Even if skin color has played a decisive role in human relations for hundreds of years and it always targets power relations, the concept of “race” is relatively new. It is a primordial tendency of humanity to consider one's own race or blood superior to that of one's fellows. But recognizing this conceit of genetic biological properties is a relatively new concept. Michael Banton observes that race is a concept rooted in a specific culture and a specific historical period that provides suggestions for how these metamorphoses should be explained. It suggests being used in a variety of contexts and is explained in any clarifying style or idiom. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay The term “race relations” deals with the relationships between individuals of many races. The Cambridge Dictionary provides a simple definition of race relations as “the relationship between members of different races.” ” While the Collins Dictionary defines the term as follows: “Race relations is the way in which people of different races living together in the same community behave toward each other.” These racial relations are found intensely in colonial societies and South Africa is the best example. There is variability in racial cultures. And since André Brink's literature is the representation of social reality, it allows him, as an author, to make a remarkable mark on the soul of a particular person as well as that of the whole community. whole. South African novelists, white, black too. like people of color, commented on discriminatory practices in their country. In South Africa, apartheid existed for about four decades and was based on law until 1990. According to this law, black races were not allowed to mix with white races. Sexual relations and marriages between different races were considered illegitimate. In the 1950s and 1960s, major authors such as Nadine Gordimer, Alan Paton, Dan Jacobson, JM Coetzee and Andre Brink described this difficult situation using realistic images of South Africa. Andre Brink is one of South Africa's greatest, most successful and globally-loved authors. Its central thematic concern is the search for the interdependence of the black and white races beyond ingrained racial prejudice. This thesis intends to emphasize the representation of social reality under the different facets of racial relations as articulated in the novels of André Brink; one of them is Before I Forget. The central character as well as the narrator of the novel is a seventy-eight-year-old South African writer, Chris Minnaar. He has fallen into this melancholy state of self-questioning, where all his old repressions and his relationships with women have long since been renovated. Gone was whatever gift he had for writing. He meets Rachel on New Year's Eve. She turns out to be the love of his life. His mother is over a hundred years old. So his faith that his primary goal is to take care of herself. But he finds himself fascinated by Rachel and therefore unable to properly care for his mother. He is stuck in a close acquaintance of Rachel's husband, George. Their friendship inevitably intimidates this uncertain trilateral relationship. Throughout this story, his life story is intertwined. The story resembles love storiesof a life which include short liaisons, prolonged liaisons, marriage, extremely fervent sexual encounters and sweet affections as well. There are many types of women like Daphne, the struggling dancer, Bonnie, his father's secretary, etc. They come from just about every race. These women delineate and inform his life. As it is clear that the present novel is Chris's final act of writing in artistic life, one can understand that the memory of these many loves is an effort to bring order to an otherwise disordered situation. As Godfrey Meintjes rightly points out: “The narrator, Chris Minnaar… driven by the death of his lover, addresses the deceased in a series of notes which take stock of his life and loves; in the process, the private experiences recounted reflect large swathes of South African history.” In this new novel Before Forgetting by André Brink, we sometimes get the impression that he returns the emotional male novelist who wears his heart on his sleeve. and always tries to get in touch with her feminine side. Before I Forget comes from the memories of a 78-year-old writer, Chris Minaar, who measures his life in loves. Minaar even counts among his ex-lovers a few women from Brink's own novels. Minaar is Don Juan when he is not Peter Pan, remembering his serial affairs throughout much of the 20th century. The tragic lovers of great operas constitute an implacable reference. It begins with her troubled love for her mother, whose memory is fading but unable to forget her husband's infidelities. Minaar's last unconsummated passion is for Rachel, a happily married young sculptor who degrades the old man to the status of trusted friend. It is a post-apartheid novel, but also a post-power novel. Minaar, the once lusty satyr, has been reduced to babysitting Rachel when her photographer husband George is away. Cape Town provides a rather rigid setting for the dialogues between Minaar, Rachel and George on love, art and Don Giovanni. For all the intensity of these discussions, the triad seems to live in a twilight world – as if the “real” things that once lit up their skies ended with the rise of Mandela. Rachel sculpts small, intricate figures, and although Minaar claims their physical strength, one gets the sense that they serve much the same purpose as the complicated designs the Victorians sewed onto samplers - an antidote to haste and to the crudeness of the new world. They exist, these people, on the other side of the ecstasy that greeted the end of apartheid. An air of displacement hangs over them. And they fear for their personal safety, because what has flowed into the space emptied by “old” politics is just accidental nastiness – something that will trigger tragedy. Minaar's life was a series of sexual events with activists, supporters, artists and spies. One by one, his lovers stroll on the podium of memory. Brink had a great idea when he associated Minaar's love life with defining moments in South African history, from the Sharpeville massacre to the Soweto uprising and Mandela's emancipation. It should work, but I don't think these frenzied political events shed much light on the sexual adventures of an elderly, meditative white novelist. There's a great moment where Rachel tells Minaar that he's a hopeless romantic and a hopeless sentimentalist. She's right and he knows it but argues to disagree. In a way, it seems like Minaar's creation is Brink's insubordinate assertion that feelings matter, emotions are real, and if too many emotions make you look like an idiot, so be it. It isbrave. The outdated way of doing things in South Africa was to use public drama to demolish private feelings. South Africans Minaar says he was always afraid of feelings and was embarrassed by intimacy. But the perpetual dramatization of his own feelings makes Minaar overworked. When he watches images of the war in Iraq on television, he diagnoses the American incursion as a form of masculine stubbornness. An interesting thought turns out to be another way of emphasizing Minaar's sexual mortification in the face of her father and other aggressive men. Invoking apartheid to explain American belligerence is not convincing. Minaar hums with self-centeredness. His loves are rather soggy; by chance because his women are in reality stakes on which to hang another chapter of the "real" history that he, like all writers of the apartheid era, cannot forget: the frightening tale of southern history -African. For Minaar, the truly remarkable other is not a person but a place. It's the affair of a lifetime with the kind of partner, as he quizzically admits, that no sane person would fall in love with. In the end, Brink's annoyed and indulgent attachment to South Africa is the strongest thing in this novel. Brink primarily focused on intra-racial and interracial male-female relationships in his novel. These relationships are established by describing the hero's relationships with various women. There are more than twenty women in his life. All of these women play a vital role in his development as a true human being. Here we will deliberate on some of their representatives such as his mother, his nanny, his wife, Rachel, Driekie, Daphne, Merlene, Bonneie, Venessa etc. Chris Minnaar has been in relationships with many women throughout his life. Early in the novel, he admits: “There are two moments in the relationship with every woman I have known in my life that have brought me closer to understanding… what it means to be alive. » (Brink 4) He is in relationships not only with black women but also with white women and women of color. He meets a young married woman, Rachel. Over the course of his cumulative encounters, he secretly falls in love with her. After the death of his wife, he is well escorted by Rachel. But after Rachel's death, Chris suffers from isolation. He can't help but write down Rachel's memories. In writing these memories, he inevitably brings up other women in his life before Rachel. He thinks his writing about Rachel connects him to memories of all these other people, especially the women who touched his life. By representing his relationships with women, the novelist introduced us to his relationships with his mother, with his nanny, as well as with his wife as well. He maintains strong relationships with three of them. Her mother is over a hundred years old and lives in an old house. He always goes to meet her, to take care of her. From his childhood, he shared all his experiences with her. Even he asks her for advice and help for girls. He chooses to marry Helena because she suggests security, expectation and companionship. Before his marriage to Helena and after her death as well, he wanted these things as he admits: “Later in life I missed the feeling of a ‘home’ to come back to, my dear. Brink paints the relationship between a black nanny and her master's child by describing the relationship between Chris and Aia. Due to his mother's prolonged illness, Chris is cared for by a black nanny. She's their former housekeeper. She recites nursery rhymes and stories to him in her mother tongue, Xhosa. Chris said his old Aia. It is thanks to her that he develops an awareness of black culture. It can bewell thought out that his relationship with Nannie becomes the basis of his impartial view towards other races. As the novel continues, it reveals Chris's humanistic view towards other races, his political considerations as well as his anti-apartheid temperament. But the novelist led him to think only about the current political status of South Africa as well as that of the world. Characters are not allowed to participate vigorously in politics. We can understand that this is the reality in South Africa during apartheid. Even white people who are against apartheid cannot utter a single word because of the oppressive policies of the state. Christopher Hope reports that “the traditional way of doing things in South Africa is to use public drama to obliterate private feelings. South Africans…have always been afraid of feelings and ashamed of intimacy.” This applies to the state of mind of one of the characters, Daphne. She is a dancer. Although a dancer, she can speak on a striking range of subjects such as: “the ice ages of Europe, bison in America, colonial exploitation in Africa; and infallibly, she would return to the political situation of the country and her keen sense of her involvement in it.” Even though she loves Chris, she always tries to keep a safe distance between them. When Chris asserts this, she can't stop and throws her into his arms. But later, she is humiliated for her intimacy and penalizes herself by dancing meticulously and throwing her own body into the thorny bushes of her garden while dancing. Chris is unable to judge his performance and reason his thoughts. She used to wear a rope tied around her waist so tightly that it left marks of many colors on her soft skin. She admits to Chris that she dresses the rope to stay aware of reality. She is very disappointed by the Sharpeville incident. According to her: Even if I can't change anything, I can stop myself from forgetting. I want to make sure that with every movement of my body, on stage or off, I never allow myself to ignore what's going on beyond my own little world. Here, Brink represented the discontent in the minds of people who opposed apartheid and its oppressive policies. He argues that political activities determine the nature of race relations at the group level and can also affect race relations at the individual level. Another episode alarmed by the Sharpeville massacre decides Chris's fate as a perpetrator. But with his progress as an established author, he begins to let go of his relationships with his father, Marlene, etc. Chris has been writing since he was twelve or thirteen. But it was the Sharpeville massacre that pushed him to truly write. He begins to write a novel about Sharpeville in a notebook, which is exposed by his father. He is very irritated and throws the book on the desk. He orders Chris not to write such nonsense again. But Chris continues to write in secret and his mother hides everything he has created in her fan drawer. But the brilliance of Sharpeville moves him so much that he can no longer stand the silence. And he published A Time to Weep, a novel about Sharpeville. He is then under the inspiration of a young woman named Marlene. This novel A Time to Weep arouses an astonishing protest and decides his future as an author. He is writing the novel in Afrikaans but there are no plans to publish it in Afrikaans. With Merlene's help, he translated the novel into English and published it in England. After the novel was published, Merlene left him because she believed the book had alienated her. It is the Sharpeville massacre that brings two individuals together, but it is preconception that separates them forever. This is a demonstration of the typical racially prejudiced mentalitywhite. In this regard we can consider Ghorpade's observation. She says, “Race relations have almost always been conducted in terms of conflict.” The relationship between Chris and his father determines strained relationships between a father and son, which focuses on tensions in family relationships. The cumulative detachment between family relationships is a result of apartheid as well as younger generations' discontent with apartheid. Bonnie Pieterse is the only person of color in Chris' father's office. She is the only person to have been apprehended in a remarkable manner for her surname to be accredited. She has worked there for at least five years. Initially, she had been named "tea girl". Thanks to her significant skills as a typist and stenographer, she was quickly promoted. Even she gets her promotion to secretary. The novelist gives two reasons for her promotion which are significantly true in the South African scenario. One intention is that it is cheaper to appoint a woman of color than to hire a white woman and the other is her incredible beauty. Chris's dad likes to take her out. He thinks it reflects well his big heart as a good Christian and a leading businessman. Even though she knows her place, she has a discreet and healthy confidence. On the day of the Van Riebeeck Festival there is “a series of presentations and historical paintings”. Chris' father gives the entire office staff, including Bonnie, a day off. So that they can monitor these presentations; as well as “drawing some edifying lessons from history”. They all go to see the presentations. Bonneie, Gerald and Solly are already there in their “best Sunday clothes”. The rest of “their people” were also present at the event. The presentation reveals the story of a white man's entry into the African continent. These presentations made an undisguised demonstration of the way in which God's chosen people had come, by heavenly providence, to govern this earth... The arrival of van Riebeeck at the Cape of Good Hope and the first meeting between his handful of colonizers in their resplendent finery coming straight from the country. Rembrandt's Night's Watch and the group of stories of smiling, smiling Hottentots, soon to be lured into abject submission by the fumes of arrack and tobacco. Biased white people have always celebrated their whiteness, supremacy, and sovereignty and view other races as brutal and captive. Chris finds this so embarrassing that he gets up and walks away. His father gets angry with him and later asks him about his plans to leave the show. At first, Chris makes excuses, but when his father insists, he can't help but explain the real reason. He tells her that he cannot contemplate such a humiliating presentation in front of blacks and mixed-race people. He says: “The thing is, when van Riebeeck's landing was staged, I suddenly thought of what it must have been like for them to see their ancestors depicted like that. Like many dogs who crawl on their bellies, begging for a crust of bread or a chicken bone.” On the contrary, his father sees no mortification in it, he rather feels embarrassed by his son who says such nonsense. He regards Carnival as "a day of thanksgiving to God for leading us through three hundred years of strife and turmoil to such a glorious conclusion." Due to completely conflicting views on racial dissimilarities, the relationship between a father and son is distorted. On the contrary, Chris' relationship with his mother and his beloved Rachel becomes strong due to their all-encompassing nature. Brink validates the horror and pressure of relationshipsmaster-slave referring to the relationship between Bella and the Hottentots. Chris remembers an incident that happened in his Uncle Johnny's orchard. Her cousin Driekie and her four sisters went for a ride to the farm dam. They took off their robes before entering the muddy water. But, as they come out of the water and lie down on the bank to dry their bodies in the sun, Driekie hears a whistling sound in the nearby bushes. She notices a young colored boy, David looks at them. He is the son of one of the workers on their farm. Their mother, Bella, becomes very annoyed when she learns of the event that evening. She exclaims angrily: “AHotnot!” Spy on my daughters! You all could have been raped. "Aunt Bella views non-white races as vicious and belligerent; while her daughters, the next generation, have a humanistic view of them. His daughters have a rather different view of him. They try to calm their mother down. Driekie tells her : “He ran away as soon as I saw him, Mom. And we all know him. He always fetches and carries for us. And sometimes we even help him in the kitchen with his schoolwork. quite smart. And very polite." But Aunt Bella is not in the mood to listen to anything. Bella orders them to follow her and goes to the workers' houses. She shouts at David's parents to come out and tell them. furiously and briefly recounts the event. She orders her father and two other men to carry David to the outhouse. They hit him in the old wine barrel and tore his clothes. They tied his wrists and ankles with it. strings hanging from a hook in the corner. “Tears and snot were pouring out of him.” Then Bella has them whip him with a garden hose and a halter. Through Driekie's words, Brink describes the horror of master-slave relationships. Driekie says: “It went on and on, it didn’t stop. At first David screamed with each stroke, but later he just moaned, he no longer had a voice. It wasn't like crying, it was like an animal. And they went on and on. They only stop when Driekie shouts 'You're killing him!' » She breaks down in tears as she tells Chris the story. Brink determines that although older generations are not ready to change the traditional inflexible relations between the races, new generations of both races have developed interracial relations from humanistic views. The relationships between political protesters and the public are described by describing George's professional experiences. Rachel's husband George is a photographer. He has to travel because of his job. He visits many places to capture images on various themes. Chris asks him why he wants to go looking for dark and horrible places. George responds: “Only because it is necessary for someone to point out: …The Unrecorded Life.” He believes it is his responsibility to record events and it is people's responsibility to pay attention. Here, George represents Brink, who himself considers it his responsibility as a writer to record the events and present them before the nation as well as the world in an impartial manner. In what world could we know the social and political reality of our nation. Additionally, George describes the most theatrical event of his career. He thinks the hardest moment of all happened in the late 1980s. He memorizes a moment when he was returning from a funeral in Soweto. In Orlando, he stopped for a moment to charge his camera and, unexpectedly, his car was surrounded by a crowd of demonstrators returning from a rally. They had been..