Summary Grade 12 English HL: Theory of Flight Study notes
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Course
English Home Language
Institution
12th Grade
This document provides character descriptions + analysis, themes, quotations and important events for The Theory of Flight. It is useful for revising for exams and tests for Grade 12 IEB English Home Language and can assist in essay writing questions
THEORY OF FLIGHT NOTES:
CHARACTERS
Genie (Imogen Nyoni) - around whose life and death the events of this story take place
Baines Tikiti - Genie’s grandfather
Prudence Ngoma - Genie’s grandmother
Golide Gumede - Genie’s father
Elizabeth Nyoni- Genie’s mother
Minenhle Tikiti - Golide’s sister and Genie’s aunt
Bennington Beauford - settler farmer + owner of Beauford Farm and Estate
Beatrice Beit-Beauford - heiress of Beauford Farm and Estate
Kuki Segwick/Coetzee/Carmichael - Beatrice’s best friend
Emil Coetzee - head of Domestic Affairs; Kuki’s husband
Mordechai Gatiro (C10) - operative of Domestic Affairs; Minenhle’s partner
Thandi Hadebe/Masuku - lives on Beauford Farm and Estate; Marcus + Krystle’s mother + Genie’s
adoptive mother
Marcus Masuku - Thandi + Dingani’s son; Genie’s friend
Jestina Nxumalo - lives on Beauford Farm and Estate
Dingani Masuku - Thandi’s husband: Marcus + Krystle’s father + Genie’s adoptive father
Krystle (Chris) Masuku - Thandi and Dingani’s daughter; Genie’s adoptive sister
Eunice Masuku - Dingani’s mother
Bhekithemba Nyathi - journalist @ The Chronicle
Cosmos Nyathi - Bhekithemba’s grandfather
The Man Himself - Head: The Organisation (took over from Emil)
Valentine Tanaka - chief registrar @ The Organisation
Vida de Villiers (Jesus) - street dweller; Genie’s partner
David - educated street dweller
Goliath - street child + gang leader of The Survivors
The Survivors - gang of street children
Matilda - housekeeper: The House That Jack Built
Stefanos- gardener: The House That Jack Built
Dr Prisca Mambo - Genie’s doctor
Esme Masuku - Marcus’s wife
Xander Dangerfield - vet: animal rescue shelter
The War Veterans - current occupiers of Beauford Farm and Estate
Mr Mendelsohn- undertaker
,THEMES:
Self-hood + Love + Lost
Self is something that is constantly being negotiated through the different relations that we have
We remember people differently because they bring different aspects and play different roles in our
lives
LOVE: Genie + Vida
● met during a time of reduction
● seen as unvalued members of society (HIV positive + street dweller)
○ HIV misinformation spread easily and so fear ruled how the illness was viewed
○ because they were able to accept one another in their entireties, they had the ability
to be free and live lives that mattered because they loved one another
● Vida = artist that presents a threat to the powers of The Man Himself
○ Vida’s art had imagination and creativity which is uncontrollable by The Man
Himself as it is an intangible thing that The Man Himself cannot buy to possess
● Genie has the knowledge of being “someone who had lived a life that mattered”
○ Her strong sense of self + the fact that she can hold onto herself means she can find
love in such a devastating time
● Their love suggests that they can fight against being reduced to just a body or a statistic
● Share their histories and hide nothing from each other (the honesty frees them)
○ “They had no choice but to accept each other as they were… It was a liberation”
MARCUS:
● Character most transformed by Genie’s death
○ Finally wakes up from his childhood dream of living together and having a family on
Beauford Farm and Estate
○ “It is in that moment that Marcus realises that he has been holding on to something
that Genie let go of a long time ago”
● Her death makes him confront the violent past that both he and his family have been
denying for their entire lives
○ “My letting go of you is my way of loving you”
○ “he had loved the sunflowers only because Genie loved them”
, Feminist/Feminine
Woman-centred
● Strong woman
○ Genie
■ still manages to live a full life of happiness after contracting HIV
■ potential rape by sojas
○ Prudence
■ raises two children without the help of her husband
■ teaches her children to have character
■ in comparison to her husband she has lots of determination and is
strong-willed. Her husband is a charmer
○ Eunice
■ reports her husband to Emil Coetzee so that she can save herself and Dingani
○ Thandi
■ to an extent - she makes a living for herself after being drowned in a pit
latrine
■ marries Dingani
○ Jestina
■ saves Genie from Beauford Farm and Estate
○ Minenhle
■ Never gives up her brother’s name during the investigation and therefore
gets heavily abused
■ Marries her abuser
Creativity and Imagination
ART:
Successful works of art transport us and gives a sense of belonging as we feel that we are
collaborating with the artist to create something beautiful and wonderful
Art allows us to fly and transports + inspires people
● Golide Gumede
○ Builds a giant pair of wings that inspires awe in his supporters who watch him
○ creates fear/envy/jealousy out of The Man Himself
○ Builds it so his wife can fly to Nashville Tennessee to pursue her singing talents
○ Wants to show that Africans can be successful, inspiring, innovative and radical
people
● Elizabeth Nyoni
○ Musician who believes her talents deserve to find their way to Nashville Tennessee
● Vida de Villiers
○ sculptor creating art out of scrap metal who becomes world-famous
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