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Chapter 12
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
Fiela reaches Knysna in the evening. The previous night, she went off to sleep by herself in a cave rather than ask for help. She arrives at the magistrate’s gray building and feels it looks grim. A man with no front teeth comes up behind her and asks what she’s looking for. He doesn’t recognize the horse cart Fiela describes, but he offers her a place to sleep for the night. She agrees but sleeps uneasily worrying about where Benjamin went and what will happen if the magistrate finds out about Selling.
Fiela shows in this passage how she sometimes goes to extremes when it comes to avoiding asking for help, even sleeping in a cave rather than imposing on anyone. While Fiela’s avoidance of help may sometimes make life more difficult for her, it also perhaps reflects the sad truth that being a Coloured woman means she cannot expect other people to help her survive the harsh climate of Long Kloof.
Themes
Fiela wakes up the next morning and walks around the village. Many children in the area look like their parents must be rich. She goes the magistrate’s building and is worried when the man there seems to only speak English (since she speaks Dutch), but she learns that the magistrate himself speaks Dutch. She gets frightened, however, when she demands to see the magistrate, and then a constable comes out and asks if she’s there to lodge a complaint against the magistrate. She clarifies that the complaint isn’t against the magistrate himself. She explains the story, and the constable recognizes it.
When Fiela notices that the children in Knysna seem to be rich, she seems to be wondering if maybe it’s better for Benjamin to be with a white family after all, where he might be able to live as a member of a higher class. Her interaction with the man in the magistrate’s office where she has to navigate different languages shows how diverse South Africa was, but it also shows how difficult it is for a Coloured person like Fiela to navigate a legal system where she might not even speak the language.
Themes
Fiela tries to appear meek and not angry. The constable agrees to check with the magistrate, but when he comes back, the constable informs her that the case is closed and the magistrate is too busy to see her.
Even with all her independence, Fiela also has a pragmatic side, and this causes her to avoid appearing too proud and independent in front of the constable, as she tries to live up to what she believes he wants a Coloured woman to be.
Themes
Fiela leaves the village and walks back toward Wolwekraal until nightfall. She sleeps right off the path without taking shelter. When she wakes up the next day, she feels weak and knows it will be a struggle to make it home. When she finally gets back, she informs her family that Benjamin is the child of the “forest woman” (Barta).
Fiela’s difficult journey shows how far she is willing to go for Benjamin as well as how she is perhaps not quite as young and fit as she used to be in the days when she would sneak off to visit Selling in his prison labor camp. Her declaration that Benjamin is no longer her child doesn’t mean that she believes Barta is his biological mother—instead, it conveys her awareness that she has no way to oppose the magistrate’s power without endangering herself or other people in her family.
Themes
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