inferiority to their prisoner, and the black man responds with a heroic resilience against each belittling blow. Metaphorically, one might compare this story to that of Jesus Christ’s and the injustice of his own imprisonment, which many say is the greatest act of injustice there ever was. There is a clear parallelism between their disagreements with religious leaders and their patience through mistreatment. When discussing why they had taken the man captive, the leader says, “he had the audacity to be cheeky and uncivilized towards a minister of our church and no hotnot will be cheeky to a white man while I live” (p.196), meaning that if it had been a white man that had disagreed with the minister, it would have been a discussion between equals. Ironically, the reader has since discovered that the black man holds more civility than any of his captors, and thus deserves to be treated as an equal. Nevertheless, he is judged on the color of his skin, and his resilient character is disregarded. At the end of the passage, the group hears a

Due to her family’s conditions, she must provide for her siblings and parents and must disregard her own desires. In filling this role, the protagonist must endure a life of menial errands and arduous cleaning. To express such feelings, the story begins with; “Last night, she had dreamt she was shut away in a subterranean world; she had wandered in labyrinths of thick brown claustrophobia” (p. 378). The imagery within her dream mirrors how she feels in her current situation; trapped into being her family’s provider due to her parent’s insufficiencies. Many readers understand the feeling of following a predestined path due to their gender, race or social status. In the girl’s case, she is boxed in by both her gender and her class, making her easier to empathize with. Along with the daunting task of assuming the role of her mother, the girl must also face isolation. Once she has wrapped her mother in blankets the girl ponders despairingly; “Tonight she was gone. She could not comfort her in this frightening thing she was doing, washing away the blackened blood in the black of night.” With all her uncertainty, the protagonist must go through her new challenges all alone. Her mother in need of succoring, and her father away at the gambling tables, she must suffer the bitter darkness, questioning