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Chapter 17
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
After 41 days with Elias and Barta, Benjamin begins to believe that Fiela is never coming for him. Elias has been away for several days, but Nina has disobeyed his orders, barely working on the wooden beams and instead going into the Forest.
The number 40 occurs several times in the Bible and usually involves times of suffering, including a period of time when Jesus went into the desert and was tempted for 40 days and 40 nights. The fact that Benjamin has been away for 41 days suggests that unlike Jesus’s temptation in the desert, this is not just a temporary trial for Benjamin but his new, permanent life—at least for the moment.
Themes
Later that day, Barta comes over to Benjamin and offers him coffee, which he declines. She asks him if he’s really happy with life so far in the Forest, but Benjamin dodges the question by saying he’ll take the coffee after all.
Barta’s role in the story is conflicted: On the one hand, she wants to care for Benjamin like a son by offering him comforts like coffee, but at the same time, she just stands by and watches as the legal system takes Benjamin away from the family he grew up with.
Themes
When Elias does finally come back, he seems dazed and barely notices how little work Nina accomplished. He instructs Benjamin and Nina that they are both going out into the Forest with him. They’re confused, but they agree. Elias takes them out into the woods, then he points at a stinkwood tree and asks Benjamin to climb it. Benjamin tries climbing the tree, but Elias scolds him for being too slow and has Nina do it so show him how it’s done. On his second try, Benjamin climbs quicker.
Elias doesn’t even tell his own children about his scheme to trap elephants, partly because he doesn’t want them to judge him but perhaps mostly because he doesn’t want to share any of the profits with them if he can help it.
Themes
Elias tells Benjamin and Nina that if they hear a branch crack, indicating that “bigfeet” are nearby, they should immediately drop everything and climb up that tree. He announces that they’re all about to dig a pit. They all dig a pit over the course of days, with Willem and Kristoffel sometimes stopping by to help and Elias often leaving the children alone.
Elia’s reference to bigfeet (elephants) suggests that he is aware he is putting his children in danger of being attacked by elephants. For him, the potential profit the tusks could bring him outweighs the risk the scheme poses to himself and to his family.
Themes
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One evening, when Nina and Benjamin come back to the house, Elias informs Benjamin that Fiela stopped by to drop off his possessions. Benjamin has lots of questions and figures out that it seems like Dawid was also with her when she came. Benjamin wants to chase after them, but Elias won’t let him out.
While racism plays the biggest role in keeping Benjamin and Fiela apart, their story also has moments of bad luck, like this one, where Fiela misses Benjamin through a coincidence of timing.
Themes
From then on, Elias always goes to accompany Benjamin and Nina when they work on the pit. Elias tells them they must not tell anyone about the pit and trust him. A week passes slowly for Benjamin.
Elias keeps a closer watch on Benjamin because he’s worried Benjamin might try to run back to Fiela, particularly after she just showed up. This suggests that Elias knows Benjamin is in the Forest against his will, but Elias just doesn’t care.
Themes
Benjamin talks with Kristoffel, who says that it seems like Benjamin has become Elias’s favorite assistant for helping with the beams. Benjamin says he wishes he had more knowledge of the Forest like Kristoffel does. Benjamin asks questions, but it doesn’t take Kristoffel long to realize Benjamin is just trying to find out how to get back to Long Kloof. A few days later, Nina comes up to Benjamin and says Elias is a “dirty swine.” She tells Benjamin about doing to the pit and finding a dead elephant calf in it, too young to have tusks.
Benjamin’s new “brothers” Kristoffel and William both feel conflicted about wanting to be loyal to their family but also being wary of their father Elias, and so they’re often unsure what to make of Benjamin. Meanwhile, Nina more decisively wants to break away from her controlling father, making her a natural ally of Benjamin. The fact that Elias’s trap killed an elephant without even making him any profit shows how needlessly destructive greed can be.
Themes
