Those of you who have read "The Age of Iron" by Coetzee, will you please think of a couple of ideas from the book?
1st: The homeless man that settles down with the starring character plays an important role in the story. Why do you think she lets him stay around?
2nd: Why does she get so involved in the story of her servant's child when he's killed? She even goes to the village where they live and is at risk of getting hurt. Why do you think she does that? Do you consider her a brave woman?
Any comment trying to answer these questions is very welcome. We will talk about more aspects of the book later on.
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About the first question, at the very beginning of the book she said to him that he couldn’t stay there. But she was in a very difficult situation: the doctor had told her that she had a cancer. Probably she felt lonely and she needed somebody near her; the presence of Mr. Vercueil was reassuring. And also, she wanted him for something very important: he had to send her writing to her daughter when she died.
About the second question, I think she was deeply worried about the social and political situation of her country. She thought that some young black people –like Bheki and his friend- were being used by some leaders to fight with violence against the political system of apartheid, loosing their lives. She was ashamed of her own country. For her, violence was not the better way; it had to be another solution. And she thought that, in this terrible time, it wasn’t enough to be a good person. It was necessary to be a hero.
I quite agree with José Mª about the reason why she wanted Mr. Vercueil to stay around. She didn't really care about his looks, his lack of hygiene or his potential violence due to his drukenness: she needed him to do her a favour when she passed away. Another question I want to put forward is why does she not tell her daughter about her health? Does she not want her family by her when she dies? Does she not love her daughter?
I think Mrs. Curren loves her daughter very much, but she knows that her daughter left the country due to the social and political situation. She appears across the text as an intelligent and sensitive woman, very worried about her country. She explains in one part of the book that, when her daughter left the country, she told Mrs. Current that she didn’t call her back because she wouldn’t come. Probably Mrs. Curren thinks that her daughter’s decision was correct, but I think she feels her daughter doesn’t love her so much than she loves her daughter. She waits for her visit but she knows she won’t come.
This is getting a little bit private since it is only José Mª and I that are keeping this conversation going. Please, join in. You may need some more time but we shall wait for you. Regarding the ideas put forward by José Mª let me say that I completely agree with you and that I think that is the key to the question: our dying charcater loves her daughter immensely and she makes this huge sacrifice in order to respect her daughter's wishes. Her daughter left the country because she couldn't take the injustice any longer and felt she had to go as a way to protest against the craziness of the situation. I believe some South Africans did the same too but most, of course, couldn't flee and had to endure the chaos and unfairness. I wonder if any of you has found any other examples of injustice that you would like to comment on. Feel free.
Unfortunately, there are many places where people live in terrible conditions of injustice and violence.
Twelve years ago I was working in a Spanish NGO as projects coordinator for Ecuador and Colombia. We were financing not only poverty reduction projects but also peace building projects in some parts of Colombia. I had the opportunity of meet many people from Colombian civil society organizations and, across them, I could improve my knowledge of the critical situation of this country. I visited sometimes Colombia; in one of my trips, I spent a week in Chocó jungle, visiting rural communities. The people were scared because they were in the middle of the fight between guerrilla groups, paramilitaries and the army. They suffered attacks from all of them. I heard there horrible stories and I felt fear travelling in the jungle’s rivers when we met boats of people with guns.
We all feel cosy and snug in the warmth of our rich developed countries and rightly so, but one has to consider that there are far too many places where living conditions are just not what they should be and people are entitled to look for and find happiness and joy in life. Such conditions as there are in Afghanistan or Bolivia, to name just a couple of examples, should exist only in bad dreams and nobody should ever endure those circumstances. There is one more book by McEwan called "Saturday" which deals with the people's response to the war in Iraq. I am reading it at the moment and find it fascinating as everything this writer does. Bear it in mind.
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