Answers on page 49 Reflect before you start to read the navel 1. In your opinion, what is the importance of the opening pages of any story from the viewpoints of both the writer and the reader? 2. Do you think all readers are likely to respond in the same way to a story? Why might individual readers respond differently to events and characters in a story? 3. would you If you were to make a film of the novel Tsotsi, what highlight and/or change? 4. This nóvel explores township crime and violence. Have you ever been victimised or witnessed violent events? Describe what happened. 5. Some commentators have suggested that the novel is about redemption and atonement. What do you understand by these concepts? Predict how a story about a tsotsi (a thug or hoodlum) could deal with such ideas. S. A key theme in this novel focuses on identity. Consider how and where your identity or sense of who you are was formed. 7. Another major theme in Tsotsi explores the impact that painful experiences can have on a person's life. How do you think most people react to the experience of pain? 8. The need for us to attain both empathy (to be able to identify with someone else's feelings) and sympathy (to feel pity or sorrow for the pain or distress of somebody else) are important ideas in this novel. Can you suggest why this is so? aspects 9. One of the characters is sickened by the ruthless crimes his gang commits. He links his nausea to the thought of what they have done to the idea of understanding "decency". Can you suggest why this should be? What is of the concept of "decency"? your 10. A tiny baby provides a powerful and important symbol in this story. Make a spider-diagram or brainstorm some of the associations you have with the word "baby".
