When Rain Clouds Gather Questions and Answers
When Rain Clouds Gather
Discuss how When Rain Clouds Gather depicts the divergence from racial conflict as well as the stereotype of women...
This novel depicts a clear divergence from racial conflict due to the relationship between Dinorego and Gilbert, who is a British agricultural specialist. Gilbert has truly made himself part of the...
When Rain Clouds Gather
How does Makhaya treat women in When Rain Clouds Gather?
Makhaya, the protagonist of When Rain Clouds Gather, is quite a complex character, which only serves to make him more interesting. Inevitably, this means that there's a good side and a bad side to...
When Rain Clouds Gather
Why was Makhaya in jail in South Africa in When Rain Clouds Gather?
Makhaya is a young Zulu rebel who was imprisoned by the apartheid South African government for sabotage. He is a freedom fighter who struggled to end the brutal apartheid government system. When...
When Rain Clouds Gather
Discuss how the novel When Rain Clouds Gather explores the good that power can accomplish.
I would argue that this great Southern African novel explores the good that power can accomplish by showing, in an almost exaggerated way, how poor leadership can stymie progress. The powerful...
When Rain Clouds Gather
How do Dinorego, Makhaya, and Gilbert epitomize how human beings should act according to Bessie Head in When Rain...
Makhaya represents—or epitomizes—positive human actions because of his departure from South Africa. Remember, in South Africa, Makhaya was subject to brutal racism. He was in jail and he...
When Rain Clouds Gather
Why did Chief Matenge commit suicide in When Rain Clouds Gather?
When Rain Clouds Gather by Bessie Head depicts the clash of cultures and values in rural Botswana as the fledgling nation develops its own identity after decades of colonialism. The novel was...
When Rain Clouds Gather
Discuss how the novel When Rain Clouds Gather shows the divergence of opinions and beliefs among the characters.
The primary opposition that Bessie Head presents in the novel is between foreign, imposed innovations and native traditions. These conflicts are primarily set in Golema Mmidi, a rural village in...
When Rain Clouds Gather
How is Chief Matenge seen as the one individual standing in the way of progress in Golema Mmidi in When Rain Clouds...
Chief Matenge's primary goal as chief is to obstruct the plans of Gilbert, a British agriculturalist. Gilbert hopes to introduce western practices of industrial farming and fencing land, calling...
When Rain Clouds Gather
What are Gilbert's and Makhaya's attitudes towards women, and how do each perceive the role of men in a relationship?
The attitudes of these two men in Bessie Head’s novel differ in part because of the racial, national, social, and educational differences between them, although both are foreigners living in...
When Rain Clouds Gather
How does the novel When Rain Clouds Gather explore the good that power can accomplish?
Power is presented in When Rain Clouds Gather as emancipatory. It is a force for good, something that frees people, broadens their horizons, gives them wings. It is power that is the ultimate prize...
When Rain Clouds Gather
How does Bessie Head reveal to us the oppression of women in When Rain Clouds Gather?
In the novel When Rain Clouds Gather by Bessie Head, the protagonist is a man named Makhaya. Despite the protagonist being a man, the novel makes the reader very aware of the oppression that women...
When Rain Clouds Gather
What is the context within which the novel When Rain Clouds Gather written?
Bessie Head was a refugee from apartheid in South Africa. As a black African, she was denied basic rights by the white minority government, which had, for decades, pursued a policy of systemic...
When Rain Clouds Gather
Why did Gilbert want the men to bring the cattle near the village in When Rain Clouds Gather?
Bessie Head explores the attitude of the English agricultural expert, Gilbert, toward the subject of cattle grazing as one element of his fundamental misunderstanding of the local social system...
When Rain Clouds Gather
Was Makhaya in love with Paulina?
Initially, Makhaya is not in love with Paulina. In contrast, she is attracted to Makhaya from the start due to his good looks. Being as assertive and self-confident as she is, Paulina sends...
When Rain Clouds Gather
How does the novel explore the good that power can accomplish?
This novel by Bessie Head explores two contrasting ideas of power. The first is authoritarian, associated with hereditary power. This version is exemplified by Chief Matenge. The second is shared,...