Selection: Nadine Gordimer’s “The Moment Before the Gun Went Off”
Critical Theory: Post- Colonialism
by: Licen, Christian Ray C
BA English Major in Literature
Post-Colonial Critical Approach:
Nadine Gordimer’s The Moment Before the Gun Went Off
This story is so simple. Marais Van der Vyver, a white American politician and farm-owner, had been very interested to raise game as well as with cattle. So he hooted to Lucas, his favorite farmhand, to accompany him on the venture. Without hesitation, the innocent boy jumped onto the back of the truck. And off they drove with Van de Vyver arming a.30 ammunition beside him, confident enough that it was unloaded. Little did he know that upon driving over a pothole, the jolt caused the rifle to fire. Upright, it hit the poor boy by way of his throat that he helplessly fell out of the vehicle. And the rest is history.
Of course, you might as well presume that Marias Van de Vyver rescued him, gave him an elaborate funeral and did everything to appease the situation. How sympathetic must he have been to the bereaved family of the deceased- to Lucas’ young pregnant wife along with their first little child, to his parents who had been working with the De Vyver’s for generations, and to the rest of his laborers, who at this time were mimed to talk about such tragedy. All these are predictable actuations of a politician. How could you possibly think of the politician’s fate had he not extended help and assistance to the family? What could he have become during those times when he was right on the verge of political crises over a personal struggle with himself and his family? And what’s even worse, the young black callously shot out of the white man’s negligence was not his boy, but his son. Can he ever bear the grunt of his conscience to speak out the truth? Probably not! He is a politician seeking for another post of his party. But little hope is left of him- even with his wife who had been regretting for herself that it prevented him for such candidacy. That’s the truth. Bare. Drudging.
Mainly, this story is saturated with political underpinnings. Undeniably, it is the game of politics that thrives in this win-lose system of moral ascendancy. In this case, he (Marais Van de Vyver) has won over the losing plight of the blacks clearly depicted in passivity of the bereaved family, “… the dead man’s mother is a woman who can’t be more than in her late thirties, but she is heavily mature in her black dress. The parents hold her as if she were a prisoner. She does not look up; she does not loot at Van der Vyver, whose gun went off the truck, she stares at the grave.” Helpless as they are, silence is the only way to keep the peace their son needs. Such passivity hinders them to pursue justice. Wherefore, granting that someone of the other party would extend legal assistance, hope is their only way to detest the maneuvering political tactics in the judiciary. Practically, with meager finances, one is left to be pinned down on the belly of defeat. These are saddening and lame. But can we ever blame them? In this political system- status is a barometric determinant between life and death. I opine that the barriers had not been curtailed; it keeps growing and taking another phase inconspicuously, maybe wanton; at times, controlled. This is another issue between the whites and the blacks. Up until now, the residues of this long-fought struggle have gradually lingered though mitigated. I’m left with certainty though. That in time, Marais Van de Vyver will spill the beans even in my crooked imagination. By accepting such defeat, the course of fiction derails the linear way of reading it: emancipated from the giant shoulders of history and philanthropic to needs and woes of the oppressed, deprived and destitute- just like the Blacks.
