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Chapter 98
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Long Walk to Freedom, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Racism and Division
Negotiation, Democracy, and Progress
Nonviolent Protest vs. Violent Protest
The Value of Optimism
Summary
Analysis
On February 2, 1990, de Klerk finally begins to dismantle apartheid and set the stage for a democratic South Africa. As part of this plan, Mandela will finally be released. While Mandela welcomes this, he is still apprehensive about how his release will play out, and he wants it to be on his own terms. At Mandela’s request, he is allowed to walk directly out of Victor Verster, which he believes will send the strongest message. As a compromise, Mandela drops his request to have a week’s advance notice (to give time for all his supporters to be notified) and instead agrees to go free the very next day..
In this passage, Mandela again shows his patience and careful consideration. As much as he wants freedom, he wants to make sure that it comes on favorable terms, and he senses that de Klerk needs the deal to work out for his own reasons. The suddenness of Mandela’s release, which is planned for the very next day, shows how as much as Mandela’s story is one of incremental progress, sometimes change can also come all at once.
Themes
