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Monday, November 8, 2010

TEN DEFINITIONS OF ECONOMICS

1. According to Harper (2001), Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek οἰκονομία (oikonomia, "management of a household, administration") from οἶκος (oikos, "house") + νόμος (nomos, "custom" or "law"), hence "rules of the house(hold)".Current economic models emerged from the broader field of political economy in the late 19th century. A primary stimulus for the development of modern economics was the desire to use an empirical approach more akin to the physical sciences. (Clark, 1998).

2. Economics aims to explain how economies work and how economic agents interact. Economic analysis is applied throughout society, in business, finance and government, but also in crime, education, the family, health, law, politics, religion, social institutions, war, and science. The expanding domain of economics in the social sciences has been described as economic imperialism. (Iannaccone, L. R. 1998).

3. According to Allen (1977), economics is a Social science that analyzes and describes the consequences of choices made concerning scarce productive resources. Economics is the study of how individuals and societies choose to employ those resources: what goods and services will be produced, how they will be produced, and how they will be distributed among the members of society. Economics is customarily divided into microeconomics and macroeconomics. Of major concern to macroeconomists are the rate of economic growth, the inflation rate, and the rate of unemployment. Specialized areas of economic investigation attempt to answer questions on a variety of economic activity; they include agricultural economics, economic development, economic history, environmental economics, industrial organization, international trade, labour economics, money supply and banking, public finance, urban economics, and welfare economics. Specialists in mathematical economics and econometrics provide tools used by all economists. The areas of investigation in economics overlap with many other disciplines, notably history, mathematics, political science, and sociology.

4. Rutherford, (1996) opined that economics is a Study of the economy. Classic economics concentrates on how the forces of supply and demand allocate scarce product and service resources. Macroeconomics studies a nation or the world's economy as a whole, using data about inflation, unemployment and industrial production to understand the past and predict the future. Microeconomics studies the behavior of specific sectors of the economy, such as companies, industries, or households. Over the years, various schools of economic thought have gained prominence, including Keynesian Economics, Monetarism and Supply-Side Economics.

5. The study of the relation of available scarce means to supply for a proposed end; economists assume that people have wants and needs, and then study how societies are organized to supply them, trying to establish whether one method is better than another. Micro-economics explains how demand and supply affect prices, wages, rentals, and interest rates. Macro-economics focuses on the aggregate (large-scale) demand for goods and services, and especially on the relationship between unemployment and the economy. Marxist economics sees the economy as a reflection of the history and sociology of a society. In particular, it focuses on the historical evolution of, and the conflict between, classes.

6. economics, study of how human beings allocate scarce resources to produce various commodities and how those commodities are distributed for consumption among the people in society (see distribution). The essence of economics lies in the fact that resources are scarce, or at least limited, and that not all human needs and desires can be met. How to distribute these resources in the most efficient and equitable way is a principal concern of economists. The field of economics has undergone a remarkable expansion in the 20th cent. as the world economy has grown increasingly large and complex. Today, economists are employed in large numbers in private industry, government, and higher education (see economic planning). Many subjects, such as political science and sociology, which were once regarded as part of the study of economics, have today become separate disciplines, although the study of any one generally implies a working knowledge of the other

7. "Economics is the study of people in the ordinary business of life." (Marshal, 1890)

8. "Economics is the science which studies human behavior as a relationship between given ends and scarce means which have alternative uses." (Robbins, 1932)
9. Economics is the "study of how societies use scarce resources to produce valuable commodities and distribute them among different people." (Paul A. Samuelson 1948)

10. economics includes the study of labor, land, and investments, of money, income, and production, and of taxes and government expenditures. Economists seek to measure well-being, to learn how well-being may increase overtime, and to evaluate the well-being of the rich and the poor. The most famous book in economics is the Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of The Wealth of Nations written by Adam Smith, and published in 1776 in Scotland.

11. Mark Blaug (2007) defines economics is the branch of social science that deals with the production and distribution and consumption of goods and services and their management.
Economics therefore is the social science that examines how people choose to use limited or scarce resources in attempting to satisfy their unlimited wants. It also studies how the forces of supply and demand allocate scarce resources

Monday, August 30, 2010

tragic heroism using oedipus the king from greek theatre

introduction
a tragic hero has the potential for greatness but is doomed to fail. he is trapped in a si tuation where he cannot win. he makes some sort of mistake, and this causes his fal l from greatness. a tragic hero is usually born into nobility, and falls because of a certain flaw such as pride. sometimes too much self-confidence leads to disaster as in the classic novel oedipus the king the pride that oedipus has causes him to make the numerous errors of judgment.
oedipus the king - a tragic hero
oedipus the king is a story of trials and tribulations for a man who believed he had it all. being known as the king of thebes that had saved the town from a killer sphinx did more than just boost his ego, it made him king. with the sudden fame and glory oedipus became a person of high status that was admired and envied by many of the townspeople. oedipus the king can be seen as a tragic hero which is defined as a person of high status who experiences a downfall due to their tragic flaw.
oedipus was considered a high society figure in two ways, being the heir to the city of cornith and being the king of thebes. thinking he was born to the king and queen of cornith, oedipus was the future heir of the throne. this thought alone made oedipus feel superior and more noble than the regular townsman. the second reason that oedipus was considered of high status is because he solved the riddle of the sphinx, saved thebes from disaster, and claimed the throne of former king lauis. oedipus was the only person to come remotely close to solving the riddle of the sphinx, therefore many looked at him as a superior being. oedipus knew that the townspeople held him with such high regard and so he took advantage of that. when one feels as if they are superior to everyone it can cause a lot of damage. being considered a tragic hero is not something that most people would want to be called. oedipus could have avoided the tragic hero fate by simply listening to his intuition and paying closer attention to the details of his own life. situations may be avoided easily if the time is taken to evaluate the situation as a whole and not just evaluating its pieces. oedipus the king is a perfect example of how living life for the greed of ones self can lead to the demise and destruction of loved ones.
the herendous events that took place in oedipus' life are more dramatic than one ever wishes to experience. the downfall begins with the plague of thebes. the entire extistense of life in thebes is threatened until the murderer of lauis is reveled. oedipus vows to seek out the killer and get sweet revenge. tiresas the blind prophet bust oedipus' bubble with the news that he is not what he seems to be. tiresas can see things clearly even though he is blind.

narcissistic oedipus – tragic hero
in the play oedipus rex by sophocles, oedipus is a classic tragic hero. according to aristotle's definition, oedipus is a tragic hero because he is a king whose life falls apart when he finds out his life story. there are a number of characteristics described by aristotle that identify a tragic hero. for example, a tragic hero must cause his own downfall; his fate is not deserved, and his punishment exceeds the crime; he also must be of noble stature and have greatness. oedipus is in love with his idealized self. all of the above characteristics make oedipus a tragic hero according to aristotle's ideas about tragedy.
using oedipus as an ideal model, aristotle says that a tragic hero must be an important or influential man who makes an error in judgment, and who must then suffer the consequences of his actions. those actions are seen when oedipus forces teiresias to reveal his destiny and his father's name. when teiresias tries to warn him by saying "this day will give you parents and destroy you" (sophocles line 428), oedipus still does not care and proceeds with his questioning. the tragic hero must learn a lesson from his errors in judgment and become an example to the audience of what happens when great men fall from their lofty social or political positions.
according to psychologists, a person who is great, who is admired everywhere, and needs this admiration to survive, has one of the extreme forms of narcissism, which is grandiosity. grandiosity can be seen when a person admires himself, his qualities, such as beauty, cleverness, and talents, and his success and achievements greatly. if any one of these illusions is lost, then a severe depression could follow. those actions happen when the herdsman tells oedipus who his mother is, and oedipus replies "oh, oh, then everything has come out true. light, i shall not look on you again. i have been born where i should not be born, i have been married where i should not marry, i have killed whom i should not kill; now all is clear" (sophocles lines 1144).
oedipus's decision to pursue his questioning is wrong; his grandiosity blinded him and, therefore, his fate is not deserved, but it is far beyond his control. a prophecy is foretold to laius, the father of oedipus, that the destiny of oedipus is a terrible one beyond his control. but when it is prophesized to oedipus, he sets forth from the city of his foster parents in order to prevent this terrible fate from occurring. oedipus's destiny is not deserved because he is being punished for his parent's actions.
his birth parents seek the advice of the delphi oracle, who recommends that they should not have any children. when the boy is born, laius is overcome with terror when he remembers the oracle. oedipus is abandoned by his birth parents and is denied their love. when a child is denied the love of parents then physiological problems often result. the birth of oedipus presets his destiny to result in tragedy even though he is of noble birth.
in tragedies, protagonists are usually of the nobility to make their falls seem greater. oedipus just happens to be born a prince, and he has saved a kingdom that is rightfully his from the sphinx. his destiny is to be of noble stature from birth, which is denied to him by his parents, but given back by the sphinx. his nobility deceived him as well as his reflection, since it shows only his perfect, wonderful face and not his inner world, his pain, his history. when he relies on his status, he is blind, not physically, but emotionally. he is blind in his actions; therefore he does not see that the questioning would bring him only misery.

later, after his self-inflicted blinding, oedipus sees his actions as wrongdoing when he says "what use are my eyes to me, who could never - see anything pleasant again?" (sophocles line 1293) and that blindness does not necessarily have to be physical as we can se when he says, "if i had sight, i know not with what eyes i would have looked" (sophocles line 1325). in the play oedipus rex, sophocles portrays the main character, oedipus, as a good-natured person who has bad judgment and is frail. oedipus makes a few fatal decisions and is condemned to profound suffering because of them. aristotle is correct in that oedipus' misfortune happens because of his tragic flaw. if he hadn't been so judgmental or narcissistic he would never have killed king laius and called teiresias a liar. in the beginning, teiresias is simply trying to ease him slowly into the truth; but oedipus is too proud to see any truths, and he refuses to believe that he could have been responsible for such a horrible crime. he learns a lesson about life and how there is more to it than just one person's fate.
the roles and relationship of choruses with the hero.
in ancient greek plays, there was also the chorus. the choruses were a group of men, who played roles of either male or female characters, such as the elders, old women. they spoke together, and their speeches often made comments on what's going on in the play. this particular feature the chorus in the play oedipus has three basic functions. firstly, to act as bystanders throughout the play, observing what goes on, reacting and offering opinions at regular intervals throughout the play.
chorus discharges some broad functions in all classical tragedies. the structure of a greek tragedy is determined by the chorus. after the prologue, it is with the entry of the chorus that a greek tragedy begins. various episodes are also marked off by choric odes. the conclusion of a greek tragedy occurs with the exode or the exit song of the chorus. it is the function of the chorus to comment on actions and events. it also sometimes questions the characters. its standard role is that of the moderator. at times it represents the view-point of the common spectator and in some cases it represents the view-point of the dramatist himself.

the functions of the chorus are very well performed in oedipus rex. in the very first ode the chorus depicts the horror of the plague and expresses an apprehension about the message from the oracle of delphi. other odes comment on the action that has taken place after the last ode and build an atmosphere appropriate to that stage of the play. it plays the role of a peace-maker between the king and creon and succeeds in getting the king’s pardon for the latter. after the exit of teiresias it comments on the terrible predictions which teiresias has made but shows determination to support the king. its most significant response is when oedipus and jocasta have expressed irreverent thoughts against the oracles. at many other times also they reflect the dominant mood and help to deepen it. when oedipus imagines that he is the son of the goodness of luck, the chorus, immediately sing that their master, oedipus, might be the son of apollo.

in the fifth or last choric ode in oedipus rex, the chorus reflects the dejection of oedipus and says that all the generations of moral man add up to nothing. this ode must not be regarded as reflecting the final mood and impression of the play, for the impression is as much of the greatness of the human spirit as of the insignificance of man and the transitoriness of his happiness. this ode must, therefore, be looked upon only as reflecting a final judgment of it. oedipus remains forceful even in his downfall; in a sense he is still heroic.

the chorus takes part in the dialogues also. when oedipus consults them about ending the plague in the city, they express disappointment that the oracle had not guided them about the identity of laius’ murderer. they also tell him what they know about the murder of their previous king and its circumstances. when creon, learning that the king has accused him of treason, comes on the stage he talks to the chorus, who tell him that the king’s accusation was probably made in the heat of anger. creon asked if the king looked absolutely serious while making the charge and they rightly say that it is not for them to look into the eyes of his master when he speaks. when oedipus has almost passed a sentence upon creon, jocasta arrives on the scene and first talks to the chorus. they request her to settle the difference between the two men. they are worried when they see jocasta going into the palace in a very dejected mood, and they give expression to their apprehension. oedipus asks them about the shepherd who gave the infant to the corinthian, they answer that his queen would be able to answer the question better. they sympathize with oedipus when they see him after he has blinded himself. it is clear, thus, that the chorus never takes a direct hand in the action. it does not consist only of spectators but influences the action in various subtle ways.

the contribution of the chorus in oedipus rex is considerable. they link the play with common humanity. in some sense they are often in the position of the ideal spectator. they fill in the gaps in the action when no other character is there on the stage. they add to it the element of melody which must have been one of the attractions of greek tragedy. they provide an appropriate shift between the titanic, heroic figure of oedipus and the mass of common humanity represented by the two shepherds in oedipus res. the tragedy of oedipus and its relevance to common life is very well stressed by the chorus in its exit ode or exode.
how has the respective choruses enhances our understanding or appreciation of the dramatic test
oedipus the king is a dynamic tale, expertly making use of all assets available to forge and shape a truly spellbinding play. as sophocles weaves the plot throughout the tragedy, he manages to increase the tension and pace of the story through the development of all assets, particularly with regards to the role of the chorus. in the beginning, the chorus attempts to position itself in the audience’s mind as the population of thebes, and functions largely as petitioners, relatively indecisive to the plot. the play moves on, though, and by the middle third, the chorus begins to act as a moderator, providing a sober perspective on the heated arguments that rage throughout, attempting to infuse the arguing parties with the spirit of reconciliation, or at least keep the tempers from taking control of the characters’ actions. as the end approaches, the chorus does indeed render judgment upon oedipus, condemning him, in the eyes of the audience and himself as the cause of the plague of thebes. the chorus of oedipus the king starts the play as mere petitioners, seemingly unimportant in the grand plot swirling about them, but gradually become more involved, taking active roles in the progress of the story, until the climax.
in the beginning, they have found themselves threatened by the plague that has descended on thebes, and so open the play by petitioning for help. there is no sword of thought which will protect us" (12). here, at the end of all things, the chorus has finally realized its potential as a major and integral part of the plot, and a prime standard bearer of the ongoing themes, particular the respect to pity view of oedipus, that really makes this story such a tragedy. by the middle third, the chorus plays a small role as mediator. to a certain extent, the chorus does manage to accomplish this goal, keeping the parties from breaking into violent disagreement, though reconciliation proves to be beyond the powers of the chorus. men of all ages-some not yet strong enough to fly far from the nest, others heavy with age, priests, of zeus in my case, and these are picked men from the city's youth" (2). this transformation from the meek fear of the opening third, to the judgmental pity of the final third is a major theme progressed by the chorus, proved as they lament oedipus:o suffering dreadful for mankind to see, most dreadful of all i ever saw. in the beginning, they serve only as respectful observers, mindful of their station but grieved by the darkness that has befallen thebes. the evolution of the chorus throughout is certainly quite profound, bringing together the many varied elements of the story into one dynamic play, lending authenticity and genuine distress to the dire straits of tragic oedipus, once king of mighty thebes. i have many questions to ask you, much i wish to know; my eyes are drawn towards you-but i cannot bear to look. it is the petitioning of the chorus that first brings to light the fit of evil that befalls the city, and sets oedipus on his doomed quest to solve the problems.
conclusions
oedipus is in love with his idealized self, but neither the grandiose nor the depressive narcissus can really love himself (miller 67). all of the above characteristics make oedipus a tragic hero according to aristotle's ideas about tragedy, and a narcissist. using oedipus as an ideal model, aristotle says that a tragic hero must be an important or influential man who makes an error in judgment, and who must then suffer the consequences of his actions. those actions are seen when oedipus forces teiresias to reveal his destiny and his father's name. when teiresias tries to warn him by saying i say that you and your most dearly loved are wrapped together in a hideous sin, blind to the horror of it (sophocles 428). oedipus still does not care and proceeds with his questioning as if he did not understand what teiresias was talking about. the tragic hero must learn a lesson from his errors in judgment and become an example to the audience of what happens when great men fall from their lofty social or political positions.
oedipus is abandoned by his birth parents and is denied their love, which is what results in what miller calls depression as denial of the self. depression results from a denial of one's own emotional reactions, and we cannot really love if we deny our truth, the truth about our parents and caregivers as, well as about ourselves (miller 43). the birth of oedipus presets his destiny to result in tragedy even though he is of noble birth. in tragedies, protagonists are usually of the nobility that makes their falls seem greater. oedipus just happens to be born a prince, and he has saved a kingdom that is rightfully his from the sphinx. his destiny is to be of noble stature from birth, which is denied to him by his parents, but given back by the sphinx. his nobility deceived him as well as his reflection, since it shows only his perfect, wonderful face and not his inner world, his pain, his history (miller 66). when he relies on his status, he is blind, not physically, but emotionally. he is blind in his actions; therefore he does not see that the questioning would bring him only misery. later, after his self- inflicted blinding, oedipus sees his actions as wrongdoing when he says what use are my eyes to me, who could never - see anything pleasant again? (sophocles 1293) and that blindness does not necessarily have to be physical as we can se when he says, if i had sight, i know not with what eyes i would have looked (sophocles 1325). in the play oedipus rex, sophocles portrays the main character, oedipus, as a good- natured person who has bad judgment and is frail.
oedipus makes a few fatal decisions and is condemned to profound suffering because of them. agreeing with aristotle that oedipus' misfortune happens because of his tragic flaw. if he hadn't been so judgmental or narcissistic, as miller would characterize a personality like oedipus, he would never have killed king laius and called teiresias a liar. in the beginning, teiresias is simply trying to ease him slowly into the truth; but oedipus is too proud to see any truths, and he refuses to believe that he could have been responsible for such a horrible crime.
references
herodotus, in his histories (book 1.32), attributes this maxim to the 6th-century athenian statesman solon.
dawe, r.d. ed. 2006 sophocles: oedipus rex, revised edition. cambridge : cambridge university press. p.1
sir richard jebb in his commentary. cf. jeffrey rusten's 1990 commentary. greece & rome, 2nd ser., vol. 13, no. 1 (apr., 1966), pp. 37-49
sophocles. sophocles i: oedipus the king, oedipus at colonus, antigone. 2nd ed. grene, david and lattimore, richard, eds. chicago: university of chicago, 1991.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

WHY DO WE STUDY CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL ANALYSIS

INTRODUCTION
Contemporary political analysis aims to examine the contemporary political analysis by looking at the various conceptual components involved with it. the course starts by discussing definitions of politics. it look at the nature of politics and how its very definition can underline the various possible approached to political analysis. From this initial discussion, contemporary political analysis spends two classes discussing classical and mainstream analytical approaches from which political analysis are made.
The course then examine the debate between structure and agency, which often shapes how explanations can focus on political actors, or their surrounding context, to understand a certain political event. Discussions, then, turn towards how analyses can be made on political changes. It discusses how explanations are built over transformative political changes, such as democratization.
An important relevant topic to political analysis is the notion of power. For this reason we study contemporary political analysis to examine the various conceptions of power, deriving from mainstream and non-mainstream research and their implications to the analysis of politics. From this discussion of power, we will turn to post-modern approach. Post-modern thought has created important challenges to social science in general. We examine these challenges and look at their effects on political analysis. From there, we then engage into discussions of the conceptual framework of materialism and idealism, examining the roles of ideas and material circumstances as determinant factors to understand political events.
The last two classes in contemporary political analysis are devoted to two non-mainstream contemporary approaches to political analysis. The first one, discourse analysis, takes discourse as a concept to understand how politics is possible in contemporary post-modern conditions. The second one focus on how sovereignty is maintained in contemporary world through the imposition of a global logic based on capital relations. Contemporary political analysis will compare and contrast these last two approaches, examining their claims and limitations.

OBJECTIVES AND REASONS WHY WE STUDY CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL ANALYSIS
(1) The course aims to familiarize students with a number of key approaches to the study of politics. Students will be introduced to a range of approaches and encouraged to reflect on the opportunities for and limits of independent research presented by each approach.
(2) The course aims to help students develop an understanding of what is involved in carrying out independent research in the fields of political science and political theory. The course will guide students through the basic problems of research design in political science/theory, focusing primarily on the problem of identifying a researchable project.

Other reasons why we study contemporary political analysis include:
 To be able to understand some of the key approaches to political analysis
 To introduce keys concepts and themes in the analysis of politics.
 To teach how to analyze political phenomenon from different perspectives.
 To examine and discuss theoretical tools, with which one can make critical analysis of politics.
 The most important objective of the course is to expose students to contemporary approaches of political analysis, in order to facilitate their entrance at graduate level.
 To be able to appreciate the strengths and weaknesses of a variety of perspectives commonly employed in political analysis
 To be able to assess the applicability of various approaches to a variety of research questions.
 To have engaged in independent research.
 To introduce a variety of modeling strategies that you will see applied in contemporary political science literature. Politics as process has both institutional and non-institutional dimensions. The purpose of this course is to explain the non-institutional political processes and thereby to sensitize the students on informal processes of politics.

REFERENCES
Colin Hay, Political Analysis: A Critical Introduction (New York: Palgrave, 2002). Milton Friedman, “The Methodology of Positive Economics,” in Essays in Positive
Economics (Chicago 1962), 3-43
Maurice Lageux, “Friedman’s `Instrumentalism’ and Constructive Empiricism in
Economics,” Theory and Decision 37: 147-74, 1994
Morris P. Fiorina, “Formal Models in Political Science,” AJPS, 19:1 (February 1975), 133-59
Doug Dion, “The Robustness of the Structure-Induced Equilibrium,” AJPS, 36:2 (May 1992), 462-83
Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and David Lalman, “Domestic Opposition and Foreign War,” APSR 84:3 (September 1990), 747-65
Sanford Gordon and Gregory Huber, “On the Electoral Incentives of Criminal Prosecutors,” March 1, 2001 ms

THE THEME OF MINE BOY

Disease, most often imagined in the past as an external invasion of bacteria or viruses, can also be imagined as "dis-ease," a set of political, economic, and social imbalances that disturb the well-being of people's lives. Today, these imbalances would be termed psychological and psychosomatic diseases, but in a colonial arena, such as early twentieth-century South Africa, these forms of disease were inadvertently perpetuated and ignored. In addition, certain somatic diseases, such as tuberculosis, introduced into South Africa by the Europeans, had unforeseen and often fatal effects on the health of the natives. Tuberculosis, especially, became a peculiarly raced disease. Peter Abrahams fictionally recreates this area of colonial history in his 1946 novel, Mine Boy, which presents us with characters who negotiate the uncertain and often tragic terrain of colonial introduced and induced diseases. In particular, characters confront and deal, as best they can, with somatic, psychological, and psychosomatic diseases in ways that highlight the racist society of colonial South Africa.
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A striking example of the effects of colonization, and especially with respect to the diseases it brought, can be seen in the case of South Africa. For instance, until the mid-nineteenth century, tuberculosis (hereafter TB) was unknown, and there is "much evidence to suggest that TB came to southern and central Africa with white colonisers" (de Beer 3). Before then, people had enough food, were healthy, and were not cramped into overcrowded spaces. Clearly something changed this situation. Gold was discovered on the Witwatersand in 1886, and the history of South Africa changed dramatically as did the history of TB (de Beer 3). The disease was introduced into South Africa by the Europeans at the end of the nineteenth century when miners from Europe flocked to the gold mines to get rich quickly; mining conditions exacerbated the proliferation of this insidious disease, which killed thousands of black South Africans. Today, TB is still one of the biggest killers of blacks in South Africa. (1) Other forms of disease appeared too. Due to the increasingly racist structures of the South African colony, psychological and psychosomatic diseases were common among the native population although the authorities never acknowledged these conditions as diseases.
Pinpointing a definition of disease is no easy matter as the very structure of the word "dis-ease" implies multiple kinds of disturbances that may not all be somatic. Traditionally, in the Western world, disease has been thought of as a bodily contraction of a bacterium or virus, or a condition induced by a genetic disorder or mutation, or the result of a malfunctioning organ. But it should be noted that "dis-ease" can manifest in somatic, psychosomatic, or psychological forms. Indeed, modern Western medicine has, since the latter part of the twentieth century, broadened the definition of disease to describe "any state, organic or psychic, real or imaginary, that disturbs a persons sense of well-being" (Dubos 32). Most important, many Western physicians now realize that when treating a "dis-eased" person, they must take into consideration, in addition to the somatic or physic disturbances, the social factors with which the patient lives, a practice, ironically, long used by traditional African healing systems. It appears, then, that disease is a somewhat slippery concept that could be induced by a plethora of lived conditions and could, perhaps, be defined in the following manner. Disease is a state of being that causes considerable, and often debilitating, distress that may result in a somatic, psychosomatic or psychological disorder; whatever the form of the "dis-ease," the disease itself disallows the sufferer the continuation of life as it was experienced before the affliction.
Peter Abrahams has certainly written an unsung novel here, which is devastatingly simple (in some places too simple), concentrating on the story of Xuma, a young man who has moved from the North of South Africa (Vrededorp) to the hate-filled apartheid world of Johannesburg. Filling it up with supporting characters which are rather cardboard (the black girl who dreams of being white, the drunken South Africans, the sympathetic white man) does not help, but nonetheless instead of spitefully showing us the huge hate Abrahams may hold for the apartheid system, we instead hear the story of Xuma coping in Jo'burg, with all the horrors being just there in the background. Abrahams does not emerge with a conclusion of black superiority and that whites should leave, but through Xuma, we very clearly see that both races should just get along. For anyone with a serious interest in apartheid, this book is a must
This story set in South Africa portrays apartheid through following the life of Xuma, a villager in search of a better life. Xuma first lived in Malay camp where he was offered accommodation by Leah on his first night in the city. After getting a job, he moves to his own house in Vrededorp which was still a slum as Malay camp.
the novel centers around the main character's growing awareness that without respect and a strong sense of self life is hallow and has little meaning. The book's central theme is that when Black or white South Africans view their racially different neighbors as another species, no social mobility or equality is possible and no change is possible.
Through all of this Abraham is able to paint a picture of the resilience of the people who lived with constant discrimination during the apartheid regime. Leah as a stout courageous woman who eked out a living through selling illicit brew. Dladla was a man who was bitter about Leah controlling him and betrays her to the police. Leah found out about it but before she could deal with Dladla, he was found dead in the bush stabbed in the back. Johannes, a strong well built miner, was a timid person who became bold and loud only when drunk. Daddy was never sober and died after being hit by a car. Xuma falls in love with Elizabeth, Leah’s beautiful niece, who doesn’t love him back as she seeks the white man’s way of life. Xuma constantly rejects Maisy who loves him. However, in the end he accepts her and promises to marry her as soon as he gets out of jail as Elizabeth left him. Leah gets sent to jail for nine months after being caught red handed with the illicit brew by the crafty policeman nicknamed the Fox who had been trying to catch her for a long time. She had managed to escape the police dragnet by bribing some policemen who kept her informed on police moves. Johannes and his white boss Chris died under the mine as they tried to prevent it from collapsing. Paddy O’Shea, Xuma’s boss sides with the blacks and is arrested when a riot breaks out in the mine. Xuma flees but later surrenders himself at the police station.
The paper explains how the novel centers around the main character's growing awareness that without respect and a strong sense of self life is hallow and has little meaning. The paper also discusses the book's central theme that when Black or white South Africans view their racially different neighbors as another species, no social mobility or equality is possible and no change is possible When Xuma moves to Johannesberg he is a naïve country boy, but the impact of harsh city life awakens him to the new ways and values of a racially different world.
His vision of a man "without color" a race less society, is shattered by the realities of his under privileged existence.