The Moment before the Gun Went Off

     Racism has always been a turbulent issue in South Africa. Nadine Gordimer brings up this issue in her short story The Moment before the Gun Went Off. This tells the story of a man named Marais Van der Vyver who accidentally shoots and kills his laborer named Lucas. What the reader does not find out until the ending is that Lucas is actually Van der Vyver's son. This story's theme centers around the idea of separation and how it effects the lives of others. This also looks at how some separations connect others. 

    During this period in time, in which the story takes place, there was a policy going around called apartheid. This is a policy that thrives on racism, separating European whites and the African blacks. They were not only separated by race but also by class. This policy was designed in order to keep the Europeans on top while leaving all others at the bottom, having to tend to the needs and wants of the whites. During this time, Van der Vyver begins to form a relationship with one of the blacks and this results in the birth of a son, Luke. Van der Vyver never acknowledges that Luke is his son and continues to treat him as he would his other laborers. After Luke's death, he pays for a lavish funeral service. In one moment of the story, Luke's mother can be seen looking at the grave at the exact same time as Van der Vyver. "The dead man' mother and he stare  at the grave in communication." They never speak a word to each other, but they both are feeling the same emotion of distress and sadness over the loss of their son. Even though the two were separated by the law, this boy was their only connection into each other's world.