The Story of an African Farm

Content Warning: This section mentions death and suicide.

“The full African moon poured down its light from the blue sky into the wide, lonely plain. The dry, sandy earth, with its coating of stunted ‘karroo’ bushes a few inches high, the low hills that skirted the plain, the milk-bushes with their long, finger-like leaves, all were touched by a weird and almost oppressive beauty as they lay in the white light.”

The opening of the novel devotes considerable attention to the setting, which will influence the development of the characters and the movement of the plot. Under the moonlight, the farm is beautiful but also somewhat unreal, suggesting the innocence/ignorance from which the characters will emerge. The chapter’s title, “Shadows From Childlife,” emphasizes the motif of light and darkness, framing the characters as obscured in shadow and distant in time.

“‘And you do not need to. When you are seventeen this Boer-woman will go; you will have this farm and everything that is upon it for your own; but I,’ said Lyndall, ‘will have nothing. I must learn.’”

Lyndall tells Em why she must have an education: She stands to inherit nothing, and she wishes to be independent. Her only recourse is to go away to school, where she will broaden her horizons and establish her prospects. However, her efforts are thwarted by the limited educational opportunities available to women, especially in the colonies.

“Very tenderly the old man looked at him. He saw not the bloated body nor the evil face of the man; but, as it were, under deep disguise and fleshly concealment, the form that long years of dreaming had made very real to him.”

Otto gazes upon the sleeping form of Bonaparte Blenkins, who has shown up at the farm worse for wear. Instead of intuiting that Bonaparte harbors dishonorable intentions, Otto sees what his Christian beliefs lead him to see: a weary stranger in need of care or even a Christ figure to whom he can minister.