An essay on Nadine Mortimer's "The Moment Before The Gun Went Off".
             I'd like to start by saying something about the writer Nadine Mortimer. She has a strong belief in the objectivity of the writer. This can be seen in the way she uses her narrative to give a couple of different perspectives on a particular event. Born and raised in South Africa, it isn't surprising racism is a central theme in her work.
             "The Moment ...Off" has got a few characters who are essential to the plot. These characters are: Marais v/d Vyver, a farmer who is smart but isn't very socially adept and has problems with intimacy.
             A black farmboy named Lucas, a boy who is a good mechanic and likes to go hunting with Marais.
             A police captain named Beetge, a tough guy who can't stand to see a man crying.
             Alida v/d Vyver, Marais' wife, cares about gardening and having a high social status.
             There are other characters (Lucas' mother) who are important but lacking any description.
             The story is set in a South African farming community in 1991. The story is about an accidental shooting of a black farmboy by a white farmer. The writer explores the notion of truth in a racial matter by using different perspectives. Her narrative is that of a distant observer who knows all. Everybody is referred to in the third person and the storyteller seems to know how people feel and think. In the fourth paragraph the narrator even knows Marais v/d Vyver sobbed uncontrollably even though Captain Beetge was the only witness to that event. In the tenth paragraph the narrator knows that there was a "moment of high excitement" between Marais and Lucas and that there had been more of these moments between them. And the ending, letting us know that Lucas was Marais' son, can only be an ending of an all-knowing narrator. The narrator also gave us a couple of clues to the fact that Lucas was Marais' son. The
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