Analyse af Rayda Jacobs' novelle 'The Guilt'

The GuiltWhen should we feel guilty? In the short story, The Guilt, Rayda Jacobs makes us wonder whether or not we should feel guilty about how the black people were treated during the apartheid, and what the implications has been for the majority of the South African people.

The short story is about an elderly, white lady named Lilian Thurgood, who lives in South Africa. Lilian is the widow of her husband Jock, and she lives alone with her two dogs, Tembi and Tor, who “had been trained by her late husband to follow specific commands” (p. 1 l. 16-17). Since the change of government, Lilian has been confronted by poor black people almost every day. These people are begging her into giving them money, either as so-called “donations” to fake organizations or by doing trivial tasks. One winter morning, a black guy named William Sidlayi comes to her house asking for money. Lilian gives him a five-rand coin, and William wants to work for her, because he is not a “skelm” (p. 3 l. 31) Even against Lilian’s insisting, William decides to work for the five rand. After one hour of work, he demands ten extra rand for his work. Lilian is getting nervous, and she tells him that she will ask her husband for the money, but William already knows that she is a widow: “There’s no husband, madam. (…) Madam lives alone” (p. 4 l. 25-26) Lilian asks him to leave the house but he refuses, so she commands her dogs to attack him. Meanwhile she finds Jock’s revolver, and she threatens William until he leaves the house. That night, Lilian cried herself to sleep.