Two stories that show divisions or conflicts within communities

Both of the stories The pack from Rhodesia and Leelas Friend illustrate divisions of socio-economic classes and some of them result in conflicts. The train from Rhodesia is in an every(prenominal)egory form to fetch the deep hatred of the author towards her racially divided home country apartheid. Leelas Friend shows the class division by demonstrating the prejudice that people have on those who atomic number 18 low in hierarchy. The train from Rhodesia is about a train from Rhodesia calling into the station with all the white passengers on it and there are the vendors who crowd round the train trying to sell their wares.The train is personified by using verbs such as creaking, jerking, jostling, gasping and saying it has a dwindling body behind it. This emphasizes the classes divisions between the rich passengers on the train and the poor sellers in the station. The poverty of black people seems to be the reason for division. The creases in stationmasters uniform and his baref oot peasantren all give the impression of scarceness in the people inside the station. However, the girl on the train was throwing a hard kind chocolate to the dogs.This use of antithesis here accentuates the division not only in class and also in poverty. There is also contrast of the attitudes and feelings of the vernal man and the young womanhood. The twist of story at the end is that the young womans rejection of the lion carving which her husband has bought for her and which she obviously admires. The man is arguing with him for fun while the womans face is drawn up, wryly, like the face of a discomforted child.The use of oxymoron in the epiphany of the woman and the shocked man here show another division due to the different views and opinions upon the way of treating poor black people. Gordimer describes the people and the setting in the third-person but does show us the young womans point of view on several occasions. For instance, in line 168-169 there is no subject she in the description of outrage upon her. This emphasizes the guilty among some white people about the exploitation of the country and also made the reader feel empathetic towards the young woman.The majestic and heraldic lion was prod on its side in the corner lead the main theme of the story the richer and privileged white European arrive and exploit South Africas labour and move on, they are never really part of the country as the train symbolizes. The central narrative question in Leelas Friend is Did Sidda steal the gold chain? He is been prejudiced by Mr. and Mrs. Sivasanker for the missing chain of Leela just because he is the only one servant of the house.The story circles around the sense of hierarchy and honesty and heterosexualism of children. The sense of level is shown in the beginning of the story while Mr Sivsanker was standing in the front veranda of his house. Also, verbs such as send and keep imply a pamper imagery of Sidda and this highlights the class d ivisions among the servant and his master. Narayan use an irony in positioning him in the house she made him squat on the floor. Even a 5-year-old child can decide to have Sidda stay and command him to do whatever you want.This imagery is more symbolized in line 79 and 80 where Leela is represented as pocket-size princess while Sidda is described as her pet. He looked at her mutely, like an animal. This pet imagery is used by Narayan throughout the story. The golden chain, the running away, not permitting to residuum in the house all accentuate his level and hierarchy comparing to the owner of the house. He is prejudged as he is already looked queer when Mrs Sivasanker knows that the chain is missing. Even he has been proved that he has not taken the chain Mr Sivasanker still calls him a criminal.All these ironies of prejudice show that the class division within this community and all the cause of this is that Sidda is in a position of servant and therefore loses his right. Both of the stories accentuate the unfairness and injustice upon the weak class as the result of class division and their poverty. The train from Rhodesia uses the womans point of view and her epiphany to make the reader feel sympathetic towards the vendor. Leelas Friend uses the pet imagery to emphasize the idea of classes and prejudice on poors.