My Son’s Story (Masterplots II: Women’s Literature Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Nadine Gordimer
- First Published: 1990
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: The 1980’s
- Setting: South Africa
- Principal Characters: Sonny, Aila, Baby, Will, Hannah Plowman
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism, Political fiction
- Subjects: Social action, Teaching or teachers, Family or family life, Politics, Prisoners, Prisons, Racism, Revolutionaries, Blacks, Interracial relationships, Human rights, 1980’s, Adultery, South Africa or South Africans, Apartheid
- Locales: Johannesburg, South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa, Rustenburg, South Africa
Form and Content
Set in contemporary South Africa, My Son’s Story is primarily a story about the public and private life of Sonny, originally a schoolteacher with a lovely family. Largely a self-taught black man with middle-class values and aspirations, Sonny, despite his modest and even complacent yearnings (“to improve” himself through literacy in order to gain respect), loses his teaching position when he takes part in his students’ rally. The circumstances, together with his talents in literacy, literature, public speaking, and organizational skills, turn him...
[The entire page is 2304 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
See Also
