Jump and Other Stories

Every story in Jump and Other Stories is set in or around South Africa during apartheid, an era of systematic segregation in the region. During this time, the affluent White suburbs adopted extra security measures to protect themselves from a volatile political environment. Gordimer makes repeated references to fences and barriers in her stories, using them to enhance her commentary on the harmful effects of racism and excessive security. The stories are filled with revolutionaries, like in “Some Are Born to Sweet Delight,” “Comrades,” “Home,” “Safe Houses,” and “Amnesty,” painting a world in the middle of social upheaval. At the same time, stories like “Once Upon a Time,” “The Moment Before the Gun Went Off,” and “Keeping Fit” show characters making concerted efforts to barricade themselves from that unrest. Barricades obstruct and compartmentalize a person’s view and allow a person to shut out parts of the world they don’t want to see. However, within those barricades, the wealthy White characters still aren’t safe from the outside world. The little boy dies in “Once Upon a Time,” killed by his family’s own barbed wire. Marais accidently kills his own son in “The Moment Before the Gun Went Off,” and the runner in “Keeping Fit” is nearly killed by a police-funded gang.