The Antheap by Doris Lessing is a story of the struggles between two boys who are growing up in Africa and learn to deal with the racism in their lives. I like Lessing’s use of words, especially the way in which she describes the pit. This is a great story that she tells and it is wonderful and exciting to be able to watch Tommy and Dirk grow up and about the path that their friendship travels. Lessing teaches us of the importance of friendship and about its meaning.
The story is set in the African country Zimbabwe. A rich white man, Mr. Macintosh, runs a gold digging operation that consists of a pit being dug by hundreds of Africans who work in a horribly dangerous environment. This pit grows ever deeper as gold and dirt are withdrawn at the cost of human suffering. Mr. Macintosh hires Mr. Clarke to be his engineer. The only white people living near the pit are Mr. Macintosh, Mr. And Mrs. Clark, and their son Tommy. Tommy grows up playing with the young black children. When Tommy is seven, his mother forbids him to play with them. When he asks her why she doesn’t answer him truthfully and he is lonely. In his loneliness he makes clay figures of several of the children he is friends with including a boy
. . .
We see his obvious bad side, his greed, racism, and sense of superiority, but we also see his love for Tommy. Lessing shows that he is a human even if he does act inhumanly towards the Africans. When Tommy reveals this information to his parents they tell him that he must never say this again, that they could lose their jobs. We also get to see the human side of Tommy and Dirk. This racism and social inequality that faced people with darker skin is also shown in Flannery O’Conner’s book The Displaced Person. Macintosh that he will not go to college unless Dirk goes also. We see here that there is an atmosphere of silence on certain topics in their house, things which are understood but never spoken. Tommy is able to understand though: “He understood that Dirk could not endure to be with a white-skinned person – a white face, even that of his oldest friend was too much the enemy. Both that book and this book show how people often are afraid to help people who they think might infringe on their perception of social order. Macintosh, who looks at Tommy as his own son, offers to pay for him to go to college. ” At the end of the novel there is a victory for the boys, when Tommy tells Mr. Macintosh is portrayed as a complex character. Macintosh doesn’t send Dirk to college.
Approximate Word count =
865
Approximate Pages =
3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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