Kaffir Boy By Mark Mathabane: An Analysis

249 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Kaffir boy story analysis

In the excerpt from his autobiography, Kaffir Boy, by Mark Mathabane, the author develops his theme of the life-changing power education holds. This is shown throughout the text by the telling of an eye-opening experience Mathabane went through as a child. Mathabane tells us how he was very against school, due to being influenced by a gang of slightly older kids who lived on their own wherever and however they could. He explains how his mother and two other relatives had to literally tie him up to get him to school. Soon after, we become aware of the terrible life the gang of kids lead, and the author highlights how both the explanation of the gang children’s lives and the effort his mother put into getting him to school impacted him; pushing

Show More
Related

  • Pashtana's Lesson Summary

    1519 Words  | 4 Pages

    Pashtana said she would rather die than not go to school and acted on her words. Her education is limited and she doesn’t have all the recourses to make school easier, yet she still loves and wants all the knowledge she can get. While I sit in my three story private school, a clean uniform free of holes or loose seams, my macbook air in my lap, the smell of cookies rising up from the cafeteria, wishing to be anywhere else but there. No one has beat me because I want to go to school, no one has forced me into a marriage, I’ve never put my life in jeopardy for the sake of education. Pashtana’s life and choices made me take a moment to stop and reflect on my own life and how fortunate I am to have what I have.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay: The Other Wes Moore

    1069 Words  | 3 Pages

    Otherwise, why now the parents spend a lot of money to send their children to a good school to study, because the school education environment to the children’s influence is very important. When Wes A moved to Bronx, his mother had made a decision to send her children to private school after her seeing how poor the public school system had become, so she worked multiple jobs to manage the cost and relied on her parents to take care the children before and after school while at work. “My mother decided soon after our move to the Bronx that I was not going to public school. She wasn’t a snob, she was scared.”(47) Because she knew, if the children are growth of a bad education environment, the children of the world to know nature will be distorted. Without a good education, there is also no habits; No good sense, and also there will be some bad behavior. Today, the rate of crime is high; almost all can find the root cause of their growth environment. Maybe the lack of discipline, discouraged by mistake friends or too much stress, but all shows the importance of good education environment for children to grow

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Against School By John Taylor Gattos

    878 Words  | 2 Pages

    The average human would think that going to school and getting an education are the two key items needed to make it in life. Another common belief is, the higher someone goes with their education, the more successful they ought to be. Some may even question if school really makes anyone smarter or not. In order to analyze it, there needs to be recognition of ethos, which is the writer 's appeal to their own credibility, followed by pathos that appeals to the writer’s mind and emotions, and lastly, logos that is a writer’s appeal to logical reasoning. While using the three appeals, I will be analyzing “Against School” an essay written by John Taylor Gatto that gives a glimpse of what modern day schooling is like, and if it actually help kids

    Read More

  • Another Holiday for the Prince

    1168 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...eral topic of school. The sister strives to graduate and go to school even though she is poor while her brother blames the school for him dropping out and not graduating. “I got out my social studies. Hot legs has this idea of a test every Wednesday” (118). This demonstrates that she is driven to study for class and get good grades while her brother tries to convince her that school is worth nothing and that there is no point in attending. “‘Why don’t you get out before they chuck you out. That’s all crap,’ he said, knocking the books across the floor. ‘You’ll only fail your exam and they don’t want failures, spoils their bloody numbers. They’ll ask you to leave, see if they don’t’” (118). The brother tries to convince his sister that school is not a necessity and that living the way he does, being a drop out living in a poverty stricken family is the best thing.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Black Boy Today By Richard Wright

    1368 Words  | 3 Pages

    How far has the United States come towards establishing equality between whites and black? Well our founding fathers did not establish equality. Here is s a clue, they are also called the Reconstruction Amendments; which were added during the Reconstruction era following the Civil War. Recall that the Declaration of Independence was signed July 4th 1776, while the Reconstruction Amendments were the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments; they were added during the periods of 1865-1870. This is nearly a ten-decade period. Despite of these amendments we still have not achieved equality among blacks and whites. How much longer will it take? Well we are in the year 2015 and yet have a lot of ground to cover. Richard Wright was born after the Civil Rights, but before the Civil Rights Movement. If he were to write a novel titled Black Boy today, he would write about how racial profiling

    Read More

  • Kwasi Enin And Martin Altenburg Summary

    485 Words  | 1 Pages

    Kwasi Enin grew up in New York with ‘tiger parents’. His parents valued education and set very high expectations for his academic career. They pushed him to use his resources and ‘would not tolerate grades lower than 95%’, since they believed those grades reflected his work ethic and dedication to his academic success. Martin Altenburg, who grew up in North Dakota, had more easy-going parents, who allowed him to be a ‘free-spirit’. Martin’s parents believe in giving their children

    Read More

  • Kaffir Boy Analysis

    1343 Words  | 3 Pages

    Anne Moody’s Coming of Age in Mississippi and Mark Mathabane’s Kaffir Boy are both coming-of-age narratives that were written through the eyes and experiences of young people who grew up in a world of apartheid. Although, it should be noted that they both have parallels in their stories as well as distinctions one should take into account the times and places in which each occurred. While Coming of Age in Mississippi occurred during a Jim Crow era in the American South, between 1944 and 1968, Kaffir Boy’s autobiographical narrative occurred in the regime of South Africa’s apartheid struggle from 1960 to 1978 in the town of Alexandra. During the late 20th century both narratives offer a framework of racism, a value and yearn for education and the struggle and will to survive. This essay will compile how both narratives experienced their areas race-relations given the time and place that they are in.

    Read More

  • Malcolm X's Homemade Education

    774 Words  | 2 Pages

    Education is extremely important and can be achieved in the most unexpected places. In "Homemade Education", Malcolm tells about his time in prison, where he taught himself how to read and write. Behind the bars, through the use of a dictionary and books he became literate. In this article he explains how one can change his or her lifestyle by the taking the advantage of the opportunities that are available. This relates to me because couple of years ago, I didn't know how to speak English, but I took an advantage of the opportunities I had to learn a whole different language.

    Read More

  • Lynda Barry The Sanctuary Of School Summary

    676 Words  | 2 Pages

    Lynda Barry’s “The Sanctuary of School”, discusses how the education system can be an escape for children with troubled home lives. Barry experienced this in her childhood and found herself sneaking out of her home one night because of an urgent feeling that she needed to be at school. Luckily for Barry her school was close to home and had a wonderful staff that didn’t question why she was there. Barry found comfort in her school it was somewhere she was safe and listened too. She could paint, or draw in art class which is usually a class overlooked in school budgets. Barry’s purpose is to express that school is vital to some children’s lives and gives them a sanctuary that they do not have at home.

    Read More

  • Kaffir Boy Research Paper

    1160 Words  | 3 Pages

    Kaffir boy is a story of Mark Mathabane’s escape from life under the political system apartheid in South Africa. Apartheid was when the national party government was elected in the 1948 and they decided to racially segregate South Africans. Apartheid means separation and in this case between the white south Africans and everybody else. This idea being it was to limit the rights and undermine the black Africans. The book kaffir boy is great example of the apartheid. Kaffir boy shows the trials and tribulations being faced during the apartheid in South Africa such as lack of equality, suffering and education.

    Read More

  • Identity In Kaffir Boy

    455 Words  | 1 Pages

    A person’s past is instrumental in creating their identity in the present and for the future. You are shaped by your experiences and views of the world. In Mark Mathabane’s novel, Kaffir Boy, Mark uses his past to shape his life for the future, and strives to get as far away from his tribal life as possible. Mark chooses to reject tribal ways of life, therefore, they are not an important part of his identity because even though these values were instilled in him from an early age, the memories of his past tribal life motivates him to make it to America, to interact with different groups of people and connect with their different ways of life, and to learn multiple languages to further help his ability to branch out.

    Read More

  • Balram's Case

    505 Words  | 2 Pages

    The biggest impediment that is constraining Balram from reaching his potential is his ambivalent responsibility for his family. As a young child, Balram excelled in school and was recognized by the school inspector that he is special and intelligent, however due to his poor family, he needs to leave school to go to work. Balram explains, “The family had taken a big loan from the Stork so they could have a lavish wedding and a lavish dowry for my cousin-sister. Now the Stork had called in his loan. He wanted all the members of the family working for him and he had seen me in school, or his collector had. So they had to hand me over too.” (31). Balram is forced to leave school to help support and pay back the money his family owed. In front of the class, he was acknowledged for being a great student and had potential to be better than just a driver.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of School Is Bad For Children By John Holt

    979 Words  | 2 Pages

    In “School is Bad for Children”, John Holt discusses the faults and failures of the education system. According to Holt traditional schooling stifles children’s curiosity and learning, causing them to be ill-equipped as adults. He believes children are smarter before they enter school, having already mastered what he says is the most important thing, language. Holt goes on to describe how children no longer learn for themselves in school. Their learning has become a passive process. Children then come to realize teachers are not there to satisfy their curiosity, and in turn, grow ashamed and accept what they think teachers wants them to believe. School also becomes a place where uncertainty and incorrect answers are forbidden. The students learn how to cheat and pretend to work when the teacher is looking. As a result, they only use a small portion of their brain, and soon they grow bored. Holt suggests this boredom shuts off their brain and is the reason why many students turn to drugs. Drugs he says is the only way many young people can find awareness in the world they once had when they were little. Children John Holt says, are very fascinated

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Lost Childhood By Yehuda Nir

    1062 Words  | 3 Pages

    Childhood is a powerful and important time for all humans. As a child, the things one sees and hears influences the choices and decisions they make in the future. “How a child develops during early and middle childhood years affects future cognitive, social, emotional, language, and physical development, which in turn influences their trust and confidence for later success in life” (Early and Middle Childhood). Yehuda Nir’s, The Lost Childhood is a first person memoir based on the life of a youthful Jewish child who survived the Holocaust. Taking place from pre-World War II 1939, to post-World War II 1945, this memoir highlights the despicable things done during one of the darkest times in modern history. Prior to being published in October

    Read More

  • The Effects of Child Abuse on a Child´s Education

    1281 Words  | 3 Pages

    With the chronic issue of child abuse still affecting children’s education today. It is a key importance that people must not give up on children who are victims of child abuse, but make it their personal goal to help them prosper. School is not just a place where children go in the morning, but a social learning environment that provides students with a lifelong tool of knowledge. As children grow older and into different developmental stages the demand for love, support, leadership, and positive role models are crucial. Abused children are missing these essential needs; this is why the famous saying “It takes a community to raise a child” still holds true today. The education of abuse children is not a lost cause and with proper treatment and teaching they will grow up to be just as successful if not more successful than any other non- maltreated child.

    Read More

More about Kaffir Boy By Mark Mathabane: An Analysis

Open Document