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Marty
Soekie is a 50-something woman who runs a shebeen that Tsotsi and his gang frequent. Though she is “coloured”—that is, mixed race, which was its own legal classification under apartheid—she lives in the Black township. Rumor has it that she was born in one of the city’s white neighborhoods but her mother, presumably a white woman, rejected her mixed-race daughter. Soekie has repeatedly tried to contact her mother but has received no reply, not even information she has requested about her date of birth. Soekie’s background serves to emphasize how white supremacy and apartheid tear families apart.
Soekie Quotes in Tsotsi
The Tsotsi quotes below are all either spoken by Soekie or refer to Soekie. 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:
).
Chapter 2
Quotes
[Tsotsi’s] own eyes in front of a mirror had not been able to put together the eyes, and the nose, and the mouth and the chin, and make a man with meaning. His own features in his own eyes had been as meaningless as a handful of stones picked up at random in the street outside his room. He allowed himself no thought of himself, he remembered no yesterdays, and tomorrow existed only when it was the present, living moment. He was as old as that moment, and his name was the name, in a way, of all men.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
They stayed that way until the street cried, then laughter, and Soekie started her song again at the beginning, staying like that, Boston still, Tsotsi seemingly the same as always, the one in disbelief, the other at the explosive moment of action, and this moment precipitated when Boston whispered: ‘You must have a soul Tsotsi. Everybody’s got a soul. Every living human being has got a soul!’
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Soekie Quotes in Tsotsi
The Tsotsi quotes below are all either spoken by Soekie or refer to Soekie. 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:
).
Chapter 2
Quotes
[Tsotsi’s] own eyes in front of a mirror had not been able to put together the eyes, and the nose, and the mouth and the chin, and make a man with meaning. His own features in his own eyes had been as meaningless as a handful of stones picked up at random in the street outside his room. He allowed himself no thought of himself, he remembered no yesterdays, and tomorrow existed only when it was the present, living moment. He was as old as that moment, and his name was the name, in a way, of all men.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
They stayed that way until the street cried, then laughter, and Soekie started her song again at the beginning, staying like that, Boston still, Tsotsi seemingly the same as always, the one in disbelief, the other at the explosive moment of action, and this moment precipitated when Boston whispered: ‘You must have a soul Tsotsi. Everybody’s got a soul. Every living human being has got a soul!’
