The Defeated | The Defeated

At a glance:

Author: Nadine Gordimer
First Published: 1952
Type of Plot: Social realism
Time of Work: The 1920's to 1940's
Setting: Cape Town, South Africa
Principal Characters: The narrator, Miriam Saiyetovitz, Mr. and Mrs. Saiyetovitz
Genres: Social realism, Short fiction
Subjects: Suffering, Friendship, Jews or Jewish life, Mines, miners, or mining, South Africa or South Africans, Wealth, Students or student life, Parties, Shopping
Locales: Cape Town, South Africa

The Story

As the narrator recalls her student years in Cape Town, South Africa, near which her parents owned a mine, she remembers her long friendship with her schoolmate Miriam Saiyetovitz and Miriam's parents, who owned a concession store.

Against her mother's initial objections, the narrator finds herself drawn into the exotic world of the concession stores where Africans shop. She is enticed by the sights, smells, sounds, and activities of the shopkeepers and the Africans. Though she is careful to keep her physical distance, because she is repulsed by some of the...

The Defeated | The Defeated

At a glance:

The Story

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