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Summary Road to Mecca Notes
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Summary of 12 pages for the course ENG1501 - Foundations in English Literary Studies at Unisa (Road to Mecca Notes)
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By: samc123 • 7 year ago
By: lynettestafford4 • 7 year ago
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P 77 in study guide is p 73 in book.P 31-31 is p 20
P 40 is p 30-31
P 33 is p 22
Road to Mecca Notes & Study Guide Exercises
Page 75
-Exercise
1. There are 3 characters in the play.
2. Helen Martins is the most important character because:
Helen, she is the protagonist of the play. The entire play is played out in Helen’s home. She is also
the reason Elsa comes to New Bethesda, to visit Helen because she is worried about her emotional
state. Helen is also the reason for Marius’s visits; he cares for her and tries to fit her into his world.
All of the characters gather at Helen’s home to discuss her emotional state and future.
3. The following character relate to Helen:
Elsa relates to Helen through her “Mecca” she sees it as Helen wants it to be seen and she has been
drawn to it from the first moment she saw it as she states “ Believe me Helen, when I saw your
“Mecca” for the first time, I just stood there and gaped.”(Page 22). To Elsa, Helen’s “Mecca” is a
miracle “…your little miracle of light and colour” page 23. Helen and Elsa also share trust between
each other, they are friends and share a passion for Helen’s art.
Marius relates to Helen through their friendship, the possibility of love and the history he has with
her. Marius cares for Helen and wants to be involved in her life and to ‘help’ her even if they do not
agree on her “Mecca” as Marius himself states “A true friendship should be able to accommodate a
difference of opinion.”(Page 44) Marius sees Helen the way he wants to see her and not for the
person she truly is.
4. Yes I think the play has a happy ending because all three characters have gotten closure on
aspects of their lives of which they were still unsure; they have all also come to conclusions about
their lives. Helen has realised that her “Mecca” is complete “My Mecca is finished…”page 74 she has
also finally stood up for herself against Marius, the church and the town who want to dictate her life.
Elsa opened up about the hardships she faced while she was away, she also learns to trust again
when she metaphorically tells Helen to catch her “Open your arms and catch me! I’m going to
jump!” page 76 this statement also refers back to a previous conversation between Helen and Elsa
about trust in which Elsa tells Helen a story about a father and a son and the lesson of trust (page
20) showing that Elsa truly puts he faith in Helen. Marius realises he has lost the battle to change
Helen back to the women she once was, and after years of trying he realises he must let her go and
move on as he states “ All these years it has always felt as if I could reach you. It seemed so
inevitable that I would, so right that we should find each other again and be together for what times
was left to us in the same world.” (page 69) But he also realises that Helen is happy in her world.
5. The general, human issue that the play is about is the preconceived ideas of cultures… (theme/
main idea)
Art vs. Religion: The church is against her “Mecca”, Helen chose her art over the church on the first
Sunday she chose to stay home and make her first owl and she understood that there would be
consequences for her actions but her art was more important to her se states in a conversation with
Marius “…But don’t think that missing church that Sunday was something I did lightly, Marius. You
don’t break the habit of the lifetime without realizing that life will never quite be the same again. “
(page 63)
Apartheid: The play is set in apartheid South-Africa. Elsa struggles to come to terms with the
situation, she is faced with an apartheid situation when a black farm workers wife was kicked of the
farm by the “baas” when her husband died and Elsa picked her and her baby up beside the road
hiking (page 7) She also encourages her students to freedom of speech and ends up with a hearing
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