‘The Moment Before the Gun Went Off’ | Analytical essay

Indledning
The short story “The Moment Before the Gun Went Off” was written by Nadine Gordimer.

The author was South African and has previously been described as “South Africa’s conscience.”

The baseline of the short story concerns the racial discrimination and how the media portrays it.

Although the story might be fictional, the subgenre of fiction for this story is a realistic short story because it is a narration of a time, different to ours, but still realistic and important.

It draws parallels to our society today and the never ending “black-lives-matter” campaigns fighting for equality as well as the power of the media.

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Uddrag
Even though the farmer never had the wrong intentions, the media portrayed him differently.

They portrayed him as a superior white, who had ill intentions - “He knows that the story of the Afrikaner farmer - regional Party leader and Commandant of the local security commando - shooting a black man who worked for him will fit exactly their version of South Africa, it’s made for them.

They’ll be able to use it in their boycott and divestment campaigns, it’ll be another piece of evidence in their truth about the country.

The papers at home will quote the story as it has appeared in the overseas press, and in the back-and-forth he and the black man will become those crudely-drawn figures on anti-apartheid banners, units in statistics of white brutality against the blacks quoted at the United Nations - he, whom they will gleefully be able to call "a leading member" of the ruling Party.”

This goes to show that the system wasn’t always favourable towards the white man.

Van der Vyver also had a high position in the community, as both the regional party leader and commandant of the local security command, which meant he had a certain position to uphold in terms of the social expectations and laws of the apartheid regime.

The social setting therefore had a huge impact on the main character, which is shown at the funeral, where Van Der Vyver cannot express any emotions, because it would be scandalous if the community found out that it was his son who died.

The story shows, that the values and perception of race for the main character does not correspond with the reality perception of the media and community around him