Analyse af Ahmed Essops novelle 'Penelope'

1: The short story, ”Penelope”, by Ahmed Essop is about a girl called Penelope who goes in Standard Six at Silver Tree High School in Eldorado Park near Lenasia. The pupils at her school protest against the educational system. Penelope does not take part in the protest because of her father and therefore she sits in a classroom. The protest begins to be violent as the pupils throw stones at the soldiers and then they run away into the school buildings. The next day, when the pupils are on their way home, the soldiers attack them and some pupils try to protect themselves and therefore the soldiers begin to use guns. Teachers try to stop the soldiers and people try to help the pupils. At last pupils lie on roads, in fields, backyards and porches and Penelope is one of them; she is dead and has a stone in her hand. 2: In the short story, “Penelope”, the main character is Penelope. She is a small, coloured girl with blue eyes. She has fine hair which is woven in two plaits. Penelope is a diligent pupil but she seldom says much in class. She is a member of the school’s choir and she has a lovely, soft voice. Penelope has a father who is a priest and perhaps her father is white as Penelope is coloured. Her family is religious as she reads gospels. In the beginning of the story Penelope is a lonely girl; “One day Penelope came to me and complained that the taunting by pupils was becoming unbearable (…) she had been pelted with balls of crushed paper. She was now alone”. She does not join the pupils as her father says that they must follow the laws of the country. In the end of the story Penelope grows up in short time because she chooses to fight together with the pupils. This shows us that she is brave; “As I picked her up and held her in my arms, a small stone fell out of her outstretched hand” (p.94 ll. 40-41). 3: In the following quote from the short story we see the contrast between the pupils who are the blacks and the soldiers who are the whites; Soldiers, wielding batons and truncheons, jumped out and attacked them. When some pupils tried to defend themselves by using stones, broken bricks and bottles, or by flinging their school bags at them, guns were used”(p. 94 ll. 25-28). By this quote we see that the soldiers are stronger than the pupils because the pupils just have stones, broken bricks, bottles and school bags to fight with while the soldiers come in troop-carriers and have batons and guns. Penelope has not joined everywhere until the soldiers begin to act cruelly. The pupils are aggressive and they do not give up the fight even though they are aware of the consequences.