ENG 1501

ASSIGNMENT 3
SEMESTER 1

STUDENT NUMBER:
18192173

UNIQUE NUMBER:
650457

SUNé STEWART
DECLARATION REGARDING PLAGIARISM
DECLARATION

Name and student number: Suné Stewart and 18192173

Assignment topic: Assignment 3

I declare that this assignment is my own original work. Where secondary

material has been used (either from a printed source or from the Internet),
this has been carefully acknowledged and referenced in accordance with
departmental requirements. I understand what plagiarism is and am
aware of the department’s policy in this regard. I have not allowed anyone
else to borrow or copy my work.

Signature:
Contents
DECLARATION REGARDING PLAGIARISM ................................................................................. 2
Essay question: .................................................................................................................................... 4
Planning my essay: .............................................................................................................................. 6
Final Essay ............................................................................................................................................ 7
Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................ 11
Essay question:
Planning my essay:

1. Introduction
In my introduction, I will name the novel, the writer and I will make the essay
question clear.
I will also describe and plan out how my essay will be written and what I will be
explaining in my essay.

2. Body
In the first paragraph, I will explain the meaning of a minor character.
In the second paragraph, I will explain how Comrade Q can be seen as a minor
character.
In the third paragraph, I will explain how Comrade Q supports the theme of history
and transition.
In my last paragraph, I will explain how Comrade Q supports the theme of inequality
and class and also how this theme links with the theme of history and transition.

3. Conclusion
In my conclusion, I will wrap up my opinions of what the novel is about and how the
writer wants the reader to see the novel.
Final Essay

The novel: Small Things by Nthikeng Mohlele was published in 2013. It tells the story
of an orphan (an outsider) who is raised by Father Goebbels, who is a Catholic. It
takes the reader along while he is expelled and went to live with a jazz musician (Bra
Todd) in Sophia Town. From being a journalist to being in jail for 18 years, we learn
about his life in post-apartheid and his obsession with Desiree.

In this essay I will discuss the topic of this essay in three to five paragraphs. Firstly, I
will discuss what a minor character is and then how Comrade Q is portrayed as a
minor character. Thirdly, the essay will explain how Comrade Q support the theme of
history and transition. Lastly, I will explain how the theme of history and transition
links to the theme of inequality and class.

A minor character in a novel is someone who is not as important as a main

character. A minor character’s importance is based on how often they appear, how
many times they interact with the main character and how they affect the main
character. Their actions help to move the story forward. They may influence the main
character’s decisions by helping or interfering with the conflict.

Comrade Q is portrayed as a minor character, because he is only talked about. His

name only appears six times in the novel. Zacharia is Comrade Q, he best
represents Comrade Q, because on page 77 in the novel, Zacharia is mentioned as
‘The Big Chief’. He has a big influence on the anonymous narrator. He gives the
unnamed narrator odd and plush jobs to do. Zacharia is a former prison inmate and
a poet who has extreme or untraditional ways of writing and now he oversees the
Ministry of Tourism. When the narrator got unemployed and evicted, he decided to
stay on the streets and endure the cold winters, rather than to ask Comrade Q for
any help. He did not want to owe Comrade Q any favours, “Will I be expected to owe
him favours? Of what kind? Even more absurd: how many souls owe how many
Comrade Qs favours?” page 105, chapter 12, in the novel. Lastly, everyone wants to
be Comrade Q. He is influential, wealthy and a well-connected person in post-
apartheid, “I cannot see an end to everyone wanting to be a Comrade Q. In certain
ways, Comrade Q has ceased to be a mere ghost wielding influence, has become a
force to be reckoned with” in chapter 13, on page 118 in the novel. We briefly know
who Comrade Q is, but we do not get to know him. We only know about him through
the narrator’s opinions and thoughts about him.

The theme of history and transition can be seen when the reader sees the many
social changes from the beginning of the novel to where the narrator is released from
prison. The social changes have to do with the history of South Africa and Apartheid.
The narrator does not feel save with these changes to post-apartheid since he was
immediately introduced with violence on the streets after being released from prison.
On page 30, in chapter 3, he got shot by the Dark Figure, “A shot rings out, tears
through my stomach. The Dark Figure smiles. Such beautiful teeth. Another bullet
grazes my groin, and a third shatters my big toe. I clutch my stomach, oozing with
warm, sticky, foamy blood. I feel cold, light-headed”. The transition of South Africa’s
history is seen as negative through the novel, because the difference between the
rich and poor can now be seen more clearly and there are more race tensions in the
novel. Comrade Q supports the theme of history and transition, because he is
described in the novel as wealthy and an anti-Apartheid activist. The narrator says in
chapter 12, page 105, that he wonders how many people owe Comrade Q favours.
This gives the impression that Comrade Q is wealthy and an influential person. He
runs high in the business and political circles, “I have, in my mind, not worked out
what may happen if Comrade Q indeed offers that cushy job to me. Will I be
expected to owe him favours? Of what kind? Even more absurd: how many souls
owe how many Comrade Qs favours?” He is using his credentials as an anti-
Apartheid activist to get to people and to gain their trust and also to influence them in
his dealings. He shows how the transition from Apartheid to the democracy created
better opportunities for some people and inequalities to others.

The theme of inequality and class can be seen when the narrator move through
different social classes and meet people who are very rich and people who are very
poor. When he encounters the poor people, he says on page 104 that they are too
busy with their own problems and own thoughts that he rather talks to his dog,
“Other beggars? Of course there are. But they are too involved in their unknown
thoughts to sustain any proper conversation”. When he encounters the very rich
people, while working at the Café Mesopotamia as a waiter, he found it very difficult
to help and serve them, because he had no interest in their stories. He had to fake it.
He does not like that they think that they are more important than others, in chapter
14, on page 136 he says: “Hard as I try, I find I cannot accustom myself to the
monotony of perpetually grinning into the faces of strangers, feigning interest in their
self-indulgent stories. There is this aura of self-importance about them, an arrogant
expectation that disregards the wishes of others”. The anonymous narrator feels that
the remarks he heard while playing his trumpet was better than to grant rich people’s
demands. On page 132, chapter 13, he says: “The demands of the wealthy, existing
in a bubble of their own, are worse than the occasional rude remarks I endured at
Mary Fitzgerald Square. It seems to me that the patrons’ nights out have little to do
with eating, and much to do with showing off expensive cars and promiscuous
lovers. I have trouble remembering orders (they sound to me like insolent
instructions), even when I write them down”. The theme of history and transition links
to the theme of inequality and class seen by the social changes from the beginning
of the novel to the part where the narrator is out of prison. The transition made to the
history of South Africa and Apartheid has a direct impact on the inequality and class
of the people in South Africa. Seen by the character of Comrade Q, opportunities
and inequalities were both created by this transition. From Apartheid to anti-
Apartheid and democracy, South Africa’s social and economy were shaped.
Comrade Q, “Zacharia, a former fellow prisoner, a radical poet, now heads the
Ministry of Tourism – and is, by implication, 'The Big Chief’. He offers me numerous
plush jobs, 'to advance our revolution’” (chapter 9, page 77), emerged from post-
Apartheid and is now wealthy, because he used his connections and status to get
access to power positions. In Chapter 12, page 105 the narrator says: “Everyone
serves at the pleasure of Comrade Q. And, worse, everyone wants to be Comrade
Q.” This transition, therefor, has created more inequality than balance in South
Africa.

Nthikeng Mohlele’s use of Comrade Q as a minor character in the novel, Small

Things, the reader can see how he shows the themes of transition and history and
also how this theme links with inequality and class. Nthikeng Mohlele tries to tell us
that South Africans has to give more attention to inequality and class especially
since post-Apartheid. The society is not equal and just, and therefore we need to put
in more effort to make this inequality, equal.
Bibliography
Boikanyo, M. (2019, 1 4). Retrieved from https://livemag.co.za/book-review-small-things-by-
nthikeng-
mohlele/#:~:text=In%20Nthikeng%20Mohlele's%20Small%20Things,as%20an%20apartheid%
20political%20prisoner.

classace. (2023). Retrieved from https://www.classace.io/answers/in-small-things-one-of-the-minor-

characters-comrade-q-may-be-a-lesser-mentioned-character-but-his-role-in-the-novel-
opens-up-discussions-on-two-important-themes-in-postapartheid-south-africa-namely-in

PDFCoffee. (2013). Small Things download. Retrieved from Small Things download:
https://pdfcoffee.com/small-things-by-nthikeng-mohlele-pdf-free.html