Beggar My Neighbor (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Dan Jacobson
- First Published: 1962
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: The 1960's
- Setting: A white suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa
- Principal Characters: Michael, Frans, Annie, Dora
- Genres: Social realism, Short fiction, Political fiction
- Subjects: Children, Politics, Racism, Blacks, South Africa or South Africans, Apartheid, Hunger
- Locales: Johannesburg, South Africa
The Story
Michael, a white South African boy, is accosted by two black, raggedly dressed, almost emaciated children on his way home from school. Like so many impoverished black children, they are hungry and ask Michael for a piece of bread. At first he rejects them, but touched by their abject posture, he offers to give them bread and jam if they follow him home.
Dora, the black cook at Michael's home, grudgingly prepares the food, and Michael, experiencing the first flush of a power he has not hitherto known, gives them the bread and patronizingly demands a thank-you...
[The entire page is 1283 words long]
