World Tour Begins in South Africa with Tsotsi

Our first discussion of the new year kicked off our "Around the World in 11 Books (and 5 movies) with a visit to the townships of South Africa and look inside the mind of a young street thug with Tsotsi by Athol Fugard. Most members expressed some repulsion to Tsotsi as a character, at least initially, and for some throughout the book. We talked about how people exercise power and where they get it. Tsotsi's posse looked to him to direct their activity, the neighborhood cowered as he passed, even the policeman questioned his safety when Tsotsi was around. Tsotsi wasn't the oldest, the most experienced or the most ruthless if you consider Butcher, the most intelligent if you consider Boston or the one with the most brute strength if you consider Die Aap. We can each ponder who we give our power to and how we exercise power over others. The introduction of the baby into Tsotsi's life and the ripple effect it had on his sense of self was a definite topic of interest. Some members were hooked on this aspect of the narrative and read further just to see what would happen to the baby. The departure between the book and the movie on this point is pretty striking. In the book the baby comes from unknown origins, is sickly, ready for discard in a shoebox and dies in the end. In the movie, the baby comes from a privileged home, is loved by two parents we can sympathize with and is ultimately returned to them. The transformation it triggers in Tsotsi is still similar. As he gives care to a child, however inept, his own helplessness at the point he suppressed his past bursts through and the young man begins to nurture the vulnerable part that lives inside of all of us. We talked of Miriam as a character. Some members were disappointed with her immediate disgust at the sight and smell of little David and would have liked her to respond with compassion without hesitation. Others could relate to her reluctance and had personal experience with the repulsion. We seemed to agree that in the end, her care for the baby and offer to raise the child showed great strength. We spent some time with the minor characters in the book and the way their stories gave us a fuller picture of the South African experience. For some, these characters were a distraction and detracted from the main story line. We talked a little of Fugard's prose style, instances when he used it like a master and other times when some members felt he played it way past the normal range of response. The ending, and to what degree we found it satisfying, sparked some lively exchange. Again, the book and movie offered markedly different choices. Some members felt a kind of poetic, redeeming message that Tsotsi would sacrifice himself to try to save the child and that he died just at the point that his humanity was so clearly manifest. We discussed the alternate endings shot for movie, one where Tsotsi is killed by police fire after surrendering the baby, the other where Tsotsi surrenders the baby, makes a break and returns to streets to what end, we know not. And finally, the ending in the movie as it was edited; Tsotsi surrenders to the police his future unknown and unshown to us. In some ways, there is no ending for Tsotsi. Just as the book is relevant set in the Apartheid era and the movie still speaks to us of social imbalance in the modern era, Tsotsi as a stock character, a child with no childhood who expresses his pain through violence will be with us always. Try this link to listen to an interview with Tsotsi author Athol Fugard from Indiana University: http://broadcast.iu.edu/hp_conversations/burgun-fugard.htm He talks about theater and his development as a writer. He has a charming accent.