Elias van Rooyen is a wood-beam maker who lives in the Forest on Barnard’s Island with his wife, Barta, and his children, Willem, Kristoffel, and Nina. Elias and Barta had another child named Lukas, but Lukas disappeared during a fog and was presumed dead. Many years later, the magistrate alerts the van Rooyens that the authorities have found Lukas alive and well, and Benjamin comes to live with them as “Lukas” (despite the fact that they’re probably not the same person). While Barta seems to experience lasting guilt over her near certainty that Benjamin isn’t really Lukas, Elias barely seems to consider the question. Right away, Elias tries to indoctrinate Benjamin into his new identity, forcing him to go by the name Lukas and stopping him from speaking the way “Coloured” (multiracial) people do. Perhaps Elias’s defining characteristic is his greed—he’s always thinking of dubious ways make himself more money, and he readily exploits Benjamin’s labor, putting him to work producing wood beams. Elias’s other big scheme involves trying to kill an elephant so that he can sell the tusks for money. Too poor to afford an elephant gun, Elias instead uses elaborate traps to try to outsmart the elephants. To his surprise, the elephants instead outsmart him, chasing him, injuring him, and leaving him afraid to travel around the Forest. While some of Elias’s schemes do make him money, they eventually drive away his family and cause him to have a hostile relationship with nature.
Elias Quotes in Fiela’s Child
The Fiela’s Child quotes below are all either spoken by Elias or refer to Elias. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 1
Quotes
The day the child disappeared the fog came up early and by midday it seemed as if the Forest was covered in a thick white cloud.
Related Characters:
Lukas, Elias, Barta, Benjamin, The Magistrate
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5
Quotes
‘When the bigfeet are on you, you can’t choose what you let go of and what you want to keep, woman!’
Chapter 8
Quotes
‘Will I still know him?’
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12
Quotes
‘What are bigfeet?’
‘Don’t you know? The animals with the trunks, elephants,’ she whispered. ‘You’re not supposed to say the name out loud, they’ll hear you and think you’ve called them and come and trample you.’
Chapter 14
Quotes
‘I’m your pa! That’s who I am! Say it! Say who I am!’ He was as tough as a piece of ironwood. ‘Say who I am!’
‘Pa.’
[…]
For every answer he gave him a lash. ‘And who are you?’
‘Benja— Lukas.’
‘Lukas who?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Lukas van Rooyen. Say it!’
‘Lukas van Rooyen.’
Related Characters:
Elias (speaker), Benjamin (speaker), Barta, Lukas, Nina, Willem, Kristoffel, Fiela, The Magistrate
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15
Quotes
‘The child is back with his rightful parents,’ he said and it seemed as if his jaw had grown stiff. ‘What he had on the day he got lost can make no difference. You can put anything on him now and swear by it in the hope that I will believe you.’
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Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 16
Quotes
A snare-pit. That was what he had to have, he sat thinking that Sunday. The sheer prospect of it brough a funny feeling to Elias’s stomach for if it worked once, it would work again if you were clever enough
Related Characters:
Elias, Fiela, The Magistrate
Related Symbols:
Tusks
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 18
Quotes
‘Pa is a dirty swine.’ Just that.
‘Why do you say that?’
‘It was a trap. An elephant trap.’
‘How do you know?’
‘I went there. There’s a dead elephant calf lying in the pit.’
Chapter 19
Quotes
The year moved slowly. Christmas came. New Year. And as he grew out of Benjamin Komoetie, he also grew out of his cloths and had to wear Willem’s old trousers and a shirt of his pa’s.
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 20
Quotes
But she had thrown away her name: half a crown a week with food and clothing was all the people were prepared to pay. What could he do? Nothing. He had to accept it. But as soon as he could get to the village himself again, he would go and see if he could not get her price raised to three shillings.
Chapter 22
Quotes
Chapter 29
Quotes
The one wearing the blue shirt.
Related Characters:
The Census-Takers (speaker), Lukas, Benjamin, Barta, Elias
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Fiela’s Child LitChart as a printable PDF.
Elias Character Timeline in Fiela’s Child
The timeline below shows where the character Elias appears in Fiela’s Child. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
In 19th-century South Africa, it’s a foggy day when a child (Lukas) disappears. Elias Van Rooyan is in his shed where he usually cuts wooden beams, but it gets...
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Barta asks Elias where Lukas is, but Elias doesn’t know. Elias considers asking a neighbor’s oldest boy for...
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Although Elias isn’t worried about Lukas being gone at first, when Lukas doesn’t show up, eventually all...
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Chapter 5
On Barnard’s Island, Elias is cutting wood beams, but the plans he’s making distract him. Barta asks him why...
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...surprise, they navigated the narrow space cleverly, holding on to a tree with their trunks. Elias is in the audience for the story, and at first, they don’t believe him. As...
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Elias makes an excuse to Barta so that he can go over on a five-day trip...
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Elias heads to the footpath near Stinkwood Kloof. He finds some week-old elephant dung and figures...
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Elias sets up camp and waits for his trap to go off. He hears the elephants...
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Elias begins to get impatient, but on Friday, the elephants finally come. They wait by the...
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The next day, another forester visits Elias with a message from the magistrate, Mr. Goldsbury. It turns out someone may have found...
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Chapter 8
Elias and Barta head from their home to the magistrate’s place in the village. Elias wanted...
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Elias has no clue how Lukas could have made it over the mountain to Long Kloof....
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Chapter 10
Benjamin walks back to the Forest with Elias and Barta. The people in the courtroom told him that his name was Lukas and...
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Elias and Barta make it with Benjamin back to the house. Elias asks “Lukas” to greet...
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Chapter 12
...from Wolwekraal for five days and has stopped crying and complaining because he fears what Elias might do if he loses his patience. The whole family continues to call Benjamin “Lukas,”...
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...the path out of the Forest. When she refuses, Benjamin says he has money, which Elias didn’t find because it wasn’t in his box. Benjamin tells Nina she could use to...
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Meanwhile, Elias thinks about how Benjamin has caused trouble by being stubborn. He wants to teach Benjamin...
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That night, when Benjamin returns from the Forest with Nina, Elias thinks he’s behaving better, even if he’s still being too quiet. That Tuesday, Elias gets...
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Aunt Malie comes over to check on Elias. He tells her about how he’s put both Nina and Benjamin to work, but she...
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Aunt Malie has more to say to Elias. She talks about how she, Elias, and the other Forest people don’t have much contact...
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Elias has heard this story from Aunt Malie before and isn’t impressed by it. Elias goes...
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Chapter 14
After catching Benjamin, Elias sets Benjamin and Nina to work on making wooden beams. A few days later, he’s...
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Benjamin dedicates himself to his work so that Elias will leave him alone. More than 20 days go by, and time passes slowly. Nina...
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Chapter 16
Elias decides that if he really wants to trap an elephant, he needs a snare-pit. The...
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One day a forester named Mr. Kapp shows up to see Elias—the magistrate sent him to check on Benjamin. At the time, Benjamin is out with Nina,...
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Elias worries that Barta looks too sad and that Mr. Kapp will report that back to...
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Chapter 17
...forester (Mr. Kapp) to check on Benjamin, and all was well. Petrus now believes that Elias and Barta are Benjamin’s rightful parents. Fiela tells him that’s nonsense. Petrus says Fiela should...
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Chapter 18
After 41 days with Elias and Barta, Benjamin begins to believe that Fiela is never coming for him. Elias has...
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When Elias does finally come back, he seems dazed and barely notices how little work Nina accomplished....
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Elias tells Benjamin and Nina that if they hear a branch crack, indicating that “bigfeet” are...
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One evening, when Nina and Benjamin come back to the house, Elias informs Benjamin that Fiela stopped by to drop off his possessions. Benjamin has lots of...
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From then on, Elias always goes to accompany Benjamin and Nina when they work on the pit. Elias tells...
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Benjamin talks with Kristoffel, who says that it seems like Benjamin has become Elias’s favorite assistant for helping with the beams. Benjamin says he wishes he had more knowledge...
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Chapter 19
...to think of Willem, Nina, and Kristoffel as his siblings, although it’s harder to accept Elias and Barta as his parents.
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Back on the day after Nina finds the dead elephant calf, Elias goes to retrieve it. But as before, the elephants seem like there waiting for him,...
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...Benjamin finally return home later that Sunday, Mr. Kapp is sitting at the table with Elias. Elias sends Benjamin off to read the Bible for Aunt Gertie. He struggles to read...
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All of a sudden, Benjamin hears Nina shouting as if she’s being attacked. Elias is running around punching her, while someone shouts not to punch anywhere that will leave...
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Elias puts Benjamin in charge of escorting Nina to the village to start her job. As...
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...suddenly hears the crack of a whip somewhere in the distance and heads back to Elias’s house on Barnard’s Island.
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Chapter 20
Elias feels that life is passing him by. After his elephant injury, he hasn’t been able...
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Elias regrets that he killed an elephant calf, since it had no tusks and was therefore...
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Elias resents that his injury and fear of the elephants prevent him from going through the...
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Chapter 22
Nina has once again gone missing, and with Willem and Kristoffel away, Elias has no choice but to send Benjamin to find her. Benjamin figures she must be...
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Elias has been saving money to buy elephant guns to kill the elephants that he believes...
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...things in the Forest, but he knows that the money is really just to buy Elias an elephant gun.
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...about the ship. He finds that Nina is back. Nina begs Benjamin not to tell Elias or any of the others where she is. But Benjamin says he really came to...
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Chapter 24
Elias goes to the scaffold and works to take out his frustration over losing “Lukas.” Barta...
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Elias decides he can’t fear the elephants anymore and has to go into the village himself....
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Chapter 25
...eats at the dinner table with her, hence the new clothes. Benjamin warns her that Elias and Barta had better not find out about where she’s staying, but Nina says nothing...
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Chapter 27
...shake the feeling that, even after coming back to Wolwekraal, he doesn’t feel free of Elias and Barta. Fiela replies that she’s always known exactly who Benjamin was—a lost lamb whom...
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Chapter 28
...understood. Benjamin makes it to Barnard’s Island and finds that things are unusually quiet around Elias and Barta’s house. Benjamin walks inside and finds Barta, who mistakes him for Kristoffel at...
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Benjamin and Barta go to see Elias, who is seriously injured from wounds he got from an elephant. Elias isn’t happy to...
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...is away. But around dusk, Kristoffel shows up. Together, they agree they have to get Elias outside to see the sun.
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Against Elias’s protests, Benjamin and Kristoffel carry him outside into the sun. Elias says Benjamin ran away...
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Chapter 29
Benjamin goes back to the van Rooyen house. Elias, Barta, and Kristoffel are all sitting around having a meal. Elias looks healthier than before....
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Chapter 31
Elias is angry at Barta for all the trouble she brought to his family. He wishes...
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