”The Journey to the Brothers’ Farm” by Pippa Gough

To find your personal fortune and real values in life you have to search. Many people have an idea that the outer values is the right and perfect values to all people. Instead of keep, searching for their personal fortune and destiny in life they just keep searching for the destiny they for the first instinct think is their destiny. In the short story The Journey to the Brothers’ Farm written by the British author Pippa Gough in 2013 this issue is represented. The main character in this short story is a girl named Annelie. She lives on a farm called ‘Bloumeer Farm’ with her farther, her brother and her aunt, Das. Through the short story, Annelie is very interested in finding her personal fortune. In her childhood, Annelie had an African friend called Thabo. They were inseparable but one day her farther forbid her to play with him any more. This becomes clear when her farther says, “Mix with your own type now, Annelie… Leave the workers now, okay?” (p. 3, ll. 55-56). After then Annelie was placed higher in the hierarchy in proportion to Thabo – she became “madam” and he remained the name “Thabo”.

Annelie now spends her time playing with three brothers who lived on a farm called ‘Veldpatt’. As a turning point in her life Annelie, one day has a psychical experience with one of the three brothers. This experience is the cause of a development happening in Annelie. During a drive, a personal development of Annelie is being clarified. On this drive, she met her old friend Thabo who was seriously hurt. From this moment, she finally realized his misery and his lower rank in the hierarchy. She shows humanity.

The short story essentially consists 11 parts, which consist a connected narrative, and 5 parts, which consist by a statement of the main character who is the narrator of the short story. The statement sum up the story and gives the reader a deeper understanding of the story. Given that the story is told by a first-person-narrator, the common statement affects the reader only experience the story from the main character’s point of view. The writing style is characterized by the proverb ‘less is more’. By using this method Rippa Gough only, possess the essential points in her work. Every passage in the short story is probably meant to build up and understanding of the deeper message of the story.

The language is filled with colloquial language. Direct speech finds expression in most of the passages. The using of direct speech develops a closer relationship between the reader and the characters in the short story. The use of colloquial language becomes clear when the narrator says, “I loaded the ‘bakkie’ with water for the journey and put Vernon’s old rifle in the front with me” (p. 3, ll. 29-30). This quote shows us the use of slang-words, which is a characteristic aspect in the using of colloquial language. The main theme in the short story remains to the description on finding your own destiny and personal fortunes in life. Rippa Gough personally grew up in Africa why she includes the issue about black and white skin color in the short story. Before the main character experiences the turning point in her life, she had the idea that beauty and a “milk-white skin” was her personal fortune.

That if a white boy think that she is pretty her whole life would be saved. After having a painful experience with this boy her view on what is important to her suddenly chanced – she found her fortune, a real friend. One of the most important symbols in the short story is the title ‘The Journey to the Brothers’ Farm’. This journey symbolizes the main characters way of finding what is important to her, her fortune. After realizing her faith, everything she earlier thought was her faith, the brothers and the Veldpatt Farm, becomes a path. The message of the short story is thought provoking to many people in the modern society full of technology and the social media. How we look, how we radiates and what we wear is certain values for most people, but what about the inner values? The massage of the short story may have something to do with the inner and outer values of human beings. In this short story, the black skinned people are in the lower rank in the hierarchy and the white skinned people are in the higher rank.

This becomes clear when one of the three brothers says, “You’ve got to treat them like animals”. Through the story this view changes and suddenly it becomes clear who the real animal is: “but he was wild, like an animal”. This quote gives the impression the real animals is the ones with a lack of the inner values. By writing the short story, The Journey to the Brothers’ Farm the British author Pippa Gough builds up an issue, which is relevant for many people in the modern society. The story deals with a person who has a hard time finding her personal fortune. By keeping search for this fortune, she suddenly finds that all what she in her earlier life thought was import turns to be her worst nightmare.