"A Sunrise on the Veld" and Lessing's Life
             The story, "A Sunrise on the Veld," written by Doris Lessing, takes place in Africa, as do many other novels and short stories written by Lessing. Most of Lessings works are autobiographical and reflect the background of her very own childhood. Much of her work stresses the complexity of life and death with humanity's struggle to understand the world ("Biography" 1). In 1925, Lessing and her parents moved to Southern Rhodesia, which is now Zimbabwe, in hopes of getting rich through maize farming. Living on some thousand-odd acres of bush, Lessing had an explorative childhood. The natural world, which she explored with her brother, Harry, was one retreat from an otherwise miserable existence ("Biography" 2).
             In her early childhood, Doris was sent to a convent school and later sent to an all-girls high school in the capital of Salisbury, and later dropped out of school all together. At the age of thirteen, Lessing had found an end to her formal educational years. Being short of education did not stop Doris from becoming successful. She made herself into a self-educated intellectual and due to her unhappy childhood, felt the desire to become a fictional writer. Lessing believes that fiction reflects cosmopolitan awareness of racial and class inequities ("Biography" 1). It also shows a concern for moral, political, and psychological attitudes ("Biography" 1).
             Lessing wrote a series of short stories all set in Africa. "A Sunrise on the Veld" is one of many parts to this series. In this story, Lessing describes one of few young white boys who lived in Zimbabwe, whose life was much like her own. She also was one of few white individuals in Africa and had a yearning for exploring the bush at a young age just as he.
             Drawing upon her childhood memories and her serious engagement with politics a...