UNRAVELLING LAYERS OF SIGNIFICANCE: SYMBOLS IN NADINE GORDIMER’S JULY’S PEOPLE

Abstract

Symbols occupy a prominent role in Nadine Gordimer’s Fiction. Several objects are invested with symbolic power in Nadine Gordimer's July's People. Gordimer presents Bam's gun and the yellow bakkie (and its keys) as objects that represent power in the text. At the beginning of the text the Smales family owns these objects, and as the narrative progresses their grasp on these objects of power becomes more tenuous, and July and other blacks assume ownership of the objects. The paper aims to focus on how Gordimer uses symbols to create uncertainties, anxieties, contradictions and ambiguities that characterize the new situation. The transfer of ownership, like the parallel transfer that occurs in Johannesburg, is uncomfortable for the whites involved. July, as well, experiences some discomfort as he takes power, in the form of the keys. The characters in the novel are continually forced to negotiate new ways of relating to one another, and Gordimer makes use of the awkward communication between the whites and blacks that result from a new power structure and the language barrier between them to illustrate the discomfort of that negotiation.

Key Words: Bakkie, Gordimer, Ownership, Power Structure, Symbols