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Book 1, Part 1: Genealogy
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Theory of Flight, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Individual Aspiration vs. Group Belonging
Colonialism and Postcolonialism
Love, Family, and Selfishness
Gender and Sexuality
Beauty
Summary
Analysis
Beauford. When Golide shoots down the airplane, he doesn’t know that his action will become famous and bring terrible violence to Beauford Farm and Estate. He also doesn’t know that one of the plane’s surviving passengers is Beatrice Beit-Beauford, who has inherited Beauford Farm and Estate. Golide and Beatrice are historically connected by Bennington Beauford’s long-ago thoughts and actions.
This passage emphasizes the unexpected consequences and historical connections associated with shooting down the passenger plane—which indicates that the novel intends the plane attack to represent the connections of disparate people through history, not the necessity of violence.
Themes
In a flashback, Bennington Beauford inherits a title but no money. He decides to move to the colonies and become a successful gentleman farmer; to that purpose, he buys the village Guqhuka. Seeing the villagers as a cheap source of labor, he hires them to work on his farm complex. After his wife dies giving birth to Beatrice, he notices that his daughter likes sunflowers and plants “a few acres” on his farm.
This passage gestures toward the racial and economic oppression inherent in colonialism: though a poor aristocrat, Bennington can buy an entire village in Zimbabwe and exploit the indigenous people for cheap labor. When Bennington plants sunflowers on a whim for his daughter, it represents the literal, physical impact of colonialism on the land. Yet it also represents the unexpected appearance of beauty in situations marked by oppression and exploitation.
Themes
During World War II, Bennington’s farm makes a huge amount of money selling food and necessary materials to the army. In 1948 he dies in an accident, and Beatrice becomes a massively wealthy 11-year-old orphan. In high school, she reveals herself to be a leftist sympathetic to African rights—but becomes best friends with a timid, patriotic conformist named Kuki Sedgwick. Despite their differences, the sole thing that ever comes between them is Kuki’s husband Emil Coetzee, whom Beatrice despises.
Themes
Beatrice graduates high school, goes to Oxford University, and comes back in the early 1960s as a hippie. Under her influence, the farm becomes a “multiracial commune and artists’ colony.” Kuki’s husband Emil Coetzee, who runs the Organization of Domestic Affairs, tries to prosecute the commune for “interracial commingling.” Though the government initially won’t prosecute a wealthy, influential woman, she gives birth to biracial twins in 1965, at which point they throw the commune off the farm.
Themes
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When the civil war begins, Beatrice supports the freedom fighters, who believe the colony should become independent. Emil, learning she has given them money, charges her with treason. On her flight back from a family vacation to appear in court, Golide shoots down her plane—killing her twin sons and several others, but not Beatrice herself. Due to the optics, Emil ceases persecuting Beatrice—deciding to use her as an excuse to drum up anti-freedom fighter sentiment, with Golide as a particular focus of ire.
Themes
Emil is unable to discover Golide’s original name or a reliable physical description of him, so he deploys a favored employee, Mordechai Gatiro, to find out. Mordechai grew up in a dangerous township, exposed to violence, without prospects and full of anger. He joined the freedom fighters ready to die. When Mordechai was captured, he expected to be executed, but Emil recruited him as a spy instead. Noting Mordechai’s indifference to his own and others’ lives, Emil hired him as an interrogator, known as C10.
Themes
Mordechai finds out that Golide has a sister, Minenhle, on the Beauford Farm and Estate. Though Mordechai tortures Minenhle, she refuses to betray her brother or her own integrity. Her strength transforms Mordechai: he loses his desire to die and decides to devote himself to making up for torturing her. He quits the Organization, becomes a repairer of old books, changes his voice into something more melodious, and—when he’s sure Minenhle won’t recognize him—goes to find her on the farm. Two weeks afterward, they leave together on a bus.
Themes
Nine years prior, in 1974, Thandi Hadebe took the same bus to flee the Beauford Farm and Estate. In a flashback, Thandi is a girl growing up on the farm with strict Christian parents. Everyone gives her special treatment because she’s beautiful, which saps her aspiration to be something other than just good-looking. When Thandi is 16, her Domestic Science teacher, Minenhle, tries to encourage her to work harder and be more ambitious—but Thandi supposes that Minenhle is just jealous of her beauty.
Themes
One day, “sojas” enter the Domestic Science classroom while the girls are sewing dresses. At gunpoint, they force the girls to strip and put on the half-made dresses. Then one demands Minenhle choose the prettiest girl in the class. Minenhle points at Thandi, and Thandi believes she sees “a look of satisfaction on Minenhle’s face.” The soja calls Thandi horrible names, walks her to the school latrine, forces her to jump in, and leaves her to drown. After Thandi treads sewage for hours, her father rescues her. After this incident, Thandi becomes obsessed with hygiene but believes an odor clings to her.
Themes
Elizabeth Nyoni arrives at the Beauford Farm and Estate carrying a golden egg. Thandi is struck by Elizabeth’s self-confidence. One day, Elizabeth tells Thandi that she’s so pretty, she could work as a model if she moved to the city—and shows her a picture of a model, who looks to Thandi “untouchable.” The next day, Thandi takes the bus to the city. It’s unknown whether Thandi is glad when the Organization captures and tortures Minenhle. Regardless, Thandi comes back to the farm just once after leaving, to give birth to Marcus, whom she leaves with her parents while she travels to the U.S.
Themes
After his abandonment, Marcus finds “belonging” with Elizabeth Nyoni. One day, while very young, he eavesdrops on Elizabeth and Jestina talking. Jestina is criticizing Elizabeth for continuing to treat baby Genie like an egg—carrying her everywhere on her back. When Elizabeth asserts her pride in her and her baby’s beauty, Jestina accuses her of vanity—and Elizabeth accuses Jestina of envy.
Themes
Elizabeth takes notice of Marcus and asks his name. When he says, “Marcus Malcolm Martin Masuku,” she asks whether he’s going to be a revolutionary. He doesn’t understand what she means. When Jestina suggests that Marcus wants to be friends with baby Genie, Elizabeth says she’ll let him if he promises to be a “real revolutionary,” not a “politician.” Marcus, still not understanding, promises. Elizabeth laughs and tells Marcus he’ll take good care of Genie. After this, Marcus and Genie become fast friends.
Marcus and Genie. Little Marcus and Genie can’t remember the terrible civil war and may be influenced by the country’s new independence—at any rate, they like freedom and exploration. Though Elizabeth does remember the war, she eventually agrees to let the children exit the farm compound and walk toward the distant hills. Genie brings a rag doll named Penelope. On the way, getting tired, the children spot a field of gorgeous sunflowers. Genie veers off into the field. Marcus, more “cautious,” leaves a clue behind to others that they’ve gone in before joining her.
Themes
Marcus and Genie give up on reaching the hills and begin leaving the compound just to play in the sunflowers. Over time, the sunflowers wither and die. Genie tries to resurrect them—and, after hesitating, Marcus helps—but when the children come back the next day, the field is empty. Genie, brokenhearted, cries for the very first time. Marcus realizes that he’s upset on Genie’s behalf—he only valued the sunflowers’ beauty due to Genie’s love for them.
Themes
Looking out over the empty field, Marcus sees for the first time an abandoned car, whose “loneliness” strikes him. He wants to console it but makes himself stay with Genie. On subsequent days, when Elizabeth and Genie are spending time together, he sneaks off to the car, which he names Brown Car. While he used to eavesdrop on Elizabeth and Genie taking baths together—he once heard Genie asking whether she had a father and Elizabeth replying that it depended “on the future”—he doesn’t do that anymore.
For days, Marcus sneaks into the car, imagines himself driving Genie and her doll Penelope somewhere (he never imagines Genie driving, because he’s only seen men drive cars), and thinks of how to tell her about the car. One day, Genie appears in the passenger seat. She feigns disapproval that an old car has prompted Marcus to creep off on her—but then starts grinning. The children start pretending to drive to nations across the world; they even visit Golide “in the future.” Genie finds a 1965 atlas to give them ideas, which is outdated with respect to their country and allows them to suppose it might be on any part of the map.
Themes
While in the car, Genie and Marcus notice the sunflowers growing again—an experience that teaches them about lifecycles and resurrection. One day, playing in the sunflowers, they see a car stop on the roadside. A passenger gets out to urinate—and another, very tall man gets out of the trunk! The driver, the passenger, and the tall man confer. They give one another a peculiar, “sharp” wave goodbye—which Genie and Marcus immediately plan to adopt—and the driver and passenger leave in the car.
Suddenly Genie sprints for the tall man, who catches her with a gap-toothed smile. Marcus, realizing who the man is, comes out of the field too. Elizabeth appears, yelling “Golide!” The whole farm compound comes out to celebrate his return. They all walk home, Genie on Golide’s shoulders, and Marcus holding Golide and Elizabeth’s hands. Marcus feels “a deep sense of belonging.”
Themes
Over the next few years, the farm gets a mobile library (from which Genie likes borrowing The Firebird) and a mobile health clinic. Golide also gives Genie a teddy bear named Specs. One day, while Genie and Marcus play in the abandoned car, a fancy car stops by the roadside. Out come Golide, Elizabeth, Marcus’s grandparents—and Marcus’s parents newly returned from America (Thandi and Dingani), whose appearance discomfits Marcus because it is oddly “shiny.” Marcus exits the abandoned car “reluctantly”; in a show of support, Genie climbs out too and holds his hand.
Themes
Thandi rushes to Marcus and praises his beauty but treats Genie with veiled hostility. Dingani walks up, acting passive and awkward until Thandi encourages him and Marcus to shake hands—which Marcus does without letting go of Genie. Thandi says there’s a surprise in the car and offers Marcus her hand; when he takes it, she wrests him away from Genie.
Themes
As Thandi carries Marcus to the fancy car, Golide and Elizabeth question her plan. She tells them it’s necessary; the area is “no longer safe.” Marcus, realizing his parents plan to take him from the farm, struggles against Thandi’s grip and bites her face. She forces him into the car and locks it. Genie tries to open it, but Elizabeth picks her up and tells her to “let [Marcus] go.” When Genie stops struggling, Marcus cries. Genie gives him the special goodbye wave through the window; he doesn’t return it. The car drives off, and the sunflowers vanish from his view.
Themes
Thandi keeps telling Marcus that he'll thank his parents eventually. When Marcus spies a young girl and older woman in the car too, Dingani introduces them as Marcus’s sister Krystle and his grandmother (Eunice). Eunice asserts that they are his “family now.” Marcus, terrified by the family’s “dangerous beauty,” urinates on himself.
Bhekithemba. Bhekithemba Nyathi visits the farm in 1988, a few years after Marcus is taken away. It’s his second trip. The farm is desolate. With a flashlight, Bhekithemba spies something glimmering at a well’s bottom. He sneaks away, glad he found no one in the well but wondering at the person he’s become.
Themes
In a flashback to 1980, 18-year-old Bhekithemba goes to see Prince Charles receive back the Union Jack. He wants to shake the prince’s hand because his own grandfather, Cosmos Nyathi, a businessman considered by colonizers a “good African,” once shook the hands of Queen Elizabeth II and other British royals when they visited the colony. He believes he’ll somehow get to speak to Prince Charles and plans to tell him he opposes colonialism’s end. Yet oddly, when he sees Prince Charles and the lowering of the Union Jack, they don’t move him.
Themes
Suddenly a dreadlocked man takes the stage, lifts a fist, and yells: “Viva!” Caught up in the crowd’s joyous response, Bhekithemba yells “Viva!” along with them without knowing its meaning. He believes that the dreadlocked man has a “charisma” that Prince Charles lacks and that is capable of uniting the crowd into “one moving, breathing, almost menacing force.”
Themes
The dreadlocked man closes his eyes. Lights strobe, and smoke fills the space. The crowd panics and flees—except Bhekithemba, who waits for the dreadlocked man to open his eyes, feeling “too connected . . . too rooted” to run. When the smoke clears, the crowd is gone except Bhekithemba. The dreadlocked man says: “Now I know who is the real revolutionary.” Bhekithemba feels “anointed” and spends years narrating this encounter—with, it turns out, Bob Marley—much as his grandfather narrated his own encounter with British royals.
Themes
Inspired by a new-to-him national and racial pride, Bhekithemba writes about his experience with Bob Marley in a letter to a local paper. After the paper runs his letter, The Man Himself calls Bhekithemba to give him a journalism scholarship at a public university. Bhekithemba takes the scholarship. After graduation, he becomes a pro-government journalist. Though aware that connections to The Man Himself are helping his career and ashamed that he wasn’t a freedom fighter, Bhekithemba thinks his journalism is helping the nation transform “from a racist, divided country into a multiracial, unified country.”
Themes
The Man Himself instructs Bhekithemba that because Western nations don’t want their country to succeed, journalists must avoid giving Western propagandists material against the country. Bhekithemba agrees but also thinks the country should commit to self-reflection and -improvement. Wanting an egalitarian country, he writes in support of women, the disabled, farmworkers, “Coloured” people, and the Khoisan. The Man Himself often calls him with praise.
When Bhekithemba is 25, The Man Himself calls to tell him that journalistic leadership in the country is still too white and offers to make him “new head of investigative reporting” at a paper. Bhekithemba, believing himself up to the task, accepts. Then he tries to write a story about government officials “illegally reselling cars” their jobs had given them. The newspaper’s editor blocks the story, informs him The Man Himself has illegally resold cars in exactly that way, and tells him that Bhekithemba can only write stories The Man Himself has given him from now on.
Themes
Bhekithemba repeatedly calls The Man Himself but receives no responses and no instructions for stories. He continues to be paid but has no work—which he knows is a way for The Man Himself to demonstrate “power.” When he hears whispers that the government is “disappear[ing]” members of a particular ethnic group, including his own cousin, he is deeply distressed but chooses to repress it. Having “learned his lesson,” he finally gets a call from The Man Himself giving him a story: a cult on the Beauford Farm and Estate focused on a man building wings to fly his beloved wife to Tennessee.
Themes
Bhekithemba is incredulous of romantic love. He believes only in love based in “gratitude” and thus selfishness, e.g. familial love and patriotism. Refusing to believe a man would build wings out of love for his wife, Bhekithemba imagines there must be a secret hidden reason and becomes interested in the story.
Driving toward the farm, Bhekithemba sees a field of sunflowers; then, suddenly, a scowling girl carrying a doll and a teddy bear (Genie) appears in the middle of the road. When he rolls down the window, she asks who he has come to remove. When he explains that he’s a reporter who wants to write a story that will inspire people about a man building wings, she asks him why he would write a story and who he’s trying to inspire. Struck by her questions, he eventually says, “Many people need to believe that we can fly.”
Themes
Genie vanishes and returns to the car leading many people. She tells them that Bhekithemba has arrived to tell the story about the man building “wings.” A “painfully white” man (Golide) walks out of the crowd and tells Bhekithemba he’s the man. Bhekithemba is struck by the man’s “charisma,” like the dreadlocked man’s. Golide explains to Bhekithemba that he once saw a whole troop of elephants cross the Zambezi after an initial elephant did it; that taught him that he only needed to build wings to show others they could also fly.
Jestina. Jestina sees people walking around the farm like robots and wonders whether it is due to Bhekithemba’s story about Golide. She sees many people carrying dead family members and throwing them into a “disused” well in silence. After 14 dead bodies have been dropped into the well, the community contemplates the 15th, an unrecognizable burned corpse. Without speaking, they decide not to move the delicate body and go home.
Themes
Jestina enters the house where she lives and finds Genie cowering in the kitchen with Marcus’s grandparents’ bodies. Jestina explains to her that “they” forced her to put rat poison in tea and then forced Marcus’s grandparents to drink it. Genie puts an arm around Jestina; Jestina, thinking it’s inappropriate for a child to comfort an adult, wishes the sojas had left the farm compound in peace.
Themes
Genie tells Jestina that she was in the sunflower field when she heard guns and screaming. As the sojas were leaving, they stopped by the sunflower field. One, smoking a cigarette, tried to light the sunflowers on fire, but another chided the first and stopped him. After that soja had returned to the truck, Genie ran to Marcus’s grandparents’ house and found them dead.
Themes
Jestina, putting her arm around Genie in turn, whispers that the sojas played Don Williams on the gramophone as they committed the murders and asks how people who love Don Williams could do this. When Genie suggests that the sojas didn’t know their victims loved Don Williams too, Jestina says they did. Eventually, Genie and Jestina fall asleep together.
Themes
Knocking wakes Genie and Jestina. Community members rush in and ask what happened. Genie tells them the sojas poisoned Marcus’s grandparents before Jestina can speak. One person, carrying a torch, blames Golide for the sojas’ appearance and demands that Genie (as Golide’s daughter) and Jestina (as Elizabeth Nyoni’s friend) step forward. When the torchbearer demands to know where Genie’s parents are, Genie says they flew away. Some people point out that massacres have been occurring for years, but the torchbearer insists that Golide’s infamous plane-shooting and his wings brought violence to the community. The torchbearer demands that Jestina take Genie, leave, and never return.
Themes
Jestina leads Genie out of the house. When Genie asks about her parents, Jestina says that when they return, the others will tell them where Genie is. When Genie asks where they’re going, Jestina says “over the hills.” Genie asks whether evil lives there—and Jestina says evil lives everywhere, in everyone, though she and others used to think that “only white people [were] capable of such hatred and anger, such evil.”
Before leaving the farm, Genie and Jestina carry the charred corpse to the well, ignoring the “precious and beautiful something” its heart has become. They stop in Genie’s house, which the sojas have wrecked; Genie retrieves a suitcase and her toy companions, Penelope and Specs. Jestina tells Genie not to let these events change her, or else the sojas “have won”; Genie replies that after these events, she will make sure to “choose [her] own endings.” Then Jestina and Genie go to wait for the Mackenzie bus.
Themes
