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A Mild Attack of Locusts

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A Mild Attack of Locusts Part 2 Around the World: Extending and Evaluating Traditions Man’s Natural World, c. 20th century. Sir Peter Scott. Oil on canvas. Private collection. “The English language is nobody’s special property. It is the property of the imagination: it is the property of the language itself.” —Derek Walcott 1283 Sir Peter Scott/Private Collection/Bridgeman Art Library 11283283 U7P2-845482.inddU7P2-845482.indd Sec2:1283Sec2:1283 11/29/07/29/07 2:29:552:29:55 PMPM BEFORE YOU READ A Mild Attack of Locusts MEET DORIS LESSING fter visiting South Africa in 1956, Doris Lessing was escorted to the airport by two Apolice officers and told never to return. She was banned for twenty-five years from enter- ing South Africa and Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) because of her political views and her opposition to apartheid, South Africa’s former offi- cial policy of racial segregation. Throughout her life, Lessing has caused a stir with her novels and and at age thirty she left her second husband to her clearly articulated political views. live in England with her son. Lessing took with her to England the manuscript An Uncomfortable Childhood Lessing was of her first novel, The Grass Is Singing, and with its born to English parents in Persia (now Iran), publication, she began a successful career as a nov- where her father had been a captain in the British elist. Much of Lessing’s work is autobiographical, Army. In 1924 Lessing’s parents moved to the based upon her experiences in Africa and as a British colony in the African country of Southern mother and wife bound by social expectations. Her Rhodesia, where Lessing would spend the next stories set in Africa chronicle the struggle between twenty-five years of her life. native black Africans and the white colonials who Lessing has described her childhood as a mixture claimed their land. of some pleasure and more pain. Only excursions Critics have tried to label Lessing both a feminist and into the natural world provided Lessing with some a writer about race relations, but Lessing dislikes relief from the strict governance of her mother, such labels. Unlike some of her contemporaries, who who was determined to raise a “proper” daughter. enjoy the fame that accompanies a writing career, As a young adolescent, Lessing was sent to an all- Lessing claims she prefers not to give book tours girls’ school in the nation’s capital, Salisbury. and interviews. She once said to an interviewer, “I Miserable, she dropped out at the age of thirteen, told my publishers it would be far more useful for ending her formal education. everyone if I stayed at home, writing another book.” In addition to her numerous novels (which include a five-volume science fiction series), Lessing has “I wasn’t thinking about being a writer also published several collections of short stories, then—I was just thinking about how as well as poetry, essays, travel writings, and two autobiographical works. In 1995 Lessing visited to escape.” South Africa for the first time since being forcibly removed in 1956. Recognized at last as a signifi- —Doris Lessing cant and revolutionary writer, Lessing was, on this occasion, welcomed with open arms. Doris Lessing was born in 1919. An Unbounded Career Soon after dropping out of school, Lessing left home and began working— first as a nursemaid, then later as a typist. By her AuthorAuthor SearchSearch ForFor more about early twenties, Lessing had been married twice, AuthorDoris Lessing, Name, go to wwwwww.literature.glencoe.com.glencoe.com. 1284 UNIT 7 AN INTERNATIONAL LITERATURE Hulton Getty Images/Tony Stone Images 11284-1294284-1294 U7P2APP-845482.inddU7P2APP-845482.indd 12841284 66/23/06/23/06 1:17:581:17:58 PMPM LITERATURE PREVIEW READING PREVIEW Connecting to the Story Reading Strategy Analyzing Conflict All human communities must cope with hazards of Conflict is the central struggle in a story or drama. This nature—earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, and the struggle might be between two or more people, between like. As you read, think about the following questions: people and nature, or between people and their own feelings. To analyze conflict, determine whether a char- What natural hazards do the people of your com- • acter is struggling against something on the outside, munity face? something on the inside, or both. Then watch to see How does your family or school prepare for and • how—or whether—each conflict is resolved. protect against these hazards? Building Background Reading Tip: Identifying Conflict As you read, use a graphic organizer like the one below to identify con- Lessing was five when her father moved the family to flicts in the story. a vast, remote farm in Southern Rhodesia, where he hoped to grow rich by raising maize, or corn. In spite of her mother’s energetic efforts to create a refined life in this rough settlement, the farm did not yield the Outside Force Character Inner Feelings wealth her father had anticipated. One of the many hazards of farming in this region were locusts. The name locust refers to a number of jump- Vocabulary ing insects, including the periodical cicada (sə ka¯ də)— which appears every seven, thirteen, or seventeen acrid (ak rid) adj. burning, biting, or irritating years—and the true locust, a migratory grasshopper. to the taste or smell; p. 1287 Where is that acrid Locusts severely damage crops wherever they swarm. stench coming from? Setting Purposes for Reading irremediable (ir i me¯ de¯ ə bəl) adj. not subject to remedy or cure; p. 1289 The tornado left irre- Big Idea Colonialism and Postcolonialism mediable damage in its wake. Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) declared inde- imminent (im ə nənt) adj. about to happen; pendence from Britain in 1923. As you read “A Mild impending; p. 1291 A clap of thunder told us Attack of Locusts,” look for aspects of British colonial- that a rainstorm was imminent. ism that persist several decades later, when the story takes place. Vocabulary Tip: Word Origins Many words in English derive from, or come from, words in other Literary Element Theme languages. Knowing a word’s origin can help you Theme refers to a central idea about life that is better understand its meaning. expressed in a work of literature. A work can have more than one theme, and these themes may be uni- versal—widely held across human cultures. A theme is different from a topic. A topic is a broad category, such as “hardship,” whereas a theme conveys a complete idea about a topic; for example, “Hardship is best met with a sense of humor.” Interactive Literary Elements Handbook To review or learn more about the literary elements, • See Literary Terms Handbook, p. R18. go to www.glencoe.com. OBJECTIVES In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • identifying themes • analyzing genre elements • analyzing conflicts DORIS LESSING 1285 11284-1294284-1294 U7P2APP-845482.inddU7P2APP-845482.indd 12851285 11/10/07/10/07 2:46:142:46:14 PMPM DDorisoris LLessingessing Swarm of desert locusts. The rains that year were good; they were they neither went bankrupt nor got very rich. coming nicely just as the crops needed them—or They jogged along doing comfortably. so Margaret gathered1 when the men said they Their crop was maize. Their farm was three were not too bad. She never had an opinion of thousand acres on the ridges that rise up toward her own on matters like the weather, because the Zambesi escarpment2—high, dry wind-swept even to know about what seems a simple thing country, cold and dusty in winter, but now, in like the weather needs experience. Which the wet season, steamy with the heat rising Margaret had not got. in wet soft waves off miles of green foliage. The men were Richard her husband, and old Beautiful it was, with the sky blue and brilliant Stephen, Richard’s father, a farmer from way halls of air, and the bright green folds and hol- back; and these two might argue for hours lows of country beneath, and the mountains whether the rains were ruinous or just ordinarily lying sharp and bare twenty miles off across the exasperating. Margaret had been on the farm rivers. The sky made her eyes ache; she was not three years. She still did not understand how used to it. One does not look so much at the sky they did not go bankrupt altogether, when the in the city she came from. So that evening when men never had a good word for the weather, or Richard said: “The government is sending out the soil, or the government. But she was getting warnings that locusts are expected, coming to learn the language. Farmers’ language. And down from the breeding grounds up North,” her instinct was to look about her at the trees. 1. As it is used here, gathered means “concluded.” Literary Element Theme What idea about life is 2. The Zambesi escarpment is a series of steep cliffs along the expressed in the opening paragraph? Zambesi River in southern Africa. 1286 UNIT 7 AN INTERNATIONAL LITERATURE Ancient Art & Architecture 11286-1291286-1291 U7P2SEL-845482.inddU7P2SEL-845482.indd 12861286 11/29/07/29/07 2:33:422:33:42 PMPM Insects—swarms of them—horrible! But Richard now, to make it acrid and black. Margaret was and the old man had raised their eyes and were watching the hills. Now there was a long, low looking up over the mountain. “We haven’t had cloud advancing, rust-color still, swelling forward locusts in seven years,” they said.
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