Response to Chapters 25-28
1. Mark’s thoughts about suicide are justifiable. Despite only being ten years old, he has gone through more than most people have gone through in their entire lives. Although suicide is never the right answer, I can understand why Mark was contemplating it. Not only did he witness a gruesome murder, but he receives a beating every day at school. It is not even his fault that he receives the beatings, he cannot control whether his family has enough money to buy clothes and books for him.
Mark also endures the pains of hunger all the time. He never knows when he will get his next meal. Even when he does receive food, he shares it with his younger siblings. He constantly fears the police raids. At any moment they could change his life for the worse, if it is even possible to become worse. At this point he just envisions his life being the same every day. I completely agree that his thoughts about suicide are justifiable, however, he should not actually do it.
2. “Through some superhuman effort, it seemed, the man, now bleeding heavily from gaping wounds, managed to break through the cordon of butchers and make a dash for the street. The tsotsis didn’t chase after him immediately, tarrying a while to rummage through the packages he had dropped. The wounded man staggered left and right, clutching his slashed throat, which spewed blood. I was now bathed in perspiration. My breath was coming out in spurts. As the wounded man staggered past me, I detected tubelike things unwinding like a spool of thread through his slashed overalls. His guts were spilling from his belly! Nausea overcame me. I wanted desperately to faint and be away from it all. I thought I would panic any minute. The fatally wounded man turned his bleeding head in the direction of the fortified shacks, as if pleading for them to open and let him in. There was a dreadful glint in his eyes, the glint of death creeping in. I can never forget the look on his face as long as I live.” Page 163-164
I chose this passage because it changes Mark’s life forever. If he had any innocence left in him, now it was all gone. It was this event that put him over the edge and led him to contemplating suicide.
3.
Why did Mark’s mom wait so long (3 weeks) before confronting Mark about not going to school?
Why didn’t Mark tell his mom that he witnessed the murder?