Name: Deep Patel

Course: Crime Fiction Narratives

Professor’s Name: Brandon Reece

Title: Textual Analysis

Crime and criminals are often depicted as enemies of civilization, this literary analysis will

observe the story of Tsotsi and will support the above statement by generating valid arguments,

by the end of this essay we will be having the broader idea that how crime and criminals degrade

the development of civilization and act as an anti-catalyst towards its development process. This

story reflects the life of a boy named Tsotsi in South Africa, and he was a criminal who loots

innocent people for survival. Certain factors slow down the process of development of

civilization or prevent humans from achieving quality of life.

Let us discuss the factors I talked above, by perceiving certain scenarios in Tsotsi we can relate

these factors, if I talk about the first factor, that is the ‘fear’. On the train, the gang of Tsotsi

killed a decent man and robbed him, although nobody was aware of the situation on the train, I

am worried about the family that belongs to that man because they might be waiting for him, so

from this situation, we can say that crime leads to fear of losing closed ones. That is not the only

fear that is caused by crime, fear is furthermore divided into parts. Gang of Tsotsi always work at

night, they used to rob people, crime creates and increases the terror among people and terror is

very bad for civilization, it stops the growth. Fear of robbed, fear of getting stabbed or dead are

examples of kinds of fears which are caused by crime and criminals. The question arises that,

how criminals are made, I think they are made from their past, mostly all the criminals have dark

past, same with Tsotsi, his mother died at a very young age and his father was a drunkard, this

might be the link between that Tsotsi and the crime, another aspect is the scenario in which a

Tsotsi mistakenly put his foot on the beggar’s leg, that beggar behaved rudely to him and even

spit on his shoe, this could hurt the ego of anybody and as the result, Tsotsi followed him and

tried to hurt him. Politeness is very important here, many people involved in crime due to
someone who had behaved rudely with them. Politeness and humbleness are very important in

the development of civilization.

We lose people when someone gets involved in crime no matter who they are either friend,

family, or acquaintances, when Tsotsi’s friend Boston started feeling bad about killing people, he

started asking personal questions to the Tsotsi, and Boston got beaten up by Tsotsi. Tsotsi just

lost a friend. Another argument that might come up from this that, collaboration and relations are

very important in maintaining and developing healthy civilizations. Another factor that is caused

by crime is less freedom, here is an example, if I live in a society where crime is usual then I

would think twice before going out somewhere. Crime brings lots of negativity and for

developing civilization negativity is bad. Crime snatches the freedom. One of the main scenes of

Tsotsi includes the stealing of that car which have the baby in the back seat, we can think that

how much pain the mother got when Tsotsi stole her car, she lost her baby(son). Crime causes

pain by separation, but what are the roots of crime, let us discuss is furthermore detail, why

someone commits a crime, that is because of lack of direction, that causes unemployment, and

they choose alternate ways to survive.

I can think of one way that reduces crime, that is brainwashing of criminals, but this is very

tough to do. We can see the baby scene in Tsotsi acted as a brainwashing process for Tsotsi,

Tsotsi does not become a good human immediately, though he became less evil, and there was a

slight reduction in criminal activities in him. He tried to take care of a baby. Greed is also the

biggest friend of crime and enemy of civilization, greediness in human beings makes him

commit the crime. Civilization breaks due to crime, similar scene we can observe in Tsotsi when

the gang broke out into house of baby’s father, Tsotsi was slightly changed he was trying to find
clothes and bottles for baby, whereas his friend Butcher was seeking the money and he wants to

kill baby’s father, here we can see the clear example of greed as a crime, and we can feel the

power of crime when Tsotsi killed his friend Butcher who was trying to kill baby’s father, Tsotsi

lost his friend and baby almost lost his father, this would have caused catastrophic destruction.

We can easily raise the argument that crime is the enemy of humans and civilization. crime

causes harm to motherhood, fatherhood, and most importantly brotherhood. These are the core

aspects that help to form a better civilization. I think of a crime as like a lie, to hide one lie we

need to speak a hundred, likewise, to avoid punishment from one crime, criminal needs to

remove all the elements comes into the path, and by that way, crime increases exponentially. If

we talk about preventing the crime, security also plays a very important role in preventing the

crime and shaping the civilization, similarly, local cops help that baby’s parents to find the baby,

and at last Tsotsi’s heart changed and he handed that baby to its parents, I think that civilization

and humanity are dependent on this, mistakes are done are everybody but rectifying it is a

significant thing. To conclude, I think this essay came up with enough arguments that criminal

and crime generates fear, negativity, and freedom issues, and it causes the civilization to degrade

and slows its growth and therefore they are the enemies of the civilization.
References

Momentum Pictures. (2005). Tsotsi [Film]. United Kingdom.