Dinner at Eight (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Ezekiel Mphahlele
- First Published: 1961
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: The late 1950's
- Setting: Johannesburg, South Africa
- Principal Characters: Miss Pringle, Mzondi
- Genres: Social realism, Short fiction
- Subjects: 1950’s, Racism, Race, Sex or sexuality, Crime or criminals, Police, Interracial relationships, Betrayal, Violence, Disabilities or physically challenged persons, South Africa or South Africans, Naivete, Apartheid, Philanthropy or philanthropists, Dinners or dining
- Locales: Johannesburg, South Africa
The Story
The daughter of an upright pastor, Miss Pringle is a self-righteous white South African woman who enjoys having black people hover over her admiringly. Her superficial liberalism has driven her into welfare work, in which she enjoys forcibly befriending helpless and needy Coloureds and Africans. The work fills a void in her otherwise dull life. She heads the Sheltered Employment Depot, a private workshop that trains “incurable cripples” in new trades. Preferring to work with blacks rather than whites because the latter are too independent, Miss Pringle prides...
[The entire page is 1459 words long]
