Isolation in John Mathaban's Kaffir Boy Essay Sample

Imagine you are in the Hunger Games and you have to fend for your life constantly. This is quite similar to the lives that were lived by many during apartheid. In Mark Mathabane’s, Kaffir Boy, Mark shows many feelings of isolation.  Gcina Mhlope also demonstrates her similar feeling of isolation in “The Toilet.”  Mark and Gcina both experience the feelings of being isolated in a space with no place to go and constant fear. 

In Kaffir Boy, Mark is locked up in a small ghetto in Alexandra with no freedom to run or be free, which is experienced all throughout his life. Mark describes the ghetto, “[...] a one-square-mile pit constantly shrouded by a heavy blanket of smog” (Mathabane 18). Mark is isolated from the outside world, the whole world. There are thousands of people living in this small area with side-to-side, back-to-back housing, and very limited places to go. Mark loves to explore and try new things, but with the life he lives in the ghettos, he often feels like there is nowhere to go and nowhere to be free. In “The Toilet” Gcina experiences a similar feeling. She was snuck into her sister’s bedroom without Madam knowing and she cannot make a noise or be seen. Gcina says, “On weekdays I was locked in my sister’s room so that the Madam wouldn’t see me” (Mhlope 525). Gcina also has a big imagination and wants to explore the world, but this stops her from that. Oftentimes, she cries herself to sleep wondering if she will ever get out, ever get to be free. Mark and Gcina both experience a similar feeling of isolation in their living conditions, especially with the curiosity and imagination they both obtain. 

Another similar feeling of isolation they both experience is the feeling of fear and being found out. In Kaffir Boy, Mark develops a fear of the white policemen. Mark never knows when they will strike, what they will do, or how they will do it. Mark says, “They haunted me in real life and in my dreams, to the extent that I would often wake up screaming in the middle of the night [...]” (Mathabane 53). This fear of the Peri-Urban is developed early on in the story when they raid the ghetto and his father is taken. During the raid, Mark is also beaten up terribly, which was his first serious encounter with the white policemen. In “The Toilet,” Gcina has a fear of being found. Since she is in hiding, she constantly has to be aware and quiet that she is not seen. If she is found, Gcina and her sister will be kicked out and have no place to stay. Gcina states, “Every morning I had to wake up straight away, roll my bedding and put it under the bed where my sister was sleeping” (Mhlope 531). In the mornings before she’d leave for work, she would have to hide anything that was a sign of another person living there. Not only did she have to hide her bed, but also her clothing. Gcina was not allowed to come back until her sister got her from the park, which she did not mind, because she got more time to be at the park. Both Mark and Gcina are constantly afraid of being caught and the consequences that will go with it, which makes them feel constantly isolated in their fears. 

In Mark Mathabane’s, Kaffir Boy and Gcina Mhlope’s, “The Toilet,” Mark and Gcina both have similar feelings of isolation. Mark and Gcina both feel as if there are isolated in one world with nowhere to go or be free. They also both have a constant fear that lives on every day with them. These feelings of isolation make them feel trapped in an area while fending for their lives and food, similar to the Hunger Games.