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Bhekithemba Nyathi
Mother to Dingani Masuku, grandmother to Marcus and Krystle, Eunice is a sex worker in South Africa when she meets her husband, Dingani’s future father. Though her husband promises her a better life in an unnamed country implied to be Zimbabwe, he becomes suspicious after their marriage that Dingani is not his biological son due to her previous career. He occasionally gets drunk and physically abuses Eunice and Dingani; he also prevents Eunice from training to become a nurse, forcing her to work as a maid. To take revenge on her abusive husband, Eunice reports him and his friends as dissident African nationalists to colonial spymaster Emil Coetzee, who has him put in prison, where he dies. After her husband’s imprisonment, Eunice becomes a nurse and supports her son Dingani through school—where he is a superlative student due to his fear of disappointing Eunice as her husband disappointed her. Under her influence, Dingani becomes a rich doctor and a postcolonial elite—he only defies her on one occasion, when he insists on adopting Genie due to his secret guilt over having caused the massacre that killed Genie’s parents Golide and Elizabeth. In old age, Eunice suffers a stroke, develops dementia, and begins repeating over and over the accusation she once leveled at her abusive husband and his friends—that “they” were plotting against the government. The end of Eunice’s marriage shows how, in a politically oppressive society, people sometimes resolve interpersonal conflicts by falsely reporting their enemies to the government, while her tight control over Dingani’s life shows how maternal love can be frightening, damaging, and selfish.
Eunice Masuku Quotes in The Theory of Flight
The The Theory of Flight quotes below are all either spoken by Eunice Masuku or refer to Eunice Masuku. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Book 1, Part 2: History
Quotes
“We are your family now,” his new grandmother said, still not smiling. They all looked beautiful, the members of his family, but Marcus felt that their beauty was not to be trusted. It was a dangerous beauty. He was suddenly more terrified than he had ever been before. He let go of his bladder then, well aware that his urine would soil both his shorts and his mother’s shiny dress.
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Book 2, Part 1: Epistemology
Quotes
Krystle looks at the telltale line left behind by the adhesive tape. She gets down on her knees and traces the grimy demarcation with her index finger. Tracing the evidence that Genie’s life with them had not been as easy as they all liked to remember. They had loved her in their own way, the only way they knew how . . . jealously . . . possessively . . . imperfectly.
“It is too intimate, this interference, this role the state plays in our lives,” Minenhle says, looking him in the eye. “Too intimate.”
Book 2, Part 2: Revelations
Quotes
This is where he belongs.
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Eunice Masuku Quotes in The Theory of Flight
The The Theory of Flight quotes below are all either spoken by Eunice Masuku or refer to Eunice Masuku. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Book 1, Part 2: History
Quotes
“We are your family now,” his new grandmother said, still not smiling. They all looked beautiful, the members of his family, but Marcus felt that their beauty was not to be trusted. It was a dangerous beauty. He was suddenly more terrified than he had ever been before. He let go of his bladder then, well aware that his urine would soil both his shorts and his mother’s shiny dress.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 2, Part 1: Epistemology
Quotes
Krystle looks at the telltale line left behind by the adhesive tape. She gets down on her knees and traces the grimy demarcation with her index finger. Tracing the evidence that Genie’s life with them had not been as easy as they all liked to remember. They had loved her in their own way, the only way they knew how . . . jealously . . . possessively . . . imperfectly.
“It is too intimate, this interference, this role the state plays in our lives,” Minenhle says, looking him in the eye. “Too intimate.”
Book 2, Part 2: Revelations
Quotes
This is where he belongs.
