• Summary
• Title
• Themes
• How is the story told?
• Activity 11
• Activity 12

The Dube Train by Can Themba

Daniel Canadoce (“Can”) Themba (1924–1968) was born in Marabastad in Pretoria. He studied at Fort Hare University and later moved to Johannesburg, where he worked as a teacher and journalist on Drum magazine. Many of his stories are about the lives of the people in Sophiatown in Johannesburg where he lived. This was a mixed- race suburb which was very vibrant during the 1950s, but it was later destroyed by the apartheid government. In the early 1960s he moved to Swaziland, where he died a few years later.

1. Summary

The narrator is at Dube Station in Soweto on a cold Monday morning, waiting for the train to Johannesburg. All his descriptions of the station and people emphasise his depression, which he feels is shared by all the people around him.
When he gets onto the train he sits opposite a huge man. When the train gets to Phefeni Station a young woman enters the carriage and sits next to the narrator. Soon afterwards a tsotsi jumps onto the train and begins verbally harassing the girl. When the girl reaches her stop and wants to get off the train the tsotsi prevents her and slaps her. She tries to get away from him by jumping over the narrator but the tsotsi follows her.
No one dares to say anything to stop the tsotsi, until an older woman starts shouting at the men and calling them cowards. This causes the tsotsi to swear at the woman. This angers the huge man sitting opposite the narrator and he gets up and moves towards the tsotsi.
The tsotsi pulls out a knife and cuts the big man’s chest and arm. The big man is enraged and, in spite of his injuries, he grabs the tsotsi and lifts him up. He throws him out of the train window.
Everyone is shocked, but the incident soon becomes just another event on the morning Dube train.

2. Title

The title focuses on the train journey rather than on any characters in the story. The writer intends us to see the train journey as a comment on the lives people experience. Even when bad things happen people just accept them. The incident on the train happens to people no one knows or is concerned about. It soon becomes:
Just an incident in the morning Dube train.

3. Themes

The main themes of this story are:

• Violence, crime and gangsterism in the townships; and
• People’s passive attitudes to these issues.

The train passengers do not at first take action when they are faced with gangsterism and violence. Nobody stops the tsotsi from harassing the girl, or prevents the tsotsi from stabbing the big man, or stops the man from flinging the tsotsi out of the window. The large man who takes action against the tsotsi also behaves in a violent way, which is not a solution to the social problem of crime.
Perhaps the writer is saying that violence has become so common that people no longer see it as a problem:

too many passengers had seen too many tragedies to be rattled by this incident.

People have become so used to violence that they are not shocked by such incidents. They consider them as a break in their dull lives. Although the narrator is also guilty of not getting involved, the writer uses him to convey the message that the people are too used to crime and too passive to fight against it.

4. How is the story told?

4.1 Setting

The story takes place at the Dube station and on the Dube train. It is on the train trip from Dube to Johannesburg that the events involving the girl, the tsotsi and the huge man take place.
The narrator links the train trip with life in general:

the prospect of congested trains filled with sour-smelling humanity, did not improve my impression of a hostile life directing its malevolence plumb at me.

4.2 Structure and plot development

At the beginning of the story the narrator gives a description of the environment at the station and the people who, like him, feel depressed on that Monday morning. The faceless, nameless people add to his feeling of despair.
When the narrator gets on to the train he describes the passengers more individually. The writer describes the huge man who sits opposite him, a young girl who gets on the train later and a tsotsi who sees the girl and comes to harass her.
The tsotsi’s harassment of the girl is the complication in the story. It creates the rising tension, to the point where the huge man gets up to intervene, after the tsotsi insults a woman who yells at the men nearby to stop the tsotsi. When the tsotsi draws a knife it creates panic in the carriage:

the woman shrieked and men scampered on to seats.

The climax of the story occurs when the tsotsi stabs the big man who confronts him. The man then picks the tsotsi up and flings him out of the train window.

The story ends with a negative and disturbing resolution because, although the problem with the tsotsi has been dealt with, the violent action of the man is also a criminal act. The narrator of the story comments at the end of the story:

Odd, that no one expressed sympathy for the boy or the man.

4.3 Characterisation

The main characters in the story are people who are part of the crowd on the train:

• A huge man who sits opposite the narrator. He is described as “a hulk of a man; his hugeness was obtrusive to the sight when you saw him, and to the mind when you looked away”. His presence feels “obtrusive” because he is so large and it feels as if he is blocking the narrator’s view and he can’t see past him.
• A young girl, who is described as “pert, arrogant, live”. She is young but acts more mature than she is.
• A young tsotsi who jumps onto the train and starts to harass the girl.
• An old lady who shouts at the men in the carriage for not stopping the tsotsi.

The men in the carriage “winced. They said nothing, merely looked around at each other in shy embarrassment”. It is only when the tsotsi swears at the woman, that the huge man becomes offended and takes action. He does not react when the young girl is being harassed.
In the story the huge man, the girl and the shouting woman act as protagonists. The tsotsi is the antagonist as he is in opposition to them. It is the tsotsi’s actions that drive the events that take place on the train.

4.4 Style

The narrator of the story notices what is going on with the tsotsi and the girl, as well as all the details of the train journey. The events in the carriage are viewed between station stops. At one point the narrator gives a long description of a bridge and the view of the city skyline, which looks attractive after “the drab, chocolate-box houses of the township, monotonously identical row upon row”.
The writer uses township slang and dialect as ways to indicate the atmosphere of the life he is describing. “Tsotsi”, “Sies” and “Hela, Tholo, my ma hears me, I want that ten-’n-six!” are examples of slang. In the story slang is used by the tsotsis to communicate with each other. It sets the tsotsis apart from the other passengers. The narrator says of their exchange of words:
The gibberish exchange was all in exuberant superlatives.

4.5 Narrator and point of view

The narrator tells the story in the first person. He refers to himself as “I”.

4.6 Diction and figurative language

The way the writer uses language in the story helps to express meaning.
For example, the description of the big man on the train is significant as it helps us build up a picture of him:
a hulk of a man ... The neck was thick and corded, and the enormous chest was a live barrel that heaved back and forth.
With this metaphor of the man’s chest being an enormous live barrel we have an image of how huge he was and don’t question his ability to lift up and throw the boy later.
The writer’s description of the ‘blue’ Monday includes phrases such as “hostile life”, “the grey aspect around me”, “savagery of the crowd” and “all was wrong with the world”, which give the impression of a dreary day which matches his depression.
The writer uses figurative language to describe the scene and the characters:

• Simile
  For example, his description of the movement of the train leaving the station as making the platform look as though it is “a fast conveyor belt”.
• Metaphor
  The woman who shouted at the tsotsi used “barbed words” – her words are compared to barbs, which could mean insults or sharp thorns.
• Oxymoron
  The narrator watches the tsotsi with “grim anticipation”. “Anticipation” is usually associated with looking forward to something positive. Here it is paired with “grim”, which means horrible, awful or unpleasant.

4.7 Tone and mood

From the start of the story the writer gives us a picture of a dreary Monday morning at the station. The narrator surveys the scene with displeasure; the tone of his thoughts conveys a feeling of gloom:

Despairing thoughts of every kind darted through my mind: the lateness of the trains, the shoving savagery of the crowd, the grey aspect around me.

The tone of gloom and despair is continued when the narrator is seated on the train:

the other passengers, looking Monday-bleared, had no enthusiasm about them. They were just like the lights of the carriage – dull, dreary, undramatic.

The writer emphasises how bored and depressed the passengers on the train usually are by contrasting this with how they behave at the end of the story:

[They] break out into a cacophony of chattering.
They were just greedily relishing the thrilling episode of the morning.”

The writer emphasises the fact that people are so used to violence, that they are not so much shocked as excited by what happened on the train. This creates a tone of excitement.
Mood: How does this story make you feel? Happy, sad, angry or indifferent? What are the reasons it makes you feel this way?

Summary
 The Dube Train by Can Themba

1. Title
   • Focuses on a train journey
2. Themes
   • Violence, crime and gangsterism
   • Peoples’ passive attitudes to these issues
3. How is the story told?
   3.1 Setting
   • At the Dube Station and on the train
     3.2 Structure and plot development
   • Complication: The tsotsi’s harassment of the girl
   • Rising tension: The continued harassment of the girl
   • Climax: The stabbing of the big man and the tsotsi being thrown out of the train window
   • Resolution: Disturbing because the violence of the man against the tsotsi is also a criminal act
     3.3 Characterisation
   • Protagonists: The big man, the girl and the shouting woman
   • Antagonist: The tsotsi
     3.4 Style
   • Descriptions: Of the township and the city
   • Slang/dialect: For example, “tsotsi”, “sies”, “hela”
     3.5 Narrator and point of view
   • First person
     3.6 Diction and !gurative language
   • “the enormous chest was a live barrel”
     Metaphor
   •  “barbed words”
     Metaphor
   •  “like a fast conveyor belt”
     Simile
   • “grim anticipation”
     Oxymoron
     3.7 Tone and mood
   • Tone: Mainly a gloomy, despairing and depressed tone; except when the violence breaks out, when the tone becomes excited
   • Mood: How does this story make you feel? Happy, sad, angry or indifferent? Give reasons for your answer.

Activity 11 

Read the extract below and answer the questions that follow.

Extract A

[The narrator describes a typical Monday morning.]

1. Read the following statement and complete the sentence by filling in the missing words. Write down only the words next to the question number (1a)–1b)).
   In lines 1 and 2 “a child of the sun” is an example of personification.
   The a) … is being described as the b) … of the narrator. (2)
2. Refer to paragraph 1.
   1. Quote no more than FOUR consecutive words from the extract to show that this story is written in the first person. (1)
   2. Using your own words, briefly describe how the narrator feels on a Monday morning. State TWO points. (2)
   3. In your view, why does he feel this way? State TWO points. (2)
3. Refer to paragraph 2.
   Quote TWO consecutive words to show that the narrator has a negative outlook on life. (1)
4. Refer to line 10 (“… shoving savagery of the crowds …”).
   Which figure of speech is used here? (1)
5. Choose the correct answer to complete the following sentence: In line 13, the word “flukes” refers to …
   1. unfortunate accidents.
   2. lucky charms.
   3. unlucky coincidences.
   4. a stroke of good luck. (1)
6. Refer to the story as a whole.
   Is the following statement TRUE or FALSE? Give a reason to support your answer.
   The narrator’s journey was dull and uneventful. (2)
7. What point is the narrator making by including the description of the train carriage and the station? State TWO ideas. (2)
8. A girl boards the train at Phefeni station.
   1. Explain what the narrator finds unusual for a girl of her age.State TWO points. (2)
   2. Explain why the narrator is surprised by the girl’s reactions later, when the tsotsi attacks her. State TWO points. (2) [18]

Activity 12 

Read the extract below and answer the questions that follow.

Extract B

[The narrator describes the reactions of the passengers.]

1. Refer to line 1.
   1. Who is “our caveman lover”? (1)
   2. Why is this person described as a “caveman”? (1)
   3. Quote ONE word from paragraph 2 which shows that the narrator is comparing the “caveman” to an animal. (1)
2. Refer to line 7.
   What caused the “caveman” to reel? (1)
3.  Refer to line 12.
   Using your own words, explain why the woman calls the men “poltroons”. (1)
4. Refer to paragraph 4 of the extract.
   Quote FOUR consecutive words to show that the woman believes that the men have strong fatherly instincts. (1)
5. Refer to line 18.
   What does the use of the word “Sies!” suggest about the woman’s feelings? (1)
6. Later in the story the attacker draws a knife when the big man confronts him.
   How do the following people react when they see the knife?
   1. The woman (1)
   2. The male passengers (1)
7. The big man, who has been sitting quietly all the time, comes to life because of the incident described in the extract.
   1. Why, do you think, does he not react when the tsotsi attacks the young girl? State TWO points. (2)
   2. What causes the big man’s violent reaction later? (2)
8. Do you feel sorry for the attacker who is flung from the train and probably killed? Explain your answer. (2)
9. The passengers on the Dube train choose not to get involved when the tsotsi attacks the girl. They also do nothing when he is flung from the train. Why do you think this is the case? Discuss your view. (2) [17]

Words to know