THIS is the last submission for this book analysis bearing in mind that previous submissions have dealt at length with issues of ideology and content.
I am also mindful of the need to prepare the rest of you for examination hints. Nonetheless I thought I would wind up our analysis of the novel by addressing issues of style, the only feature that seems to salvage this author from censure.
There are several stylistic features worth of note as positive.
These include symbolism, characterisation, the use of the epistolary and diary forms as well as adept employment of various narrative techniques yielding both flashback and suspense.
Symbolism in particular is a key stylistic feature in the novel.
The burning of the union jack symbolises the death and end of the old, colonial British rule in Zimbabwe. The hoisting of the Zimbabwean flag also symbolises birth or beginning of a new era, new political dispensation and hope for the future.
From an Afrocentric point of view, there appears to be deception in the sense that the flag is burnt by a white man.
It sends the wrong signal that it is the British that ended colonialism in Zimbabwe, yet Zimbabweans fought and blood was shed in order to attain independence.
Leonard Rogers is not best qualified to burn the Union Jack.
By burning the flag, the white man is stealing the metaphor of Zimbabwe independence.
He pretends to be more homely than the blacks, yet most of the whites in Zimbabwe still regard Britain as their ‘’home’’, thus questioning the sincerity of the writer.
The theme of deception that runs throughout the novel extends beyond the story.
As readers, we feel deceived by the writer because she is not telling the true Zimbabwean story. It is as if the independence of Zimbabwe was a preserve of whites.
The writer also uses the epistolary technique as she makes use of a diary and letters as narrative techniques. Letters are used to retrieve memory of past events.
The writer tries to explain the present using the past. By reading the letters, one gets to understand the present.
The diary reveals Gran’s character.She is depicted as a debauched woman who engages in extra-marital affairs.
She is also stubborn and refuses to listen to her husband.
The independence of the women in the novel is far from the African model.
The narrator and her Gran seem to be influenced by an anarchic instinct as they pursue their selfish whims.
This attitude is alien to Zimbabwe and Africa as a whole.
From an Afrocentric point of both men and women are controlled by unhu/Ubuntu they are all accountable to community ethos.
The diary also exposes the political situation in the country and the reader is made aware of the socio-economic disparities between blacks and whites.
In the novel, Marie takes Evelyn to Salisbury for shopping and they go by bus.
Evelyn observed that “….all the Europeans sit at the frond and there is a section at the back for Africans” (p 325).
Evelyn is further shocked that the Africans had to move off the pavements if a European is approaching.
From a Marxist point of view, there is no equality between the races. Even just after independence the whites are still in control of the economy.
It is them who own the farms and blacks are “tea boys”, Samson is still miles cook. The whites would not want the status quo to change.
The diary and letters also help in the development of the plot.
Through the diary, we are taken down memory lane.
We are taken back to Rhodesia, and then to Zimbabwe and when he narrator matures, she takes us to England.
Flashback is also used to take us back into the colonial era and we are enlightened on the race relations as highlighted earlier.
The diary also reveals the major concerns in the novel like, racial mistrust and discrimination, marital unfaithfulness and deception.
It is important to note that deception is important as a form; it shapes the novel as we are deceived through and through.
The diary targets the self and can be very misleading. The reader is tempted to think that the diary can be another gimmick by the author to authenticate her story and further hoodwink us into believing her story.
The story is told in the first person narrative by Ellie.
She begins telling it as a child until she has grown up. As readers, we are made to trust the narrative because she is a participant and eye-witness to the events.
We are also made to believe most of the things she tells us because of the innocence associated with a child-narrator.
However, we should be very careful not to totally trust such narrators who claim to be children yet they are grown-ups.
This narrator is a grown-up who is recounting and reminiscing on the events of her childhood.
This makes us further question most of the things she says because the book reads like an autobiography; therefore she would want to edit her life script and not present it raw for public consumption.
Another stylistic device used in the novel is setting.
The setting is both epochal and spatial. The novel opens in independent Zimbabwe. When the old woman dies, through the diary we are taken to Rhodesia.
When Ellie grows up, we find ourselves in England.
We are, therefore, taken to the past and brought back to the present, back and forth, so the setting helps in the development of the plot and gives insight into the situation in Rhodesia.
The title, “This September Sun”, is significant.
September marks the beginning of the Spring which symbolises rebirth and a new beginning. Though it is a metaphor of hope, it is also deceptive since the whites did not see hope in blacks ruling Zimbabwe.
It therefore becomes ironical because this new dispensation spells doom for the whites.
This is evidenced in the text where we are told that, many white people had already decided to leave by the time the Rhodesian flag was lowered and the new Zimbabwe was hoisted. Ellie clearly tells that her grandfather said “… we are in trouble” because he was an archetypal diehard Rhodie who was “tough with anyone who had a black skin” p 81.
The title is therefore misleading as what it says is not what it means.
Thus in spite of the many positive stylistic devices, they remain good decorations of gross misrepresentation of the postcolonial Zimbabwe. No matter how you deodorise shit it remains shit.