Chapter 18

Characters-
1. The Hills
2. James Jarvis
3. Thomas
4. Policemen
5. Mrs. Jarvis
Detailed Summary of Main Events-
• There is a house and field of James Jarvis, which sits high
above Ndotsheni and the great valley of Umzimkulu.
• Jarvis was waiting for it to rain. He thinks about the natives
and the big difference it would make in the city and
especially the farming if they knew and were educated on
how to take care of the land.
• His own son left the farm and decided to become and
engineer.
• He then sees a police car approaching his home. He
believes I to be an Afrikaner policeman. They inform him
that his son has been shot and killed.
• They offer to make arrangements to get him to
Johannesburg. While the man calls Jarvis breaks the new to
his wife and she just breaks down screaming and crying.

Vocabulary Log-

Chapter 19
Characters-
1. Mr. Jarvis
2. Mrs. Jarvis
3. John Harrison-the brother of Arthur’s wife-so their son in
law-(for my family- My Grammie as Harrison Dad as Arthur
Mom as wife and Aunt C as sister-so Grammie to
Aunt….weird)
4. Mary-Arthur’s wife and John’s sister
5. Mr. Harrison
6. Mrs. Harrison
Detailed Summary of Main Events-
• The two fly to Johannesburg and are greeted by John
Harrison. They then travel to the Harrison home.
• Jarvis, his wife, and Mary drive to the mortuary with John.
On the way John informs Jarvis that Arthur was a
passionate advocate for the natives. This was a subject
that Arthur and Mr. Harrison disagreed upon heavily.
• After viewing Arthur’s body they return to the Harrison’s
where Jarvis and Mr. Harrison share a drink. Mr. Harrison
 tells Jarvis that they have received condolences from
everywhere including the prime minister and mayor.
• Arthur could speak both Afrikaans and Zulu and was
interested in learning Sesuto. Others wanted him to run for
parliament. He protested against things that were simply
over looked like the housing conditions for minors, he
ignored the fact that he was putting his job at risk and that
getting the truth out was far more important.
• Jarvis is moved by these stories and respects his son’s
courage. As he goes to bed he shares this with his wife and
grieves with her. His reveals that he wishes he would have
known Arthur better.
Vocabulary Log-

Chapter 20
Characters-
1. Jarvis
Detailed Summary of Main Events-
• Jarvis is sitting in his son’s empty house and looks though
all of the books and papers.
• His son admired Abraham Lincoln. He finds a letter from a
boys’ club in Claremont, an article he was writing, and
other of his son’s writings
• In the specific article Arthur is arguing that it is
unacceptable to keep black South Africans unskilled just to
provide labor for the mines. And to break up African family
life by just housing the black workers and not their
families, and to deny blacks education opportunities, as
well as break their tribal system without creating a new
moral order in its place.
• He remembered the small boy at High Place, with the
wooden guns.
• Jarvis looks at a copy of the Gettysburg address (by
Lincoln) and walks out.
Vocabulary Log-

Chapter 21
Characters-
1. James Jarvis
2. Mr. Harrison
3. John
4. Mrs. Jarvis
Detailed Summary of Main Events-
 • The funeral for Arthur is packed full at the church with
whites, blacks and Indians alike. For the first time he sits in
church with black people and shake their hands.
• Afterwards Jarvis and Mr. Harrison leave and go back to the
Harrison home. While in the study Mr. Harrison reveals he
is looking forward to getting revenge on the murderer. He
continues to speak about how the natives are committing
crimes and forming other unions to demand higher pay
and just in general causing problems and starting trouble.
• John them joins them and he gets even more aggravated.
Arguing that the Afrikaners’ and the black’s claim that the
mines steal natural recourses is completely false.
• After asking John to take James (himself) to the boys’ club
sometime in the future, he goes to bed.
• The following morning, Mr. Harrison informs Jarvis that
Arthur’s servant woke up today and has determined the
assailant as the former garden boy of the Jarvises.
• He brings the manuscript that Arthur was working on at the
time he was killed. In it he argues that those who say that
God created the black people to become unskilled laborers
is an un-Christian view because they wish to stop part of
the population from achieving their God given talents. This
European rule of South Africa is definitely not a Christian
one.
• Jarvis is greatly moved by his son and grieve more with his
wife that their son was killed before he could finish his
great work in this world.
Vocabulary Log-
Assailant-assassin-a person who attacks another person

Chapter 22
Characters-
1. Absalom
2. The accomplices
3. The lawyer of Absalom
4. The judge
5. John’s son-Matthew-Defendant
6. Johannes Pafuri-Defendant
Detailed Summary of Main Events-
• The trial for Absalom finally begins. The room is split in half
with Europeans on one side and non-Europeans on the
other. The judge is treated with the utmost respect.
Though they still enforce completely unjust laws provided
by the whites.
• Neither of Absalom’s accomplices plead guilty, though
Absalom’s lawyer says that he pleads guilty to the culpable
 homicide, since he never intended to kill Arthur. The
prosecutor denies his petition so Absalom is forced to
plead not guilty as his accomplices had.
• Both defendants look sad and shocked as they hear
Absalom’s story.
• He says Johannes planned the robbery after he heard a
voice that gave him a time and date. After entering the
house Johannes confronted the servant and demanded
clothes and money. Then the servant called for his master
and Johannes hit the servant on the head with the iron bar
he brought. Arthur then burst in on them and Absalom fired
the gun as he panicked. They fled the scene because they
were all scared.
• Absalom brought the revolver for protection as Johannes
brought the iron bar that he said had been blessed.
• The three went to Mrs. Mkiz’s home where they met up
then buried the revolver in a plantation field. He then tells
the judge that anyone who denies this is a liar.
• He continues to explain-He prayed for forgiveness and
spent the proceeding days wondering around
Johannesburg. Where he ended up at a friend’s home in
Germiston. There the police found him and Absalom
claimed to have shot Arthur by himself. He meant to
confess but waited too long, and as the police arrived he
realized that waiting was a mistake.
• Then the court adjourns. Kumalo sees Jarvis outside but
cannot say anything because he feels that there is nothing
he can say.
Vocabulary Log-

Chapter 23
Characters-
1. Random Voice 1
2. Random Voice 2
Detailed Summary of Main Events-
• The trial itself receives little publicity because all the head
lines talk about how gold had been discovered at
Odendaalsrust. There is even talk about a “second
Johannesburg” to be built. Before the discovery of gold the
land was completely wasted.
• The English think that it’s a great shame the remarkable
feats of their engineering has suck an ugly Afrikaans name
and that it is a pity they don’t see that a bilingual state is a
complete and total waste of time. However they all keep
their thoughts to themselves.
 •A random voice in the book emerges. It covers the whole
chapter and Jarvis or Absalom aren’t heard of again. The
voice is saying that the “do-gooders” want the new earned
money to go towards social services or money for the
minors. They are so well with their words as well as their
jobs that it is sad they get so little and are not allowed to
express themselves. The voice continues to accuse the
people of being selfish, when in actuality many give their
time and money to various charities.
• Then another voice ends up the chapter. It gives thanks
and praise to the work of Sir Ernest Oppenheimer. That
man suggested new mines shall house complete families in
villages instead of just male workers in crowded little
compounds. This world does not need a second
Johannesburg
• These to random voices have a very different opinion on
how the new gold should be used, though it has absolutely
nothing to do with the current trial.
Vocabulary Log-

Chapter 24
Characters-
1. James Jarvis
Detailed Summary of Main Events-
• Jarvis returns back to Arthur’s house. He picks up an article
“Private Essay on the Evolution of a South African”. In the
paper Arthur talks about how he grew up in an idyllic home
and had a happy childhood. He was raised by two loving
parents who taught him charity and honor and of course
gernosity. Though they taught him nothing of South Africa.
• Jarvis is very angered by that little statement and prepares
to leave. Though he changes his mind and continues the
essay. Arthur describes that he now devotes himself to
justice and the truth and what is right in his country and
throughout South Africa. Not because he is courageous but
because he wishes to get rid of those stupid contradictions
that surround him every day of his life. He hopes his
children will come to see that.
• Jarvis again is moved by what his son has done. He sits and
thinks for awhile but then leaves through the front door
knowing that what happened in the back passageway no
longer has a hold over him.
Vocabulary Log-
Idyllic-happy environment
Chapter 25
Characters-
1. Jarvis
2. Mrs. Jarvis
3. Barbara Smith-their niece
4. The Parson-an old and ill man
Detailed Summary of Main Events-(Jarvis call the old man
umfundisi and the elderly man calls Jarvis umnumzana)
• The two Jarvis’ go and visit their favorite niece Barbara
Smith. Then women go to town while Jarvis stays behind to
read the newspaper.
• Then there is a knock on the door. A frail black parson in
rather rugged clothes is standing on the other side of the
door. The man is rather shocked. He apparently wants to
tell him something but fails to do so because he is so week.
He collapses to the stairs.
• The man explains of Sibeko (see chapter 3) Jarvis went and
got the servant boy but he does not know of her. She had
gone before he had arrived.
• The elderly man comes into the house. Jarvis says that
there is something between the two of them and that the
elderly man fears Jarvis. Jarvis wishes that the elderly man
would tell him what he fears. Finally he says that his son
killed the others son (meaning the elderly man is Kumalo
just as I thought!!!!)
• After sitting in silence for a while Jarvis is curious how
Kumalo knew who he was (after all he was expecting to
find him there). He says that he had seen him pass by his
church.
• Jarvis mentions the little boy with the wooden guns and
Kumalo knows who that is. They share a memory of Arthur
when he was young.
• Barbara informs Kumalo that she had fired the girl after
she was arrested for distilling liquor.
Vocabulary Log-
Parson-member of the clergy

Chapter 26
Characters-
1. John Kumalo
2. Kumalo
3. Msimangu
4. Jarvis
5. John H
Detailed Summary of Main Events-
 •John is speaking to a crowd of people. Saying how the gold
that was found in South Africa should be shared with the
miners. The crowd roars at him as he declares that they
deserve higher wages and better conditions.
• Some white policemen say John should be shot or
imprisoned. He is a speaker that wishes to stay out of jail.
And at the end of his speech he says that he and the crowd
wishes not to bring trouble to the police.
• Kumalo and Msimangu are in the crowd. Kumalo is
impressed while Msimangu is skeptical because he knows
that John lacks courage, and continues to wonder why God
gave this man a gift of such skill. He is thankful that John
lacks the heart, because if John backed up the words he
spoke with action, he would bring the country to
bloodshed.
• Jarvis confesses that he does not “care for that sort of
thing.” as him and John H leave the meeting.
• A police captain states that John K is dangerous. The officer
wishes to hear the great voice one day. Captain wonders if
there will be a strike and the officer says it would be a
“nasty business”
• The narrative voice says that there are rumors that the
strike may spread to the railroads and ships.
• Though in the end an anonymous voice states the strike
amounts to very little. At the mines three black miners are
killed. A clergyman at a nation religious conference brings
up the black laborers issue but the voice says that it is
easier not too think of such things.
Vocabulary Log-

Chapter 27
Characters-
1. Mrs. Lithebe
2. Gertrude
3. Absalom’s Girlfriends
Detailed Summary of Main Events-
• Gertuded says that she does not understand the ways of
decent people. A neighbor brings a newspaper that talks
about another white man being killed during a break in by
a native. Both worry that this will hurt Absalom’s case.
• Msimangu decides to hide the paper form Kumalo so he
doesn’t hear of the news. The have dinner at Mrs. Lithebe’s
instead of at the mission.
• Then the group goes to church and listens to a nun talk
about he life. Later Gertrude Suggests to Mrs. L that she
 may become a nun. Gertrude asks Absalom’s girlfriend if
she would look after her son if she were to become a nun
and the girl agrees. Though she asks to keep it a secret
before it is final.
• Gertrude hopes that by becoming a nun it will keep her
from her old ways/
Vocabulary Log-

Chapter 28
Characters-
1. The Judge
2. The interpreter
3. Absalom
Detailed Summary of Main Events-
• The Judge rules that Johannes and Matthew are not guilty,
though he hopes that there will be a further investigation
into their other activities.
• Then on to Absalom; the Judge agrees with many of the
arguments Mr. Carmichael has stated about Absalom’s
remorse, his youth, and the honesty of his testimony. He
as well brings up the fact that the conditions for the
natives in Johannesburg had a contribution to the crime.
• The judge then explains that he must abide by the law
even if it is unjust. If Absalom has merely shot the man out
of fear, then the murder case would be dropped. Though
the judge continued to say that the fact that he brought a
loaded revolver into the house and the point where the
servant was struck with an iron bar gives the idea of the
intention to kill.
• He finds Absalom guilty of murder. There are no special
grounds for mercy believes the judge and only the
governor-general-in-council can lessen the sentence.
• The young man from the reformatory, who had been
attending the trial crossed the line that separated the room
from whites and blacks, in order to help Kumalo exit.
Vocabulary Log-

Chapter 29
Characters-
1. Father Vincent
2. Kumalo
3. Gertrude
4. Msimangu
5. Absalom’s girlfriend
 6. Absalom
7. John Kumalo
8. John Harrison
9. James Jarvis
10.Mrs. Lithebe

Detailed Summary of Main Events-

• They (characters 1-5) go to the prison so Absalom can be
married. After the marriage Absalom and Kumalo have a
final talk. Absalom tells his father where to find the last of
his possessions and sends his remembrances to his
mother.
• Kumalo mentions bitterly that he finds it very difficult to
forgive Matthew and Johannes for abandoning Absalom.
• Now it is time for Absalom to be taken away but he begins
to cry because he is afraid of dying. Two guards pull him
from his father’s knees when Kumalo must leave.
• When Kumalo leaves Absalom’s girlfriend greets him as
father but he is too distracted to pay much attention.
(Think of Alice doing so to Bella after she married
Edward….but if there was a big crisis at hand. Such a thing
Alice would do.)
• Kumalo says his goodbyes to his brother and John informs
him that he plans on bringing Matthew back to his shop
once all the trouble passes over.
• John tells him he should not interfere with his politics as he
does not interfere with Kumalo’s religious stuff.
• Kumalo mentions that John’s words may upset the police
and he sees fear in his brother’s eyes. He presses further
to hurt John.
• He lies and says a spy came to John’s shop and had been
reporting on secret conversations. Kumalo breaks and says
how his son had two betrayers and then John escorts
Kumalo out of the shop.
• The Jarvises leave the Harrisons who agreed with the
sentence and wish the other two men had the same. Jarvis
agreed.
• Jarvis gives John a check for a thousand pounds to go to
the boys’ club John and Arthur founded.
• At Mrs. Lithebe’s house there is a farewell for Kumalo.
Msimangu tells Kumalo he has renounced all of his
possessions and become a monk.
• He gives his savings to Kumalo which is over 33 pounds,
more money than Kumalo ever had. He falls to his knees n
amazement and sends John a letter apologizing.
 • The next morning he wakes Absalom’s wife for the journey
back to Ndotsheni. In Gertrude’s room he finds her son and
her clothes all nicely laid out, but Gertrude is gone.
Vocabulary Log-