The Train From Rhodesia - TextWord

1 The Train came out of the red horizonand bore down toward them over the sin-gle straight stationmaster came out of his lit-tle brick station with its pointed chaletroof, feeling the creases in his serge* uni- form in his legs as well. A stir of pre-paredness rippled through the squattingnative vendors waiting in the dust; theface of a carved wooden animal, eternal-ly surprised, stuck out of a sack. The sta-tionmaster s barefoot children wanderedover. From the gray mud huts with theuntidy heads that stood within a decorat-ed mud wall, chickens, and dogs withtheir skin stretched like parchment overtheir bones, followed the piccanins*down to the track.

2 The flushed and per-spiring west cast a reflection, faint, with-out heat, upon the station, upon the tinshed marked Goods, upon the walledkraal,* upon the gray tin house of the sta-tionmaster and upon the sand, thatlapped all around, from sky to sky, cast lit-1008 IMPLICATIONS OF LITERATURE / UNIT SEVENtle rhythmical cupsof shadow, so thatthe sand becamethe sea, andclosed over thechildren s blackfeet softly andwithout station-master s wife satbehind themesh of herveranda. Aboveher head the hunk of asheep s carcass moved slightly,dangling in a current of Train called out along thesky; but there was no answer;and the cry hung on; I m I m coming.

3 The engine flared out now, big, whisk-ing a dwindling body behind it; the trackflared out to let it OF LITERATURE / UNIT SEVENThe TrainFrom RhodesiaNadine GordimerFOCUS: STREAM-OF-CONSCIOUSNESSTECHNIQUEWhat does the phrase squatting native ven-dors waiting in the dust tell the reader? learn that the vendors selltheir wares only to people who areon the Train . The vendors are clear-ly waiting patiently for the Train sarrival. They have no other image does thesand became the sea convey? sense of vastness is conveyed,giving the impression that the sta-tion is an island in a sea of literary techniqueis used in the descriptionof the Train as it entersthe station?

4 A. Personificationis used in Thetrain called out along the sky, andin whisking a dwindling bodybehind it. Note thepowerful impact of the first does the phrase squatting native vendors waiting in the dust tell the reader?serge a durable twilled woollen or worsted (offensive) small black a traditional African village of huts, typically enclosed by a fence. ELPFUL EFINITIONSWhat image does the sandbecame the sea convey?What literary technique is used in the description of the Train as itenters the station? Point out to students the subtle techniques used by Gordimer to create the setting. The fact thatthe dogs are malnourished indicates the extreme poverty of their Train FROM RHODESIA1009 THE Train FROM RHODESIA1009 Creaking, jerking, jostling, gasping,the Train filled the , let me see that one theyoung woman curved her body furtherout of the corridor window.

5 Missus?smiled the old boy, looking at the crea-tures he held in his hand. From a pieceof string on his gray finger hung a tinywoven basket; he lifted it, , no, she urged, leaning down towardhim, across the height of the Train ,toward the man in the piece of old rug;that one, that one, her hand command-ed. It was a lion, carved out of soft drywood that looked like sponge cake;heraldic, black and white, with impres-sionistic detail burnt in. The old manheld it up to her still smiling, not fromthe heart, but at the customer. Betweenits Vandyke teeth, in the mouth openedin an endless roar too terrible to beheard, it had a black tongue.

6 Look, saidthe young husband, if you don t mind!And round the neck of the thing, a pieceof fur (rat? rabbit? meerkat?*); a realmane, majestic, telling you somehowthat the artist had delight in the up and down the length of thetrain in the dust the artists sprang,walking bent, like performing animals,the better to exhibit the fantasy heldtoward the faces on the Train . Buck,*startled and stiff, staring with roundblack and white eyes. More lions, stand-ing erect, grappling with strange, thin,elongated warriors who clutched spearsand showed no fear in their slits of much, they asked from the Train ,how much?Give me penny, said the little oneswith nothing to sell.

7 The dogs went andsat, quite still, under the dining car,where the Train breathed out the smell ofmeat cooking with man passed beneath the arch ofreaching arms meeting gray-black andwhite in the exchange of money for thestaring wooden eyes, the stiff wooden legssticking up in the air; went along under thevoices and the bargaining, interrogatingthe wheels. Past the dogs; glancing up atthe dining car where he could stare at thefaces, behind glass, drinking beer, two bytwo, on either side of a uniform railwayvase with its pale dead flower. Right to theend, to the guard s van, where the station-master s children had just collected theirmother s two loaves of bread; to theengine itself, where the stationmaster andthe driver stood talking against the steam-ing complaint of the resting man called out to them, some-thing loud and joking.

8 They turned tolaugh, in a twirl of steam. The two chil-dren careered over the sand, clutchingthe bread, and burst through the iron gateand up the path through the garden inwhich nothing drew themselves in at thecorridor windows and turned into com-partments to fetch money, to call some-one to look. Those sitting inside lookedup: suddenly different, caged faces, boxedin, cut off, after the contact of was an orange a piccanin wouldlike .. What about that chocolate? It wasn t very nice ..A young girl had collected a handful ofthe hard kind, that no one liked, out of thechocolate box, and was throwing them tothe dogs, over at the dining car.

9 But thehens darted in, and swallowed the choco-lates, incredibly quick and accurate, beforethey had even dropped in the dust, and theWhat effect is achievedby comparing the artiststo performing ani-mals ? How is this image extended? effect of the comparison isto dehumanize the artists. Sadly,the white people in the Train do notthink of them as wholly human. Theeffect is extended as the expres-sions and positions attributed tothe wooden animals and warriorsseem to be repeated in the motionsand actions of the is the man interro-gating the wheels ? is clearly a railwayofficial, inspecting the wheels beforeallowing the Train to continue its is implied by thephrase, the garden inwhich nothing grew ?

10 Become aware of theextreme poverty of the are the passengersdescribed as suddenlydifferent, caged faces,boxed in, cut off ? passengers are suddenlyseen as zoo animals, cut off fromthe vibrant life outside. The differ-ence between black and white,privileged and underprivileged, isclearly a small southern African mongoose. buck here, antelope. ELPFUL EFINITIONSWhat effect is achieved by comparing the artists to performing animals ?How is this imageextended?Why is the man interrogating thewheels ?Why are the passengers describedas suddenly different, caged faces,boxed in, cut off ?What is implied by the phrase, the garden in whichnothing grew ?