Short Stories - The Lemon Orchard analysis

The story 'The Lemon Orchard' was written by Alex La Guma in 1962, and is set in South Africa at the same time it was written, when South Africa was having political issues.

The setting of the story is South Africa, in the 1960s, and it is set in a lemon orchard at night, and it is very cold apparently. The period South Africa is going through is called the Apartheid, which is a racist system that relied on the splitting up of colored people, and white people.

There are 5 characters in total (assumed); 1 of these is a ‘colored’ captive, who has been taken from his home, still in his pyjamas, and he is being ‘escorted’ by 4 local people, who are treating him badly, and appear to be about to beat him, or even kill him. He is a well-educated school teacher, and has come to work in South Africa. He has been taken from his house for supposedly insulting a white Minister, and he has been punished before for bad behavior. The other 4 men are all local men, presumably, and are not known by name. One, the leader, is carrying a shotgun, one, the lamp holder, is at the front of the party, and the other two are mocking the colored man.

The main story of the Lemon Orchard takes place in a lemon orchard in South Africa, and starts off with a description of the setting, and about how the party is complaining about how dark it is, and how cold it is. They are taking a captive, a colored man, into this lemon orchard, and are going to presumably punish him. They proceed on further into the lemon orchard, and they mock this ‘colored’ man, and physically abuse him. They are taking him into the lemon orchard for a punishment, as a course of his actions, which he was said to have insulted a white minister, and when the Apartheid government was around, this was seen as disgraceful. He had already been beaten up before, and now it seems that they may even kill him. We do not know what happens to him though, and at the end, the 4 men accompanying him are talking about a dog, that is barking.

The styles of this story are quite racist based, and the whole story relies on this ‘colored’ man being physically and verbally abused by these local men, who are out to beat him, or even kill him. Also, these men, local to the area, speak English in the story, but they also throw Africaans words into their dialect, such as Kaffir, or Oom. But these men speak mostly English throughout the story. The language is also quite descriptive, a huge part of this story is descriptions of the night, the scenery, the temperature, the actions towards the ‘colored’ man, etc..

The themes of this story are also racist, and are taken from the daily life in the 1960s from South Africa. They associate the era with that of the Apartheid government, and how it divided the community between the privileged white-skinned locals, and the ‘colored’ people, who were often beaten, and attacked. This also shows what the white locals thought of themselves, as they obviously liked to beat these ‘colored’ men, and make themselves feel more dominant than these foreigners.