Maureen's Evolution Case

Maureen's Evolution

In her novel July's people, Nadine Godimer recreates and bends language to convey her vision on how the world needs to be. The novel is about much more then racial relationships. It's about human relationships and the relationship within ourselves. She communicates this theme in a unique way, mostly through the eyes of the protagonist, Maureen Smales. Maureen is a very sensitive character who continuously evolves and grows throughout the story.

She is the mother and wife in the Smales family. They were forced to leave their home and everything behind in Johannesburg due to a violent civil war that broke out in their city and all around South Africa. They are helped by their servant July, who takes them to safety in his village and gives them his mother's hut to live in. Their being is now reduced to a base world existence.

Maureen's evolution begins with the realization that they were not liberal whites, as she believed they were. She realizes that they were self deceptive and unfair in the past as she questions, "Why had Lydia carried her case?" (33) back in the day when she was walking home from school as a child. She regrets the inequality that existed with July having to ask for everything even a Tylenol and to make a phone call. Nothing in their house was July's, but in the village everything is theirs.

Maureen never complains about their loss and never mentions the things they left behind. She comes from an elite family and is used to a wealthy lifestyle but she embraces her new life and grows in the village. She connects with the villagers and she has a very deep connection with July.

Maureen is very thankful to July, for his unquestioned acceptance of them and for saving their lives. She tells her husband Bam throughout the novel: " We owe him everything" (58, 121). She no longer considers July her servant, she considers him her equal. She shares a deep connection with him, one so deep that she doesn't even share with her husband. " Where was Bam to find bricks for her? She found her own solution.- Ask July-" (55). She is grateful to him "Gratitude stuffed her crop to chocking point..."(58). " She walked out into the vacuum of the afternoon..." (93) looking for him. She likes spending time with him and likes talking to him because she can be herself in his presence. When it comes to July even her temper is different. "She flowered into temper" (71) when they had an argument. The novelist is silent about the extent of their relationship, is there a love connection? We have to guess, but she is clear on the connection of their souls. Her first day in the village Maureen is already growing, because only an open-minded person can have such a deep connection with her former servant. She's starting to see no color, no title.

Maureen is adapting and learning to provide for her family, she goes out in the rain with the village women to collect spinach, but the real reason she goes is to connect with them. She is alive and very sensitive, she can communicate with the villagers even though they don't speak the same language. She is able to evolve and grow day by day because she is so alive and sensitive.

When they first arrived to the village she still had the mentality of a boss / servant relationship. "Will your wife do it? I must pay" (27). She was trying to hold on to some commodity items from her city lifestyle "She was cherishing a big cake of toilet soap carefully drying it after each use and keeping it on top of the hut wall out of reach of children " (27). She starts to realize that she, Bam and the kids are completely dependent on these people, but have nothing but bits of paper to give them.

Maureen brought with her a novel that she cannot bring herself to read it"...the false awareness of being within another time, place and life that was a pleasure of reading for her, was not possible" (29). She started to realize she was happy in the present, she was happy with what she had "she was already not was she was" (29). She was changing, becoming a better person.