Jump and Other Stories

Racism causes conflict in every story in Jump and Other Stories, with a particular focus on apartheid in South Africa. Gordimer addresses racism with seriousness by crafting her stories with somberness, tragedy, and death. The first story, “Jump,” references the slaughtering of innocents and young girls being forced into sexual encounters with soldiers. The main character, a racist soldier, is aware of the atrocities and accepts them in the pursuit of his counterrevolution. “Once Upon a Time” tells the tale of a boy’s death, caused by his family’s fear of poor Black people. As the family in “The Ultimate Safari” journeys through a safari park, they must hide from the White tourists because they know they’ll be sent back, rather than helped, because they are Black.

“Some Are Born to Sweet Delight” ends with the untimely death of Vera and her unborn child. Rad is the killer, and his hate stems from being mistreated for so long: “claiming the destruction of both planes in some complication of vengeance […] no one outside the initiated could understand” (88). “The Moment Before the Gun Went Off” depicts a White father unable to mourn his bi-racial son.