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Chapter 1
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Tsotsi, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Apartheid and Racism
Parents and Children
Identity and Memory
Hatred, Sympathy, and God
Habit vs. Choice
Summary
Analysis
Boston demands to know what it proves that he was sick when they killed and robbed Gumboot. Butcher laughs and tells him he was “sick like a dog.” Boston again demands to know what that proves. They are drinking at Soekie’s, a shebeen (that is, illegal drinking establishment) in the township. The police often close down shebeens in the township, prompting new ones to open. Soekie’s has one table, a few chairs, empty walls, and a “rotten” floor. Soekie lives there in a back room.
The sparse furnishings and “rotten” floor in Soekie’s drinking establishment show the poverty of Black township life under apartheid. Boston demanding to know what it proves that he was sick—it seems he vomited at some point after he helped murder Gumboot—implies that he unwillingly sympathized with Gumboot but doesn’t want to admit it to other members of the gang. Butcher’s laughter and claim that Boston was “sick like a dog,” meanwhile, both indicate that Butcher doesn’t share Boston’s sympathy toward Gumboot and hint that dog imagery may be important later in the novel.
Themes
Tsotsi, Die Aap, and Butcher sit at the table while Boston stands. An incoherent woman sits in the corner. Boston again demands to know what his sickness proves. The woman shouts, “Come here Johnny,” but the men ignore her. The woman asks for Johnny to kiss her, prompting Boston to hit her twice in the face. Butcher laughs and tells Boston not to go too far. Boston wanders the room. Butcher, his drink finished, calls for another and eyeballs the woman in the corner. Soekie responds from the other room but doesn’t appear. Butcher yells her name, and she yells back.
That Boston hits the incoherent woman in the face shows that he is emotionally volatile and violent, despite his sympathy for Gumboot. By hitting her, he may be trying to prove to the other members of his gang that despite getting sick after the murder, he is still capable of violence. The squalid surroundings—only four customers, a terribly drunk woman, casual violence, bad service—again emphasize the economic oppression of Black townships under apartheid.
Themes
Tsotsi notes that Boston, wandering the room, is searching for an explanation for his vomiting and tears after they killed Gumboot. Tsotsi, on the way to Soekie’s, resolved to keep exactly to his usual behavior, in part because something feels different to him. Tsotsi blames Boston for this feeling. His hatred of Boston motivated his decision to kill someone on the train. Tsotsi believes Boston has changed the feeling of things since he joined the gang six months ago, because Boston asks questions.
Here the novel makes explicit that Boston vomited and cried after helping murder Gumboot. Tsotsi’s decision to behave exactly as usual, and his hatred of Boston for introducing changing feelings into his life, reveal how psychologically dependent Tsotsi is on his habits. Tsotsi’s hatred for Boston, together with his earlier desire that Gumboot hate him, hint that hatred is Tsotsi’s main way of relating to other people.
Themes
After Boston joined the gang, he asked what Tsotsi’s real name was, and Tsotsi walked away instead of responding. Die Aap explained to Boston that Tsotsi “hated questions about himself,” and that he is a mystery. Boston stopped asking questions, but Tsotsi perceives questions in Boston’s eyes when Boston drinks. Tsotsi thinks letting Boston ask questions with his eyes is a mistake and picking gang jobs that disturb Boston is an even bigger mistake. Boston has realized Tsotsi is picking jobs to disturb him, which has prompted him to ask questions aloud again.
By turning Tsotsi’s background into a mystery, this passage prompts the reader to wonder what Tsotsi’s true identity is and why he hates questions about himself. The passage also emphasizes once again that, at this point, the main emotion motivating Tsotsi is hatred: he hates questions about himself, and he picks jobs to disturb Boston because he hates Boston.
Themes
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Soekie, a “coloured woman in her fifties,” brings more alcohol to the men’s table. Though born in a European area of the city, she lives in the township because her mother didn’t want her. She writes to her mother asking to know her birthday but receives no reply. On her way back from the table, Soekie tells the woman in the corner, Rosie, that she needs to leave. The woman starts crying, and Soekie returns to the back room.
In apartheid South Africa, “coloured” was a legally enforced racial classification referring to people of mixed race. Since Soekie was born in a European—that is, white—neighborhood, her mother was probably white. The novel implies that Soekie’s white mother had a romantic relationship with a Black man, became pregnant, and then rejected their child, either due to her own racism or to protect herself from legal repercussions (it was illegal under apartheid for a white person to have a sexual relationship with a non-white person). With Soekie’s background, then, the novel is giving the reader another example of racism and apartheid destroying families and separating children from their parents.
Themes
Boston braces his hands on the table and says “decency.” Butcher asks Boston what he’s talking about, and Boston claims that decency made him sick. Butcher asks what decency is, and Boston replies that it’s what Butcher isn’t. He then sits beside Tsotsi and asks whether he knows what decency means. Tsotsi thinks Boston wants to wound him and inwardly expresses contempt for “books and words.” He denies knowing about “decency” and asks Boston what it is. Boston says it’s why he was sick, and Tsotsi asks whether it’s a sickness. Boston laughs and says yes—it made him sick and it killed their victim. Tsotsi tells Boston to go to the doctor.
Boston knows what the word “decency” means, while Butcher and Tsotsi do not (or claim they don’t). On one level, this detail hints that Boston may have had some education, which Butcher and Tsotsi were denied due to their poverty. Tsotsi’s inward contempt for “books and words” while fighting with Boston also suggests that Tsotsi thinks Boston is more educated than he is. On another level, that Boston knows what “decency” means, while Butcher and Tsotsi don’t, suggests that knowing what “decency” means symbolizes feeling sympathy for other people—Boston feels sympathy for Gumboot, while Butcher and Tsotsi do not.
Themes
Butcher keeps calling for Soekie. Boston leans closer to Tsotsi, says he wants to have a conversation, and asks Tsotsi’s age. Tsotsi loathes Boston’s questions because he can’t answer them. He has few memories—fragments of children “scavenging,” the police, and loneliness. Tsotsi doesn’t think about himself, the past, or the future. He lives in the present and “his name was the name, in a way, of all men.”
This passage hints that Tsotsi may have accepted the stereotyped identity of “tsotsi”—gangster—because he has lost his memories and thus his true identity. At the same time, by claiming that Tsotsi’s name is “the name, in a way, of all men,” the passage suggests that anyone in Tsotsi’s situation might commit similar crimes.
Themes
Tsotsi asks Boston why he cares. Boston says he’s older than Tsotsi, so Tsotsi should listen to him. At Tsotsi’s age, he wanted to be a teacher and wore a tie like the one the man they murdered was wearing because of “decency.” Tsotsi again tells Boston to go see a doctor. Boston begins to say something about Jesus Christ with “no blasphemy.”
By saying he used to wear a tie like Gumboot’s, Boston shows that he can see himself in the gang’s victim—in other words, he is able to personally empathize with the victim. That Boston says the name Jesus Christ with “no blasphemy,” meanwhile, suggests that he isn’t just swearing but trying to talk to Tsotsi about religion—which hints that Boston’s ability to feel sympathy for others may have something to do with his religious beliefs.
Themes
Soekie refills the men’s drinks, gives Butcher a “dagga” cigarette, and again tells Rosie to leave. Butcher demands Soekie stop trying to move Rosie. Soekie notes Rosie used to be her friend and tells Butcher “no rough stuff.” She returns to the back room.
In the South African context, “dagga” means cannabis. That Soekie tells Butcher “no rough stuff” suggests she thinks he might hurt Rosie. By leaving the situation instead of trying to protect Rosie from Butcher, Soekie reveals that she is so used to brutality that she does not believe she has the power or the choice to protect anyone, even a former friend.
Themes
Butcher and Die Aap smoke the cigarette while Butcher walks to Rosie and reaches under her dress’s skirt. She begs him, “not in here,” so he begins pushing her outside. Die Aap calls to Butcher, and Butcher invites him to join, so all three of them go outside. Tsotsi, alone with Boston, wants to flee but acts “outwardly the same, as always.” He and Boston hear a yell from outside, and Boston asks where the others went. Tsotsi glances at Rosie’s empty chair. As they hear another scream, Boston swears. Tsotsi asks whether he’s feeling sick again, and Boston replies, “One’s enough.” Tsotsi denies the comparison between Rosie and Gumboot. When Boston asks why, Tsotsi points out Rosie won’t be murdered.
This passage suggests, without stating explicitly, that Butcher and Die Aap take Rosie outside to rape her. Later, her screams are further evidence that she’s being violently assaulted. Once again, Boston expresses sympathy for a victim of the gang—in this case, Rosie—without, however, doing anything to help the victim, which suggests that he lacks the courage or believes he lacks the power to intervene. Tsotsi, meanwhile, clings to his habits, acting “outwardly the same, as always,” because he is psychologically dependent on his routines and afraid that Boston’s sympathies and questions will somehow disrupt his life.
Themes
Boston asks Tsotsi whether he feels nothing for Gumboot or Rosie. Tsotsi asks what he means. Boston takes out a knife, slices his arm, and says that when they killed Gumboot, he felt like that inside. He asks whether anything makes Tsotsi feel like that. Tsotsi thinks he hates Boston more than ever, and knowing he’s going to “do something about it” is what allows him to meet Boston’s eyes. He reflects that Boston is trying to illuminate Tsotsi’s inner world, where nobody—including Tsotsi himself—ever goes.
In this passage, Boston is not only expressing sympathy for the gang’s victims, Gumboot and Rosie, but trying to sympathize with Tsotsi—to understand his psychology. Tsotsi, having embraced a stereotyped “gangster” identity, does not want to be understood as a unique, psychologically complex individual. So, he falls back on his habitual emotional reaction—hatred—in response to Boston’s attempts to connect with him.
Themes
Boston asks whether a woman ever hurt Tsotsi and about Tsotsi’s parents, sister, and dog. Tsotsi doesn’t respond. Boston whispers that Tsotsi must have a soul—everyone does. Tsotsi punches Boston, who falls. Tsotsi hits him more. Slurring, Boston tells Tsotsi that eventually he’ll experience feelings and won’t know how to react: “God help you on that day.” Tsotsi begins kicking Boston, and Soekie comes out of the back room to try to stop him. Butcher and Die Aap reenter the room and pull Tsotsi away, and then Tsotsi leaves.
Boston’s questions about Tsotsi’s parents and dog foreshadow the importance these figures may have in Tsotsi’s mysterious, forgotten past. Tsotsi’s violent response to Boston’s questions about his past, meanwhile, suggests both that the past is important to an individual’s identity and that Tsotsi has rejected his genuine identity in favor of a stereotyped one. Finally, since Boston claims religious concepts like “soul” and “God” are relevant to Tsotsi, the novel hints that religion will be important to Tsotsi’s character development going forward.
Themes
