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-------Lesson Dialog-------

----Formal ----

The Conservationist is 'n roman wat geskryf is deur Nadine Gordimer.

Deur woorde te gebruik, gee sy wat voel soos 'n geïllustreerde siening van die eeue-lange stryd tussen Suid-Afrikaanse swartes en koloniale blankes.

Sy het die boek geskryf in 1974 toe die apartheidsregeringstelsel nog gesag gehad het oor die land en is bekroon met die Brooker-McConnell Prys en die Nobelprys vir Letterkunde in 1991 vir die boek.

Die hoofkarakter in die boek is Mehring, 'n welaf, blanke uitvoerende beampte wat gewerk het in die yster-mynwese.

Hy het 'n mielie- en beesplaas gekoop wat geleë was buite die stad van Johannesburg vir die doel om 'n plek te hê vir sy voortdurende afsprake met sy minnares.

Dit is reeds vroeg baie duidelik dat hy absoluut niks weet van boerdery of hoe om 'n groot veeplaas te bestuur nie en dit word geheel en al bestuur deur die swart werkers.

Mehring spandeer sy naweke by die bouvallige plaashuis deur sy werkers te monitor, alhoewel dit duidelik is dat hy niks anders is as 'n buitestaander op sy eie eiendom nie.

Die boek begin met hom wat probeer om sy werkers se kinders te berispe; wat speel met 'n paar eiers wat hulle gesteel het van 'n voël, maar hy is nie in staat om dit te doen nie, want hy praat nie hulle taal nie.

Later in die roman is die liggaam van 'n vermoorde swart man ontdek op die plaas, maar die blanke polisiemag voel nie enige aansporing om die moordenaar te vind nie, omdat hy swart is.

Die polisie-sersant beveel dat die man begrawe word in 'n vlak graf, maar later verwoes 'n vloed die plaas en dra die liggaam terug na die oppervlak.

Al ken die werkers nie die man nie, gee hulle hom 'n behoorlike begrafnis in die laaste toneel van die boek.

----Formal English----

The Conservationist is a novel that was written by Nadine Gordimer.

Using words, she gives what feels like a pictorial view of the centuries-long struggle between South African blacks and colonial whites.

She wrote the book in 1974 when the apartheid regime still held sway over the country and was awarded the Brooker-McConnell Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991 for the book.

The main character in the book is Mehring, an affluent, white executive who worked in the iron mining industry.

He purchased a corn and cattle farm located outside the city of Johannesburg for the purpose of having a place for his ongoing tryst with his paramour.

It's clear very early on that he knows absolutely nothing about farming or running a ranch, and it is run entirely by the black workers.

Mehring spends his weekends at the ramshackle ranch home monitoring his workers, although it's clear that he's nothing but an outsider on his own property.

The book opens with him trying to reprimand his workers' children, who are playing with some eggs they pilfered from a bird, but he's unable to do so because he doesn't speak their language.

Later in the novel, the body of a murdered black man is discovered on the farm, but the white police force doesn't feel any incitement to find the killer because he is black.

The police sergeant orders the man's burial in a shallow grave, but a flood later destroys the farm and carries the body back to the surface.

Although the workers don't know the man they give him a proper burial in the final scene of the book.

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