The moment before the gun went off

By Nadine Gordimer (1988)

Questions for discussion



G1

What is the conflict in the story? Its about a white man who shoots a black man and then afterwards the reader finds out that the white man is actually the black mans father



Describe the setting of the story. In what ways is it important to the story's action? (time & place)



South Africa under the apartheid



Why does the narrator not tell us right away that Marais Van der Vyver has shot his own son?



If the reader doesn't know in the first place that this is in fact his son we would think it’s a racially conflicted murder because of the actions under apartheid in South Africa



G2

Make a list of the various voices that tell the reader about Marais Van der Vyver and the shooting accident.







Explain why especially the overseas press would want to write about a case like this.



It's because it's just after apartheid, and then he "accidently" shoot a black man and that's something that's not so popular right now.



What do the people in the farming community let us know about Marais Van der Vyver? And about friendships between blacks and whites?



That he normally was very nice to the black, and he had a very good relationsship with the black young man








G3

Describe Marais Van der Vyver's relationship with his wife and with the dead man's mother.



What I analyze was that Marais Van had a secret relationship with the dead man's mother, because Marais Van was the dead man's father, and the woman and him had a affair when apartheid was, so it was illegal.



"How could they know that they do not know. Anything". What does the narrator mean?



Maybe because the narrator tries to say that the other people don’t know about that the dead man's mother and Marais Van had a child together.





What do you think is the message of this short story?



Take care of the things you love, or don't have guns in your home?





Relate the story to the subject “South Africa”. Give examples from the text.