Decency and Moraltransformation versus Crime

Tocating and achieving decency requires aform of moral ransformation Boston's

upbringing and education had provided him with an understanding of all the
things that make up "decency",which include a sense of morality, righteousness,
ntegnty, mercy, compassion, honesty andl nbuntn. His descent into crime, cruelty,
murder and inhumanity makes Boston physically and psychologically sick. This
iswhy he suffers an attack of guilt andnausea after Gumboot's murder. It seems
that some of the gang members, notably the cold-blooded Butcher who mocks
Boston's attack of nausea, can never achieve decency as they have no capacity for
fecling sympathy for others or any inkling of what decency involves. Ilowever,
for Tsotsi there is some hope of finding decency. The arrival of the baby in his
life and the memories and lifestyle changes that it begins to spark off indicate
that he has the potential to achieve decency and to escape the state of depravity
and inhumanity that rule his present existence.
Redemption and Atonement
The Tsotsiwe meet at the beginning of the novel is a heartless killer who preys
onthe most vulnerable of his fellow beings. He is a nihilist, that is, someone who
believes that human values are worthless and that life is a pointless charade. He
has a basic horror of existence". For him the world is an ugly place" where things
are crooked and ...twisted out of allmeaning". Hence Morris, che cripple, is a
symbol of"che grotesque anatomy of life" because he is bent, and broken, and
so without meaning". Yet once the baby comes into Tsotsi's life "with shatering
improbability" everything begins to change for Tsotsi. He starts learning co care
for another human being and take responsibility for him. The baby becomes his
alter ego - the ralisman" or image of his own original innocent self. T'sotsi begins
with faltering and confused steps on a journey towards salvation, towards a place
where there is a possibility of atonement for his crimes and sins of the past. By che
end of the novel he appears to have experienced a kind of partialconversion. His
career as a criminal is finished" and he has rejected his gang. He has discovered
that he has options and that he can choose not to kill. After being rescued from che
shebeen,Boston acknowledges that Tsotsihas changed: "You are ditterent..You
are changing ...You are asking me about God". Tsotsi goes to Isaiah at che church
insearch of knowledge of Godand at the end he goes to fetch the baty, planningto
return with him to Miriam where he willintroduce himself as David Madond.

Violence versus Nurture

The need to care for the baby presents Tsotsiwith nururing demands he has
never experienced lbefore. It lbegins to evoke feelings such as empathy and
compassion that he has shut out of his lite as they threatened che control, power
and violence that are so central to his existence. The baby's helplessness and
vulnerability scare him and fill him with unfamiliar feelings of wonder, surprise,
awe, amazement and uncertainty. Ile finds he can o longer act instinctively, but
has to keep planning what to do nex.
I'sotsi is forced to change his viewof the world. For him other people were
potential victims,to be beaten upor killed. His lifewas founded onche law of the
knife, which is why each day he checked his weapon's readinessfor immediate
action. The baby represents a new and non-violent talisman. It is a vulneralble
human being that requires care. Ironically, in its very helplessness, the baby
has power over Tsotsi because he findshe is unable to ignore the baby's needs
for nurture and attention. In his inadequacy to provide for the baby he must