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Zusammenfassung Mother to Mother, Abitur Hessen 2020
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Zusammenfassung Mother to Mother, Abitur Hessen 2020
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Mother to MotherBasic Information
-Type: Novel
-Genre: story of racism
-based on historical facts (Kill of Amy Biehl)
-written out of the view of the murders mother Mandisa
Setting:
-Guguletu, South Africa near Cape Town
-Around 1983
Background:
The Amy Biehl case:
-Amy Elizabeth Biehl (April 26, 1967 – August 25, 1993) =
white American graduate of Stanford University (lived in
Cape Town)
-Anti-Apartheid activist in South Africa
-four men convicted of her murder were released by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
-Drove black friends home to the township of Guguletu, outside Cape Town, on August 25, 1993
-a black mob pulled her from the car and stabbed and stoned her to death
narrative perspective
→Mandisa = first-person-narrator
→Allows reader to share many details, feelings
→A broad picture is possible (as opposed to Mxolisi as narrator)
→Mandisa links all generations living under apartheid
→Shows origins of Mxolisi’s trouble
→Point of view and frame story creates emotion
Plot Summary
CHAPTER 1 AND ANALYZING MANDISA’S LAMENT
§ Frist person narrator Mandisa addresses Amy Biehl´s mother directly.
§ Mandisa, mother of Mxolisi, the black teenager who is made responsible for Amy´s death
§ Mandisa explains her son´s actions trying to overcome her own grief (Trauer)
§ She asks for forgiveness and understanding, but also shows reproach (Vorwurf) for Amy´s conduct
→ “Why did she not stay out?” (p.3). Pointing out that her daughter is not completely innocent or
that might be destiny. She should have listened to her university friends.
§ Nevertheless, she’s not surprised by Mxolisi´s actions but at the same time angry that the person
who died had to be white, so that is why this murder was a very big scandal in comparison to
Guguletu’ situation. Lastly, she blames her naivety.
§ She gives a general account of the situation of the indigenous population in South Africa. She
criticizes the system of Apartheid and she is seeking for justice.
§ Mandisa reveals also a few biographical facts, mentioning where she worked and how less time she
had then for her children to take care off.
§ Due to her repetitions and emotional words she seems very desperate. Almost disable to get
along/(coming to terms) with the situation.
§ The rest of the novel gives the impression of being a collection of diary entries without any
chronological order.
Mandisa’s motivation for writing Reasons for Amy’s murderer
Murder and violence are common in
Apology, pleading for forgiveness
townships
Sympathy for Amy’s mother
Apartheid policy and the history, the
Sharing Amy’s mother grief
anger of the black majority
, Showing Mandisa is just a mother Mxolisi’s stupidity
and it almost feels like losing his Mxolisi had always been destructive
child. (He needed psychological help,
Telling what the situation in township through what he had to experience –
is like mentioning later in the novel)
Coming to terms with her own
situation as the mother of a murderer
and socially excluded including the
rest of the family
CHAPTER 2 – AMY’S DEATH AND COMPARISON OF TWO WORLDS
§ Mandisa starts relaying the events leading up to Amy´s death. In the last pages she focuses on the
reactions of the mob which killed Amy and their reaction resulting as a symbol of freedom and an
act against apartheid for them.
§ Morning routine of Amy Biehl on Wednesday 25th August 1993 is presented.
§ First person narrator also then takes the reader to her own home
§ Presenting the three children and their character.
§ Amy is optimistic and looking forward to meeting her friends from university
§ Mandisa is neglecting her children as she has to work for a white person in the suburbs from six
days a week → So that is why she is worried about her kids and wishes to have given them more
attention, but they need the money to survive (existential risk)
§ They have a lack of food for Mandisa´s children.
§ She says: “We work to survive.” And “Life is never problem free”
§ In Chapter two she starts with conditions in the townships by mentioning the students label
“reactionary” who fought for better education by boycotting classes (even more lack of education)
§ Switching perspectives between Amy´s and Mandisa´s world → a big contrast between two sections
of society is clearly indicated, Mandisa is also comparing the two worlds of Amy Biehl and Mxolisi.
Again, she is pointing out that her daughter should have been more careful, when her friends even
warned no to the road.
§ Women’s, Manyano. In any of several South African black Churches: (the name given to) the
women's association. 1940s; earliest use found in Bantu World.
CHAPTERS 3 & 4
§ The chapter starts with Mandisa getting interrupted cooking by her employer Mrs. Nelson. She
heard of trouble in Guguletu and wants to send her immediately back to Guguletu.
§ She wonders why she gets a day off and starts thinking about her life with the life styles of white
people. She concludes that these people don’t know what hard work means.
§ In a hurry Mrs. Nelson accompanies her to the bus station. She thinks the boycotts could be the
causes for the trouble there. In addition, she mentions that white people aren’t allowed to go to
Guguletu (Reference to Amy Biehl?
§ In the bus she is thinking about Guguletu and its past and how it came that now there live so many
people under such less space. She is talking about the Apartheid system. She reports about the
life conditions when she and her family got send from Blouvlei to Guguletu and that government
didn’t care it all how or where they had to live. Mandisa mentions the “Slum Clearance”
§ Recollects how her family was uprooted (entwurzelt) by the white apartheid government and
forced to move to Guguletu
§ One of the main problems was the problem finding school which would accept the new students-
Due to the mass of new people in Guguletu the schools were full, and it was hard to find a place
in an educational institution
§ Then she refers again to the pain she felt as it was a loss of everything leaving her hometown,
everything what they build up, friends, high fares, work distance but she seems a bit proud still
having strength (p.28)
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