Six Feet of the Country

“And for a moment I accept the triumph as I had managed it.”

Gordimer details the protagonist’s mindset regarding his and Lerice’s separation from racial tensions in the city. However, the idea that racial tension doesn’t exist in the countryside thanks to the “feudal” distance is ironically disproven when current apartheid politics derail the young man’s funeral.

“When Johannesburg people speak of ‘tension,’ they don’t mean hurrying people in crowded streets, the struggle for money, or the general competitive character of city life. They mean the guns under the white men’s pillows and the burglar bars on the white men’s windows. They mean those strange moments on city pavements when a [B]lack man won’t stand aside for a white man.”

This quote alludes to the political separation and racial hostility caused by apartheid in South Africa in the 1950s. This is part of the story’s exposition as the protagonist elaborates on his motivations for moving to the countryside, but the vaguely sarcastic tone with the phrase “strange moments” also shows how the protagonist resents apartheid. His resentment will reappear when he describes the police sergeant as “dull witted.”

“In the country, there is a lingering remnant of the pretransitional stage; our relationship with the [B]lack […] population is almost feudal.”

The feudalistic aspects represent the emotional, physical, and cultural distance between the white and Black populations, with “pretransition” denoting life before apartheid. The protagonist would like to think that countryside living does not reflect the city mindset, but the feudalistic system demonstrates otherwise

“She was still staring at me, trying me out with those eyes—wasting her time, if she only knew.”

Lerice is sympathetic to their employees’ predicament, and she stares at her husband, hoping he will help. However, this quote hints at the hopelessness of the situation, foreshadowing how the burial ceremony cannot take place.

“As I had expected, it turned out to be quite a business.”

The increasingly frustrating process of retrieving the body demonstrates how even the white protagonist is powerless against an apathetic, racist bureaucracy. Gordimer ironically reverses the protagonist’s power through the plot twist of the actual body becoming lost.

“When I told Petrus, he just asked calmly when they could go and fetch the body. They think they’re going to bury him themselves.”

The Black employees wish to express cultural freedom by performing a proper funeral. This introduces the story’s core conflict and catalyzes the remaining plot action.

“Unfortunately, it was not impossible to get the body back.”

The protagonist knows he has the power to retrieve the body, but the word “unfortunately” foreshadows the protracted conflict and futility that will follow. The body becomes the central symbol in a quest for power over one’s own customs in the face of apartheid.

“Once he was dead, I had no intention of encouraging Petrus to throw away, on a gesture, more than he spent to clothe his whole family in a year.”

The protagonist is consternated over his employees’ financial situation, but this statement ironically demonstrates the economic disparity caused by apartheid. It also demonstrates how little the protagonist understands his employees, who view the funeral as something far more meaningful than a mere “gesture.”

“They’re so seldom on the giving rather than the receiving side, poor devils, that they don’t really know how to hand money to a white man.”

As the protagonist describes how Petrus hands him the money for exhumations fees, the narration’s white viewpoint gives the reader insight into the Black characters’ restricted freedom, economic and otherwise. The protagonist alludes to how populations either “give” or “receive,” hinting at the grander picture of the social power dynamic.

“I felt a little awkward, and did not know whether to go on hitting my golf ball or stop at least until the whole gathering was decently past.”

The protagonist’s discomfort shows that he is not utterly callous, yet he demonstrates some insensitivity in the fact that he considers resuming his game before the procession has fully passed by. The image also creates a stark, symbolic contrast: The white protagonist plays an upper-class leisure sport while his Black employees walk past in a funeral procession. The two populations live in different worlds.

“‘My son was young and thin,’ he said at last, in English.”

This moment symbolically indicates the cultural differences in the story. Just as the protagonist struggles to understand Petrus’s father’s speech, he struggles to understand the Black population’s perspectives.

“It seemed to frame all his utterances with a special validity, perhaps merely because it was the symbol of the traditional wisdom of age—an idea so fearfully rooted that it carries still something awesome beyond reason.”

The deceased’s father symbolizes the wise sage archetype in that he commands leadership over the procession, despite the protagonist being unable to understand him. Gordimer employs irony, as the “validity” of the father seems “beyond reason” from the white viewpoint.

“It was as if at any moment they might conduct me into their mortuary and say, ‘There! Lift up the sheets; look for him—your poultry boy’s brother. There are so many [B]lack faces—surely one will do?’”

The mortuary’s utter disorganization symbolizes the white population’s dehumanizing apathy and racism toward the Black population. For all his insensitivity, even the protagonist is disgusted as he describes their racism and bureaucratic bungling.