• Summary
• Title
• Themes
• How is the story told?
• Activity 7
• Activity 8

Relatives by Chris van Wyk

Christopher van Wyk (1957–2014) wrote poetry, stories and autobiographical works. He is best known for his autobiographical novels Shirley, Goodness and Mercy and Eggs to Lay and Chickens to Hatch, as well as a children’s illustrated version of Nelson Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom. As in Relatives, many of Van Wyk’s stories are based on family relationships and the community he came from. In 1996 he won the Sanlam Literary Award for this short story.

1. Summary

In the story a 21-year-old writer goes down to the Cape. He spends a week in Cape Town, then visits his family in Carnarvon. After two weeks he gets bored and decides to return by train to Johannesburg.
In a train compartment he meets three friendly men and they exchange stories. When they leave the train the writer is left in the compartment with two brothers who are not friendly. As time passes the writer realises that the brothers are juvenile delinquents (boys from a reformatory). The writer is afraid of them as they discuss how they will kill their brother’s murderer when they get to Johannesburg.
While the writer is thinking about how to get away from the brothers and find another compartment to sleep in one of the brothers asks him about his grandmother. They tell him that he is related to them. The writer is very relieved, as they no longer pose a threat to him.
Three years later the writer reads in the newspaper that the brothers have died in gang-related violence, just like their elder brother.

2. Title

The title “Relatives” shows that the story is about what family means to people. At first, the writer was afraid of the two boys, who were strangers to him. When he finds out that they are relatives, as their grandmothers were sisters, he loses his fear of them. They no longer seem like enemies to him, as he has a connection to them.

3. Themes

The main themes of the story are:

• The importance of memories and family: The writer tells us that in Carnarvon his relatives spend a lot of time together, having long meals and discussions about family history. Note how the fear that  the writer feels disappears as soon as he discovers that the two brothers on the train are his relatives, and therefore, they cannot be a threat.
• The power of stories to entertain and teach us about The story also has stories within it, for example, the story of Georgie that the writer relates.
• Coincidences: The first is that both stories (Georgie’s story and the brothers’ story) that are told on the train concern The next is that the gangster brothers have family ties with the writer, so they are his relatives.
• Crime and gang violence: The brothers are clearly already involved in crime as they are in a They want to take revenge for the death of their brother by killing their brother’s murderer. The cycle of gang violence tragically results in their own death.

4. How is the story told?

4.1 Setting

The main setting is a compartment on a train travelling between Johannesburg and Cape Town where the young writer chats to people.

4.2 Structure and plot development

We are introduced to the writer, who is an aspiring (inexperienced) 21-year-old writer who decides to visit his family in Carnavon in the Northern Cape to get information about his roots. He wants to write a “family saga” (history of his family).
After two weeks he becomes bored with the dry, dusty place and conversations that are repeated over and over and decides to return home to Johannesburg.
On the train back to Johannesburg he meets:

• Three friendly carpenters or builders, laughing and drinking beer (“their conversation was full of the hammers and nails of their profession”); and
• Two quiet brothers who sit huddled in a corner and refuse to join in the conversation.

The three friendly young men ask him about his journey to the Cape, and he tells them a story about it which he had already told his relatives in Carnarvon. He believes that the story is excellent because he feels that it has all the necessary basic features of a good story, passing what he calls his litmus test.
The writer tells them the story of Georgie, whom he met on the way from Johannesburg to Cape Town. Georgie told him a story about how he had killed a man (the story within the story), as a warning to the writer not to try to steal his luggage.
The comic ending and anti-climax of this story (Georgie is publicly slapped in the face by his wife) is thoroughly enjoyed by the young men.
Up until this point the writer is relaxed and enjoying the journey and the company. Then there is a complication. As the writer puts it:

But then my journey took an unexpected turn.

Quite suddenly, and without much warning, the three friendly men leave the train. The writer is left in the compartment with the two unfriendly brothers.
The rising tension in the story begins when the writer looks at the brothers more closely and realises that they are wearing the khaki uniforms worn by juvenile delinquents. He also realises they do not have a guard with them. Suddenly their behaviour changes and they begin to act aggressively – they start talking loudly, swearing, spreading their luggage all over the compartment and littering.
Then they start discussing their brother, who was killed by a gang in Coronationville, Johannesburg. They are on their way to attend his funeral and swear to take revenge on his killer. The brutal and violent way they plan to take revenge scares the writer terribly.
The conflict in the story grows:

• The writer is now scared to be alone with the
• They start looking at him straight in the eye, scaring him even
• He thinks about asking for a transfer to another compartment, but is too afraid to leave his luggage

The tension within the writer is now so great he cannot even eat.
The story reaches an amazing climax when one of the brothers recognises him as “that clever boy who used to read books and write stuff”. Their grandmothers were sisters, so in fact the writer and the two brothers are relatives. From then on he begins to relax and enjoy the journey.
The resolution to the main story and the story told by the brothers comes three years later, when the narrator reads in the newspaper about “rampant gang crime in the streets of Western Township and adjacent Coronationville”. The two brothers who had “never reached twenty-one” had been stabbed to death in the violence, and were now “in the same graveyard as their brother, killed three years ago”.

4.3 Characterisation

The narrator is the writer. He is the protagonist, as he is the main character. The two brothers, his relatives, are the antagonists in the story.
The brothers contrast with the writer in every way. For example, while the writer tells a funny story about a man who pretended to be a murderer, the brothers are plotting a murder in real life.
In a train compartment (which is the main setting for the story) the different passengers also form a contrast to one another.
The three young men who are carpenters or builders are very friendly to the young writer. It is to them the writer tells the story about Georgie.

4.4 Style

The story makes use of the stylistic device of “a story within a story”. The bigger story is of the young writer visiting his relatives in Carnarvon to write a family saga. This is the outer frame of the story. His experiences with the people in his compartment on the train back to Johannesburg form the inner frame of the story. The centre frame is the story of Georgie, which the writer tells to his companions as comic relief.

4.5 Narrator and point of view

The narrator is the main character in the story. The story is told from the first person point of view (“I”).

4.6 Diction and figurative language

Related Items

The way the writer uses language conveys meaning in the story. For example, at the beginning, when the narrator is visiting his elderly uncle, the description of the old men emphasises the slow pace of their lives:

conversations consisting of long, trailing life histories that made the old men in their elbow patches stammer and squint into the past from behind their thick spectacles

The conversational, chatty tone of the characters when telling their stories together with the use of dialect is very effective. For example, in the story of Georgie, his wife greets him by saying: “Ses maande en djy skryf niks, phone niks, not a blerry word van djou.” The Cape Coloured use of a combination of English and Afrikaans is very effective, as it gives us a sense of the rhythms and pronunciation of this speech.
The narrator’s fear is conveyed not only through his thoughts, but also by using many short sentences, which are very dramatic. For example:

I began to worry
He knows what I’m thinking, I thought.
My companions glared at me again.
I had no appetite.

The final sentence of the story, in particular, is very clear in its message about the unfortunate effect of gang crime: “They had never reached twenty- one.”
The reader is given insight into the characters through the vivid descriptions of their appearance. For example, the two brothers are described as having “sandy hair that had been cut so short that the hairs grew in sharp italic spikes”. Here, a metaphor is used to compare the short, bristly quality of their hair to italic writing.
In the line, “When the train slithered out...”, a metaphor is used to compare the train to a snake sliding along the ground.

4.7 Tone and mood

In the story the writer uses dialogue and descriptions to show how the tone changes in the story. For example, when the narrator meets the young men on the train the tone of their conversation is friendly and happy:

their conversation was ... punctuated with laughter and inane arguments.

In contrast, the two brothers’ conversation has a dark tone – it is full of swearing and details about how they will murder their brother’s killer:

They no longer muttered but spoke loudly, spicing their conversation with vulgarities.

The light-hearted tone at the beginning of the story changes to a dark and sombre tone as the story goes on. The story ends on a note of sadness, as it brings to mind the theme of the tragedy of gang crime. The death of the young brothers highlights the tragic waste of life that is the result of gang violence.
Mood: How does this story make you feel? Happy, sad, angry or indifferent? What are the reasons it makes you feel this way?

Summary
Relatives by Chris van Wyk

1. Title
   • The writer no longer feels threatened once he knows he’s related to the juvenile delinquents.
2. Themes
   • The importance of memories and family
   • The power of stories to entertain and teach
   • Coincidences
   • Crime and gang violence
3. How is the story told?
   3.1 Setting
   • Mainly the compartment of a train
     3.2 Structure and plot development
   • “Georgie’s” story: Story within a story, with a comic ending and anti-climax
   • Complication: The three friendly men leaving the train unexpectedly
   • Rising tension: The writer realises that the two brothers are juvenile delinquents.
   • Conflict: The increasingly vulgar and loud behaviour of the two brothers
   • Tension: The writer becomes so anxious he cannot even eat.
   • Climax: One of the brothers recognises the writer as a relative.
   • Resolution: Newspaper article about the death of the two brothers in gang crime
     3.3 Characterisation
   • Protagonist: The narrator is the writer and the main character.
   • Antagonists: The two brothers (the relatives)
   • The three young men: Their friendliness contrasts with the behaviour of the brothers.
     3.4 Style
   • Stories within a story: The outer frame of the story is the trip to Carnarvon.
   • The inner frame is the writer’s experiences in the train compartment coming home to Johannesburg.
   • The centre frame is Georgie’s story.
     3.5 Narrator and point of view
   • First person
     3.6 Diction and figurative language
   • “Ses maande en djy skryf niks, phone niks, not a blerry word van djou”
     Dialect
   • “I began to worry”; “I had no appetite”; “They had never reached twenty-one.”
     Short sentences for dramatic effect
   • “sandy hair that had been cut so short that the hairs grew in sharp italic spikes”
     Metaphor
   • “the train slithered out”
     Metaphor
     3.7 Tone and mood
   • Tone: Starts off friendly and happy but becomes darker as the two brothers get louder; ends with a gloomy and sad tone.
   • Mood: How does this story make you feel? Happy, sad, angry or indifferent? Give reasons for your answer.

Activity 7

Read the extract below and answer the questions that follow.

Extract A

[The narrator is remembering his journey.]

1. Read the following statement and complete the sentences by filling in the missing Write only the words next to the question number (1(a) and1(b)).
   The narrator (person who is telling the story) is visiting Carnarvon because he wants to write a novel about his family (a) … Before going to Carnarvon, he spends a week in (b) …    (2)
2. What are “chains of cigarettes” in line 7? (1)
3. In lines 10–11, “the dry riverbeds of history” are mentioned
   1. Identify the figure of speech used here (1)
   2. Explain why the writer has used this figure of speech  (2)
4. The narrator is surprised and pleased by the way the three big men in the compartment treat
   State TWO ways in which these men make him feel like an old friend. (2)
5. Explain how the narrator feels about the other two passengers in the compartment at this point in the State TWO points. (2)
6. When the three men leave, the behaviour of the two boys changes
   Give TWO reasons for the change in the boys’ behaviour.   (2)
7. Give TWO reasons why the narrator decides not to ask the conductor to move him to another compartment. (2)
8. Is the following statement TRUE or FALSE? Write “true” or “false” and give a reason for your answer.
   Before they tell him, the narrator is certain that the two boys are brothers.   (2)
9. The narrator in this story researches his family Do you think it is a good idea for one to do this? Discuss your view.        (2) [18]

Activity 8

Read the extract below and answer the questions that follow.

Extract B

[The narrator tells his fellow passengers about Georgie Abrahams.]

1. Why was Georgie’s wife angry with him when she met him at the station? State TWO points.      (2)
2. Does the writer want his readers to believe that Georgie killed the man? Give a reason for your answer (2)
3. After listening to the story of Georgie Abrahams the people in the compartment have different reactions.
   Describe the different reactions the friendly men and the two boys have (2)
   Why is the narrator not surprised by the boys’ reaction? (1)
4. Read the following statement and complete the sentences by filling in the missing words. Write only the words next to the question number (4(a) and 4(b)).
   The two boys are on their way to their a) … funeral. He was a b) … leader in Coronationville.   (2)
5. The narrator discovers that he is related to the two boys
   1. How does this fact change his feelings towards them?
   2. How does the boys’ behaviour change because of this new-found relationship?       (2)
6. Choose the correct answer to complete the following sentence
   Write only the answer (A–D).      (1)
   One of the themes in this story is …
   1. romantic love.
   2. sibling rivalry.
   3. fear.
   4. greed.                                                                                           (1)
7. Explain what makes the ending of the story (2)
8. Discuss your views on the following statement:
   Family background does not determine what you will become in life.  (2) [17]

Words to know