Racism and Apartheid in South Africa: Compare and Contrast Essay on two short stories

Compare and Contrast Essay on two short stories
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Different authors apply different approaches to their narratives and apply different literal. Nordine and Walker are one of the best political literal scholars. Here their two narratives that are Country Lovers by Nardine Gordimer and The Welcome Table will be compared and contrasted on the basis of different literal skills
Conflict
In Nardine's story, "Country lovers" presents a setting where several individuals are in conflict due to the prevailing social setting. The two country lovers Paulus and Thebedi are born in an apartheid society where the prevailing philosophy is that the whites are superior to the blacks (Gordimer, 1975). They play as children together in the country and fall in love. However as grow and integrate further into the society, they realize that what was true in their childhood that there was no difference between the black and whites was actually a fallacy and as the racist ideas prevailing continue being implanted in their thoughts they both realize that their love is not justified in society. Paulus and Thebedi, therefore, although they are in love, they can only express themselves and any evidence of their love eliminated (murdering of Thebedi's baby) (Gordimer, 1975).
Walker's narrative introduces conflict in several contexts. First there is a conflict resulting from discrimination. The white population in the church discriminate the lady just because she is colored. In addition, a religious conflict is also evident where Christianity and Christians in general are supposed to accept everyone despite the state or situation they are in. However, there is a conflict here as these same Christians are the ones discriminating against their fellow Christians (Walker, 1970).
Characterization
In "Country Lovers", Nardine does a good job in characterization as she develops different characters that develop the theme and plot of the story. Thebedi has protagonist characteristics because she is smart and as she is able to hide her relationship with Paulus for over 18 years (Gordimer, 1975). However, she does not realize that the love she is protecting so much is unrealistic given the society they are living in. She realizes this when Paulus kills their child as to him it was so unacceptable that killing the child was the best option. Thebedi tries to pursue the case and she evens commits perjury in court, but when her attempts fail, the "apartheidic" reality finally dawns on her. Painfully she accepts the situation, but this works to transform her as she casually accepted that the love was a childhood thing that did not exist anymore and even bore a child with Njabulo as a sign of closure (Gordimer, 1975).
Paulus turns out to be the foil of this epic love story. He is in love with Thebedi and even disregards other girls of his own race. However, after joining school he starts engaging in sexual relationships with other girls, bu...