A Sunrise on the Veld

Topics: Sleep, Steve Lillywhite, Debut albums Pages: 6 (1714 words) Published: October 10, 2012
Table of Contents:
• Authors biography •Theme
•Plot summary •Personal Evaluation
•Questions and answers •Quotable quotes
•Main fiction elements •Vocabulary

1) Author’s Biography

• Doris Lessing was born in Iran, but grew up in Africa, which was where the story was set. • Her mother was very strict and was obsessed with raising a proper daughter, the boy in the story is most likely based on Doris Lessing's own mother because the boy is very controlling. • Most of Doris Lessing's stories were based on humanity or a struggle to understand the world, this fits in with the story "A Sunrise on the Veld" because the boy learned that there are some things that he can't control, such as death, he couldn't alter the death of the buck, and that realization worried him.

This is a picture of Southern Africa

Allusions in the title

•The title "A Sunrise on the Veld," creates an allusion of a golden sun rising upon open grassland.

•The purpose on the story is based on the boy's realization that he can't control everything, and most importantly he can't control death, he couldn't stop the death of the buck.

•For more information on the biography of Doris Lessing, check out the World Book 2001 #12 edition (L), page 208, in the library.

2) Theme
•Through out the whole story the boy thinks that he is in control of absolutely every aspect of life.

• "He was clean crazy, yelling mad with the joy of living and a superfluity of youth.” Page 80 This line illustrates the height of the boy’s self- exultation and just how much control he thinks he's in.

•In the story the boy is standing over a cliff, and is shouting out at the world about how much control he is in, and then he thinks "That was what he was, he sang if he chose; and the world had to answer him back," (he means the echoes) page 81. But in the next paragraph he hears a pain filled scream and his whole outlook on how much control he is in totally changes, and for a few minutes he realizes just how little control over life he actually has.

•The sub-theme would be the realization that he can't control death. •"He (the boy) had a choice, he could either shoot the buck, or let it die on its own." •The boy decided not to shoot the buck to bring it out of his misery because he realized that the buck would have died this way, if he hadn’t had been there, that the death of this animal is unalterable, and him being there to witness it can't and won't change anything.

•The author's over-all purpose of these themes is to provide an idea of just how arrogant, and controlling the boy actually is, but when he hears that pain filled scream, in a split second he is suddenly totally out of control, and he knows it.

3) Plot Summary

•The boy wakes up every morning at 4:30 to go hunting for guinea fowls •He wakes up every morning before the alarm clock rings just to prove that he can (that shows just how much control he thinks he’s in). •His parents have no idea how early he wakes up in the morning •He always brings his dogs along the hunt •He began running through the grassland but ended up waking up the guinea fowls, and his hunt was over but instead of going home he continued running through the field, “He leapt into the air, shouting and yelling wild unrecognizable noises” page 80

“There is nothing I can’t do, nothing I can’t do.” Page 80 •This line defines the beginning of the height of his exultation, and after minute of yelling and shouting in joy he hears a pain filled scream “In the deep morning hush that held his future and his past, was a sound of pain, and repeated over and over again; it was a kind of shortened scream, as if someone, something, had no breath to scream.” Page 81 •This line shows just how out of control of the situation he really is, and he knows it •The animal that was screaming turned out to be a buck with a broken leg, with a swarm of flesh eating...
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