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Chapter 9
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Fiela’s Child, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Race and Identity
Parenting
Justice
Humanity vs. Nature
Summary
Analysis
Meanwhile on that Friday, Fiela works on extracting aloe and worries about how Benjamin’s trial is going. She feels that her hand-lamb child is about to be slaughtered. Selling comes by to let Fiela know that the ostriches have been living together peacefully so far. Later that day, Fiela starts making a sugar-cake. Selling talks about when Benjamin might be back, based on how long a horse cart would take to make the journey. Selling asks if Fiela has felt any omens about Benjamin, but she says the Devil has kept barging in to distract her.
The peaceful coexistence of the ostriches suggests that Fiela’s judgment is sound and that, as painful as it was for her to turn Benjamin over to the magistrate, it might ultimately have been the best decision, given the circumstances. By making a sugar-cake (Benjamin’s favorite), she seems to be trying to will a hopeful outcome into being, reflecting her belief in omens.
Themes
Fiela keeps imagining she sees the horse cart coming toward her property. But then all of Saturday passes without Benjamin coming back, and Sunday passes too. On Monday, Fiela begins making plans to go to Knysna herself. Selling isn’t strong enough to come along, so he promises to take care of things at home.
Benjamin walks back to the Forest with Elias and Barta. The people in the courtroom told him that his name was Lukas and that he originally came from the Forest, but Benjamin kept saying that they were all liars. As Benjamin keeps walking with Elias and Barta, they wonder to each other why “Lukas” seems so quiet. Benjamin refuses to eat any food other than what Fiela has packed in his box.
The novel skips over the actual moment of the magistrate’s decision, instead dramatizing the even more important part: what this means for Benjamin’s future. Once again, Benjamin refuses to eat food as a way to show his overall rejection of this new culture and his determination to get back to his old home.
Themes
Elias and Barta make it with Benjamin back to the house. Elias asks “Lukas” to greet his brother Willem and sister Nina. He gets impatient when Benjamin refuses to say anything.
Elias’s lack of patience for Benjamin, right after meeting him, shows how his style of parenting is much less compassionate than Fiela’s.
Themes
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