The Lemon Orchard Themes

“The Lemon Orchard” is set in South Africa during apartheid, a period when the country’s government enforced racial segregation. This system was based on the ideology of white supremacy and the racist belief that non-white people are inherently savage, barbaric, and violent. In the story, four white men take a “coloured” (multiracial) man captive in the middle of the night and prepare to whip him as punishment for disrespecting a white person in their community…

“The Lemon Orchard” is largely a story of how an imbalance of power harms the underclass in society—but also how it corrupts the upper classes. The four white men who take a “coloured” (multiracial) man captive in the story clearly benefit from their privileged position relative to him, as they’re able to move through society without being judged by or punished for the color of their skin the way that non-white people are. But it…