The Lemon Orchard

IDENTIFY THE SIGNIFICANCE OF NATURE IN THE TEXT

Alex la Guma the leader of the South African Coloured People’s Organization (SACPO), was a South African novelist
whose astounding works and struggles helped against the apartheid era in South Africa. One of his finest literary
works ‘The Lemon Orchard’ talks about an interaction shown between a group of uneducated white tormentors and
an educated black teacher, who apparently went against the church priest. In this story la Guma uses nature as outlet
to express his feeling and interpretation of the coloured man and hierarchy that took place in South Africa, illustrate
irony in the title of the story and in addition to that show his interpretation of society and how it acted against the
coloured people of South Africa and how their ignorance led to a problem that is hard to overthrow to this day.

In the story of the lemon orchard, La Guma talks about the horrendous and unruly choices and decisions of the
apartheid movement and talks about the gruesome actions of racism against people of colour but the title of the
story does not correlate with the context embedded in the story. One would presume that ‘orchard’ would illustrate
something harmonious and tranquil but ironically the orchard is home to an unjust obduction of a man whose only
crime is having a skin tone that is not accepted by society. In addition to this la Guma calls the orchard a ‘lemon’
orchard. He might be tying racism to the fruit itself and how it was perceived by both the people who were ignorantly
racist and those who were affected by racism. this may be due to the reason that we perceive yellow to be joyous and
filled with warmth but in addition to this we perceive the citric fruit to be bitter and sour, La Guma may be trying to
associate the fruit with how society would regard racism with something that could be overlooked as it would not
affect them but, racism is nothing but. Here, La Guma is trying to raise awareness for racism and how it was ignored
causing the problem to advance further to a point where it still survives to this day.

La Guma begins the story with a detailed illustration of the moon, saying it was ‘hidden behind long, high parallels of
cloud’. This suggests how the moon has no interest in witnessing what will occur to that man as he is of colour, and
nobody who is white will stand up for him. Similarly, near the end of the story, it was said: ‘the moon came from
behind the banks of cloud and its white light touched the leaves with wet silver’. This shows how at the ending of the
story when the man of colour was to receive his punishment the moon reappeared with its beams so strong it seemed
‘wet silver’. This shows the eagerness of the moon and how it turns a blind eye to when a black man is in danger but
only returns when he, who is innocent, is inflicted torture and pain for something he is born with. Not only is the
moon representing human nature but society itself. La Guma is trying to suggest how, if one stays put and does not
stand against an action that is wrong, even if it does no harm to them, they are committing a crime so great since it
nurtures the habit of violence against the innocent. This is because if no sees they are doing something unjust, they
will continue to do since there would be one to stop them and as time would progress their actions would continue to
advance, leading to a problem that would be very hard to diminish.

Another example where la Guma uses nature to show a deeper meaning for his work is when he portrays the clouds
as streamers of ‘dirty cotton wool in the sky’. This was an interesting way to describe the clouds mainly since usually in
literature clouds are perceived as something white and pure but if they are dark they’re usually stormy with powerful
winds and loud thunderstorms. La Guma may be trying to illustrate the character of the coloured teacher and his
power of knowledge compared to the white tormentors, that even though the black man has more power in
knowledge and morals over the group of men but he keeps quiet this is because he knows his ‘place’ and cannot go
against these men who are above him because of the difference is skin colour, showing the hierarchy that took place
in South Africa.

In the end ‘The Lemon Orchard’ is a subtle yet vivid reminder of the horrific Apartheid movement and how it treated
innocent people of colour. La Guma has used nature to embed subliminal messages of how racism slowly destroyed
the lives of the people of colour, reminding us of the hierarchy that took place in South Africa and the ignorance that
bred racism into a problem that still survives to this day.