Down Second Avenue Literary Elements

A semi-autobiographical memoir

Set in a South African ghetto written in the context of the author as a young African native

First-person narrative

Brutal, sad, pessimistic and horrifying

The central character is the author.

The main conflict is that the apartheid regime is lethal for native Africans because they are segregated and denied access to privileged services.

The climax comes when the Mphahlele succeeds in publishing his first book. Similarly, Mphahlele takes his family out of poverty, and he does everything possible to fight against the apartheid regime which oppresses the blacks.

The colonial extension regime is foreshadowed by the introduction of religious missionaries who used scriptures to brainwash blacks to continue thinking that they were inferior to whites.

The implication of apartheid rule on blacks in South Africa is understated. Despite segregating against the blacks, the regime militarized the army to oppress Africans who tried to oppose the regime.

The story alludes to the evils executed by the apartheid regime against the blacks in South Africa.

Hearing imagery is depicted by the author when describing the hooting owl. The narrator writes, “We came back in the early hours of dawn, our feet wet with dew, our chests heaving with the freshness of morning life. How we laughed when someone happened to be startled by a hooting owl.”

The main paradox is that blacks hate themselves because they think the whites are superior creatures. Consequently, the blacks failed to recognize their value, and they ended up worshipping the white man.

There is parallelism between the whites’ way of life and African’s mentality during the apartheid period.

N/A

The Apartheid regime is embodied as lethal.