a letter to tell him what he needed to know. Usually there are long pauses between letters and communications. This rapid talking is unfamiliar to her, but she tries. She tells him that the chief has met the whites, and they should go to live with the chief. She asks if July petitioned the chief for that. He doesn't answer, instead attacking her for leaving roof grass out where the white children play with it and break it.

July recounts his history working in the city, how he got the dowry to marry her there. Every two years he returned and every two years she had another child. Now he returned a year early and already she is pregnant. She reflects on the injustices these whites have caused her.

Haltingly, July promises to take Martha and the children to the city when he next goes. Stubbornly, Martha refuses, scared of such a new place where she would not know the customs. July has always described the whites and the cities as fantastical places compared with the familiar village. Pleadingly, Martha suggests that July stay in the village and plant instead, that Daniel has promised no taxes and a tractor will come soon. Or that July could open a shop and sell soap and goods, since now July has a truck.

July doesn't respond, but the silence seems accepting. His next words are about the horrors of the massacres in town and about the money he could not get because the Smaleses had convinced him to be safe and put his money into a bank account where it would earn interest. And now that money was just figures in a book, useless. He hadn't destroyed the book yet, but only because he needed outside confirmation that it was totally useless.

Analysis
When July explains the chief's position, July makes clear that the chief is subject to outside power and authority. The chief knows his own limitations and weaknesses and so will not subject his people to being overrun by anyone, white or black. Instead, he will cede to greater authority. July presents this as a reasonable alternative while suggesting that the chief's desire to learn to shoot a gun is "all talk" and not part of an intention to resist either whites or blacks. The chief probably wants to learn to shoot the gun just to be associated with that sort of power, as well as to possibly have that skill should he ever need it.

Bam cannot take this reasoning in. He does not want to consider the possibility that some blacks do not consider themselves allied with other blacks and oppressed by the whites. Bam's liberal ideas are based on the idea that white rule is bad for blacks, so the idea that black rule could also be bad for the blacks does not fit. For Bam, the chief's wish to learn to fire a gun will turn the village against other blacks. It is a clear case of black and white for Bam, although July tries to explain otherwise.

Even when Maureen tries to make clear that July speaks not only about the chief, but also about himself, Bam cannot take it in. July saved his employers of fifteen years, but he did not join the revolutionaries and he did not fight to defend the white government. Like the chief, July is waiting to see who will triumph and is staying out of trouble. Protecting the Smaleses benefits the village if the white government is re-established, but has little negative effect if the black nationalist party succeeds. July knows that taxes will be levied no matter who runs the government, and so he knows that the village will not change dramatically. Thus, in the most practical, day to day aspects, resistance to either type of government does not make sense. Being ideologically opposed to either presupposes self-determination, which neither July nor the chief take as their right.

The Smaleses are confronted with their own lack of self-determination when they re-enter their hut. Their new possessions confront them, full of their bleak poverty. For the first time, they consider the hut as a home. The children have already adapted, but Maureen and Bam are still shocked by their life in the village. As usual, Bam turns to the radio, desperate for interaction with the world he considers familiar. He tunes out his present reality by hunting for familiar voices, familiar names, news that explains what is happening in his familiar home.

Maureen is slightly less desperate than Bam, but she has realized something Bam hasn't. If Bam refuses to teach the chief, July will be endangered. She forces Bam to realize that by saving their lives, July has put his own at risk. The reader already knows this because Gordimer has voiced it through Martha. Martha's objections to the whites always center around the danger that whites can bring, and so Martha highlights the danger July has put the village in. Thus, when the narrative returns to Martha, she urges July to convince the chief to provide refuge for the Smaleses. This threatens July's authority, but even he seems to know it would be a better idea. July's response is bizarre: he says he will take Martha to the city and show her that promising, strange world. Martha doesn't want to leave the familiar village. In fact, she likes dreaming about the city and hearing about it, but she would rather that July stay in the village and open a store than return to it. She fears the city and its regulatory laws. She enjoys the small freedoms the village allows, including going to the bathroom wherever she wishes. Thus, through Martha, Gordimer manages to convey that despite its poverty the village can be a sanctuary, a beloved home, even though the Smaleses cannot comprehend that. The reader is given the alternate perspective of Martha's love of her village even after seeing the village in all its dirt and horror through Maureen's eyes.

The last section of chapter seventeen examines the pass book through July's eyes. Pass books were required by law for all blacks and "coloreds" during apartheid. The pass book contained race, political affiliations, and travel history. In order to visit his family every two years, July had to have his pass book signed by Maureen or Bam. Thus, the pass book provides a record of their tacit collusion with the system. Despite their attempts to be conscientious and moral employers, Maureen and Bam did in fact employ July and keep him from his family for years at a stretch. The pass book is a symbol of legalized oppression. Furthermore, July seems half-afraid to destroy it. Without that pass book, he would be open to imprisonment by the authorities. He seems to be waiting for an authority figure to tell him he no longer needs it, because he has depended upon it and carried it for so long that it feels like part of him. Yet in his new life as ruler of his village, the pass book is completely irrelevant. July can go where he wishes, do as he wishes, speak with whom he wishes, and never needs to ask permission or show that he has gotten permission. The pass book has lost all value. Still, July will wait until the new government is established before he aligns himself with one or another. By waiting to destroy the pass book, he ensures that he has evidence of his good behavior if the whites regain power.